The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1919-05-19
THE WOMAN MAYOR OF
MOORE HAVEN. FLORIDA

Under the heading, THE Woman
Mayor of Moore Haven, Fla.," Helen
Christine Bennett, one Of the most
noted writer's of the country, has the
following article in the Pictorial Re-
view for June:
| think of all things to be written
there is nothing SO lovely as the won
der story, that tale in which the pro-
sale without rhine or reason suddenly
turns into unexpected, gripping ro-
nance and carries you alons into un-
heard-of and undreamed-of avenues Of
achievement. Such tale is this, /
came fairly hugging my typewriter as
write it for you, and the keys will
not fly fast enough because--Well be-
cause | am still thrilling at the sheer
J impossibility of it.
And yet every bit of it happened
and is still happening.
In Philadelphia four years ago there
dwelt in a well-ordered house in a
wellordered street, Mrs. Marian Hor.
WITT, the widow of well-known
lawyer, Robert Morris, the firancier
of the American revolution, was her
neutrality-suspicious. and on the
other side of the house in similar
position was John Nixon, the reader
of the Declaration of Independence.
Mrs. Horwtz was we'll known socially
as charming young matron who
spent her time with her young son
or among her friends, and employed
her philanthropic instincts to the bet
terment of day nurseries, hospitals,
and like institutions.
Then came the world war, Mrs. Hor-
WITT was one of five women of Phila.
delphia to organize and establish the
great Emergency Aid of Pennsyl-
yania, very natural outgrowth of
work for day nurseries and hospitals
A business excursion to look over
some real estate holdings too Mrs.
Horwitz to Florida. While she was
there came the first call of the Pres
ident of the United States for greater
production Of food stuffs. There
were some women Of wealth and Of
social position who turned their front
lawns into potato fields ia answer ia
I that call.
Mrs. H0rwitz, Just as simply and as
readily as If the president had spoken
to her personally, closed her Palm
Beach house and her town house II
Philadelphia and her suburban home
in Pennsylvania and went out to hel
land in the Everglades to produce
food for the warning nations. Into
what had for centuries been matted
n jungle, so that the black muck be
q meath contained infinite promise o.
y the food so needed; into a wilderness
o two days from a railroad, came Mrs
a Horwitz intent upon food production
There were other pioneers workinl
4 there in the Everglades, men all Of
e them, men of the sterling type who
r take unbridled Nature in hand and
| tame her to serve human needs.
In six months she had become the
| largest individual developer of LAND
in the Everglades; she had wrestet
two thousand acres from the Jungle;
she had tractor engines at work on 9
D soil that had been storing its rich
{ ness for centuries. She spent most
{ of her time in the saddle directing
the work on her farm. AS a result
: of the presidents call, Marian Hor
WITT produced to meet the need of the
world, in the first year of her farm
inf, over fifty carloads of potatoes
five carloads of peanuts, four carloads
9 Of corn, besides many carloads Of hay
, and miscellaneous vegetables. 1t Is
: possible that the front-lawn method
r did not occur to her.
i When Mrs. Horwitz came to the Ev
erglades she made her headquarters
in the newly settled town of Moore
) Haven, a town without a railroad
1 with no water supply, with. few build
t ings worthy of the name--a little ex
I crescence upon the face of the wild
: erness. AS her farming project grew
y and those Of the other pioneers grew
: also, it became necessary for bushes.
organization to grow to meet the
: needs of the farmers and Of the ever
0 increasing number of laborers. Al
Q simply and as readily as she had re
= sponded to the call for food, Mrs
Horwitz met the new demand, and