The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-03-29


| terview, with Hon. r. H. Buford, with
REGARDS to the sentiment of the peo-
| pie of west Florida, for annexation to
Alabama, and if this view of Mr.. Blu
| ford's is correctly quoted in your paper,
[ think Mr.. Buford and your CORE
spondent is very badly deceived, about
the sentiment on this important ques-
ton.
I was raised in west Florida am 81
years DID, and this same question has
been agitated, several times since I
was a boy, and I used to think it
would be a disgrace to change my
! birthplace, Florida, to Alabama, but
have began to look at this matter from
a business standpoint, if we were an
nexed to Alabama, west of the Chatta-
hoochee river it would give Alabama
about $50 miles of needed seacoast;
| that it would develop, and we never
can get the proper help from the state
| of Florida, as she has eleven hundred
miles of coast to take care of; this
you will readily admit.
| This is just a starting point, we
all know that east and south Florida
never gives west Florida any recogni-
ton in the way of appropriations, if
| the people will remember the legisla-
ture, in 1917, appropriated three hum
dred thousand dollars to fight citrus
canker; in 1919, the legislature made
another like appropriation, making for
| the two sessions six hundred thousand
dollars in years for this purpose, and
all these appropriations going directly
! to east and south Florida, ond for
| private interests, and not a state affair.
Now to show the difference that is
made between west and south Florida,
the people of Franklin county asked
for a small appropriation to develop
the oyster beds of Apalachicola bay,
| they were turned down, and this is
state proposition, and the state gets
revenue to the amount of three or four
thousand dollars every year from the
oyster industry of Franklin county.
This shows how little the eastern and
southern part of the state cares for
west Florida and its developments.
We pay our taxes but get no benefits,
and never will so long as we are tied to
the balance of the state of Florida.
We have had no road funds or prac-
tically none from the state spent in
west Florida. Mr.. J. D. Smith told me
few days ago that the state had
spent about two million dollars on
roads in Desoto county alone, more
than has been spent in west Florida.
Does the Pensacola Journal or any one
with common sense think if Alabama
had west Florida, with it's nice stretch
of seacOast from Mobile to Apalachi-
cola, they would let us stay here I'M
developed like this, not by a darn sight.
I would wager my last penny that,
if Ala bama, gets west Florida, that the
next ten years we people in west Flor
ida, wouldn't realize our old homes, we
would think we had moved out of west
Florida, and mark my word if it should
be left to a vote of west Florida it
would cary by two to one.
have just made a trip to Mariana,
to a good roads meeting, and saw
probably two or three hundred men
from different parts of west Florida,
and have only found one man that OBJ
jected to the change, this shows the
sentiment of the people in my judg-
ment better than the interview The
Journal correspondent had with Gen
eral Buford. Now I want to say in
conclusion that have been subschib-
er to the daily Journal for ten or fiji
teen years, with an exception of a few
months that l changed to The Times
Union, and I got so disguised with it
for the reason it did not mention any
thing about west Florida, except in
some sIanderous way. There are many
other things I could say but will not
infringe two much to start on, how
ever, if the Pensacola Journal Contin-
ues to fight the annexation of west
Florida to Ala bama, / shall stop sub
scribing for the paper, and will go fur
ther and say that If we fail to go to
Alabama, L will move out of west Flor
ida where / can spend the last few
days of my life. where l can have the
benefit of a good road to carry me to
my last resting place, as [ am sure
we will never get II in west Florida,
while we stay tied to east and south
Florida. We people in Calhoun county
voted seventy thousand dollars to
build a state highway from Alabama
line through Jackson Calhoun and
Franklin counties and the state made
this road a part of the Bee Line high
way from the Great Lakes to the gulf.
known as state No. 6, and promised to
pay fifty-fifty on the construction of
the road and maintain the road after
constructed, the state has put two
crews of convicts on this road since
the survey of the road with the under
standing that the counties pay the
money and the state furnish the labor,
they have made poor progress on this
road until the last two months
they sent a gang here and they are
making good progress, and the state is
going to move them from here to Du-
vail county to help construct a high
way from Jacksonville to the Georgia
line and the state is to construct this
highway individually without. any
funds from DuvaI county at ALL and
leave US down here without any road
when We have money to match the
states labor This shows us how much
the state cares for west Florida.
This is just few of my reasons,
for annexation.
Yours tEuIy.