Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1925-09-18
VIRGINIA AND FLORIDA

The proposition to call an extra
session of the Virginia Legislature
at this time to take steps to check
the Florida emigration is both I'M
necessary and unwise. 1t would take
from thirty to sixty days to assem-
BILE the body; the cost would not be
less than $4,000, and when it met,
1t would be faced with the Trinkle
deficit of some S2,000,00O rather than
with funds to appropriate for an adj
vertising campaign. A call issued
now would reassemble the Legisla-
ture of 1924-not the new one to be
elcted in November, most of the men,
bers of which have already been cho-
sen in primary. The experience of
two years ago indicates that a spe-
cial session would rapidly get away
from the question for which it was
called, and would devote weeks to
fruitless debate on evolution. or the
passage of a multitude of unimpor-
tant local bills of no statewide inter-
est.
The Legislature meets in January,
and Governor-Elect Byrd has already
indicated his purpose to advocate a
fund for advertising the splendid re-
sources of Virginia. This is the step
tho Ctata chould taIa and updor NJ
Byrd's leadership we believe the fund
will be wisely administered and that
twill do enormous good. But there
are other steps Virginia must take
that are of more deep-seated impor-
lance 1t must revise its tax laws,
which now do injustice as between
man and man, and locality and local
ity, and which drive from the State
capital needed for its development.
1t must abolish the fee system which
brides officers to arrest, and brides
magistrates to convict; that main
tains an unknown number of Off
Gals and that takes from the peck
cts of the people each year more than
the total State tax on real estate. 1t
must hasten the progress of road con-
struction so that all parts of the
State will be accessible to our own
people and to our visitors. 1t must
better conditions in rural schools, and
make education available to every
child. When we have done h e g
things Virginia will become, as it
should be, the chosen spot of the
earth.
We have no disposition to knock"
the Florida boom, and have the best
wishes for our young people who
have gone there seeking fortune, just
as those of an earlier generation went
West to grow up with a new coun-
try There is doubtless much of
legitimate development in Florida.
Large investment is being made in
some sections, and the population of
the State is increasing rapidly.
But it must be remembered that
Florida has no coal, no iron ore, no
water power. 1t can never become
an industrial State. It's climate is
warmer in winter than that
of our Tidewater, and not as bracing
in summer as that of the Piedmont
and Valley sections of Virginia.
We are quite sure, without asking
him, that Governor Byrd would not
swap his apple orchards in Frederick
for the finest citrus groves in Flo
rida. We are just as sure that his
recent opponent, Senator Mapp,
would not swap his potato fields on
the eastern shore for the finest truck
lands in Florida. Former Governor
Stuart would not swap his grass lands
in Russell for any sand dune in Flo
rida. We would not swap one good
tobacco farm in Pittsylvania or Hall
fax for the best farming lands the
boom State has to offer.
Florida has no fisheries equal to
those of Chesapeake Bay; it has no
port equal to that of Hampton
Roads. II has no water power to
compare with that in the Roanoke,
he James, the Rappahannock or the
Potomac. 1t has no rich Piedmont
section; no granary like the Valley;
10 grazing like the southwest; it has
10 trucking lands like those OF Nor
ok County; no fruit lands like those 1