The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-23
PLANTS WORK AND CALLS TALK.
What Plant and FIagIer Are Doing
while senator Call il ABUSING
Corporations


Corporations.
Kissimmee. Fla, Aug. H.-If anvboiv
is wondering why the people Of FLORIDA
pay 50 little attention TO the periodical
tours Of Senator Call throughout the state
10 abuse corporations Especially rail-
roads,, and assure the dear people" that
he is their champion against these mo
nopolies etc, that person has only to
come to Kissimmee to discover the true
cause of this apathy.
Few months ago we had a bankrupt
railroad from here to LOngWOOd that was
! struggling 10 keep itself I'm operation
President Plant steps in With his Plant
system corporation and buys this neglect
ed property and at once begins TO i'm
prove it and make ii a source of benefit
TO this city.
Previous TO his purchase it was a prob
| lem hard 10 solve what the road was
good for or who would buy il. except
President Plant. Both its terminals were
! on his line from Sanford to Tampa, al
though it crossed the Florida Central and
| Peninsular railway at Apopka. Heavily
/ incumbent and operating at a loss Il
was not very desirable bargain and its
| sale TO a wealthy corporation made its
future usefulness TO the city a dead
| certainty
About week ago Kissimmee had a
| bankrupt hotel that a dozen or more
/ landlords had experimental with, 10 their
/ individual discredit and the city's loss. 1t
/ is a large, handsome hotel. located in
! spacious square adjoining the railroad
/ depot. And this, too, was longing for
purchaser with means to enlarge and i'm
prove it and keep it open. President Plant
came along, "gobbled It" up. as he had
( done the Florida Midland railroad and
now the people of Kissimmee are re-
lot inc hnA aaH haf IS
l OF the bondage of debt and is to he en-
| larged, improved and made like all the
/ Plant system hotels a JOY TO its guests
and a source of income to the citys
Flagler started at St. Augustine with
/ his hotels and went down the east coast
to Miami where his last hotel is now in
/ course of construction. He has the Or
/ mond, at Ormond-by-the-Sea the Holly
/ Inn, at DaytOna, and the Royal Poinciana
| and the Inn at Palm Beach. Rumor says
| efforts have been made to purchase the
| Hotel Indian River at Rockledge, and
make it the dinner house of the East
/ Coast railway.
Plant, however, began MS hotel career
/ at Tampa, with the famous Tampa Bay
/ hotel, the Inn, at Port Tampa, not then
! having become noted outside Of Cuban
/ and Key West travel. Then when the
/ elegant Seminole hotel at Winter Park
| got into financial straits President Plant
| came up and relieved it by a purchase
/ that greatly improved the property and
| benefited the city. Later the Ocala
/ house property had become a sort of foot
| ball, kicked and hawked about by shady
/ syndicates, but President Plant stepped
4 in and ended it all by purchasing the
property. So rejoiced were the people Of
| Ocala that they gave President and Mrs.
| Plant and their escort of associates, a
| grand banquet
| Having the railroad running along the
| rear of the Ocala house block, President
| Plants enlargement and improvement of
| this hotel embraces a fine passenger sta
| ton and other needed conveniences. This
/ valuable property covers a whole square,
opposite the court house, in the very heart
| of the city. and few outsiders can com
| prehend what it's transfer to the Plant
| system means for the future welfare of
Ocala. OF course, this property, like all
| the other ventures, was purchased at
| very low figure But this was not Presi-
| dent Plants fault When bankruptcy
comes, or is approaching with rapid
and sure step any purchaser is well
| come friend when he comes with the
means in hand to fully recuperate, i'm
prove and make profitable to the city, if
/ not to himself, the railroad or hotel Of
| fered at a forced sale as last resort.
Before this purchase the Plant system
| had built a handsome 2-story brick block
opposite their depot at Sanford, called
4
/ for the trains, and with rooms for guests
| on the second floor. 1t was called "Pico'
because this forms the initials of the
| Plant Investment Company-P. 1. Co.
| This is at the northern terminus OF the
| South Florida division, and rumor says
| the Plant system is holding up the Win
| ter hotel at Punta Gorda, the extreme
| southern terminus of the Florida South
| ern division.
But the latest authentic rumor credits
| President Plant with the erection Of
| 100000 hotel near Clearwater Harbor,
| famous winter resort on the Gulf coast,
near the terminus of the old Orange Belt
road This last grand undertaking with
the improvements on the Tropical hotel in
this city, make President Plant most
welcome and helpful friend to the me-
| chanics and working men OF Florida dur
ing these dull summer months. vain
Flaglers army of mechanics and artisans
at Miami, and Plants group on the west
coast there is a good deal of ready money
going into circulation among these en-
ployes every month
And yet, Senator Call, on his own hook
and under his own appointments, is trav-
cling over the state abusing the men ana
corporations who are thus freely spending
their money to improve the towns and cit
les in which they are investing and there
by giving steady employment to mechan-
les and laborers who form large share
of the dear people" for whom Senator
Call is a sef-appointed guardian. Cor
porations sometimes become monopolies,
and at times appear to have no souls,
but the record l have given of what rag
Ter and Plant have done here IN FLORIDA
with their millions in hotel enterprises
alone, not to mention railroads., shows
that with all their apparent lack of soul
and tendency to monopoly. they never
theless give steady and profitable en-
ployment to thousands who would be IN
idleness, and some in poverty, but for the
various improvements that Plant and
Flagler inaugurate during the dull sum
mer seasons. And this is why the people
pay no attention to Senator Calls bitter
attacks upon corporations, etc.
A Powerful Imagination.
American travellers are the merriest in
Europe. and laughter and good cheer fol-