'A sudden craze for speculation in real estate has "struck" this city of Miami, and produced curious results, Superficially, Miami seems to have been affected by the land "poms? exactly as San Francisco, in the old days, was affected by the Gold "rush," The difference is that the people who have crowded in here do not wear revolvers, and horses, and ' treat They in automobiles, do not carry weapons, and drivk buttermilk or free, 'T have actually seen one filled with hardy prospecters (or "realtors," I should have sai Teal estate people), drinking butte milk, The bar was labelled "Dairy Produce," and the clean, well-Gressed youths who acted as bartenders had the unmistakeable look of English Public School boys. I did not ask them how they "got here. jolly certain, therefore, that many! New Yorkers. will establish permanent winter homes for themselves in Florida, Many have done 30, as a matter of fact. "Any school boy in Palm Beach will reel off for you a long list of millionaires who have established themselves there, and any Miami schoolboy will do the same for Miami, But when prices become normal, New Yorkers of, moderate means will also establish themselves on the Florida coast; and the coming industrialization of the New South on the basis of cotton, tobacco, and steel manufactories will Send many wealthy people fro Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas to join them. And, once these wealthy people are in-maintain it by helping the development of the country, by supporting old industries, or by creating new ones, Motor Cars No Foundation As for the motor ears, there are probably as many of them in Miami At the present moment as there are in all Shanghai, One great open space in front. of the Royal Palm Hotel contains at present from five to ten thousand motor ears; and "in the city proper they ave often parked on the flat roofs of the muses. I have seen them, and the sight is one which is always me Gicated to visitors who use. the Miami Sight-Secing Motor Cars; but I do not know how they are raised to such a height, Probably by cranes and derricks, The reistration marks on the motors me dicate that they come fron all parts of the United States, and even from Canada, T have seen dozens from Oakland, California, and from the New England States. Official State statistics. published in Jacksonville on October 12 prove that every state in the Union except little Idaho sent automobiles into Florida during the month September. During that month 27M touring automobiles with over 60,000 "passengers crossed the St. John's viver bridge. Of these two were Hawaiian mobiles, 46 Canadian, "and 443 Californian, In a Georgian town situated on one of the leading highways to Florida, a newspaperman counted one Sunday more than 700 fomodiles. southward bound, and estimated that 28,000- people are entering Florida daily.
Wil it ha "Is there anything "tow ong. will it last?" there be a slump?" One hears these questions daily, and hears all sorts answers" to them. The pessimistic say that, without me Gustries, or minerals, or any great natural beauty, this swollen city cannot maintain its present. popul Lion, and is sure to get a bad sets back. Land has become ridiculously dear: there must be a relapse to snarmal; and. that relapse. may degenerate into a panic. At present 75 ner cent. of the population of! Miami consists of relators, Who are really nothing but gamblers in land, and not etzenis who. will"
Permanent prosperity. ie, on the other hand, to cases of success, One man, pointed out to me, had made" over 3,000 ref on a ought some years ago on. Miami Beach; and there are great mumpers of people who we over 800 per cent, on their original invest, ments, "These lucky. people could not be luckier if they had discovered gold mine. To continue the arg ments of the - optimists:—"Why should ret Florida be as great feuecess as Californ the: principal aes but, whereas 'a. tiresome railway, jJoumney of nearly " week separates Miami it only 40 hours fron Now es; Angeles from New England, York by an execllant steamer ser. vice. In less than two days one can reach the sunshine and warmth of Minmai-from the cold and snow of a wintry Manhattan, Is it not practi.
Florida is not, after all, a parely agricultural country. According to the census of 1920, the value of its manufactories was' over 200 million dollars a year; and, even if the present boom declines, it will probably: have given Miami'a good harbour, another railway track, and a great number of magnificent buildings, public and private, Miami will remain a boom city because of the automobile. The automobile brought good roads, und good roads lead all sorts of Americans—even many American farmers—to visit the salubrious coast of Florida in winter-time, have now given the pos and the optimists, but Ire from expressing any opinion of my own, though I lean to the belief that this' boom will pass like other Looms which have preceded it, like the boom which took place in farm Jand and city property in Kansas and Nebraska some 40 years ago, and Tike the booms which after wards "struck" Minnesota and California, and which led sometimes to real esiatg in these places being bought for one-half or one-quarter the prices paid only a few years previously.
But though many people may lors money, Florida will gain, Enormous public works will have neon completed, steamship lines will have been established, all the nited States will have become me terested, and a great deal of Amer can money will have found its way into Florida. Europe may lose by this, as a great deal of Ameri money which would be spent on the Riviera will now be spent here. America will gain by greater uni the obliteration of the old enmity between north and south, the better mixing of races in her "melting-pot," and the development of Florida by northern money.
The Power of Advertising Some tentures of the boom ars likely to repel Englishmen, but others might well be copied by Canadians, Australians, New Zo: Tanders, and South Africans i terested in the settlement and the development of their respective countries. One of the things that ight repel is the language of the "boosters" and the realtors. It is extraordinary Innguage, ungrammagical and full" of mixed metaphors, but eloquent, me exhaustible, and inspired "by a semi-religious, semi-patriotic feryour. It must be remembered, however, that the writers of advertising matter do not appeal to. Oxford - undergraduates, to Yale undergraduates: principally to middle-class Americans, mostly farmers, who have not had a University training, and who are more susceptible to a rough-and-ready eloquence which drags in Home, and "God's Own Country," and the Almighty, and the Star-Spangled Banner than they would be to a Ciceronian oration. Many of the advertisement-writers could probably write a close approach to a Ciceronian oration if called upon to do so, for they are highly educated men who are getting ten times
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.