The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1906-05-11
Nh. RuRR.s SPEECH.

Dit anu dtOpciC9o NOuNANACN Niie''A ~
ever anticipated.
Mr.. Burr says that ii is the policy
of the Florida railway commission TO
protect the small merchant and con-
sumner and put him on an equal foot
ing with the larger merchants, who
buy in corload lots. That is TO say, that
the person buying a single barrel OF
lflour shall have the same rate as
man buying a thousand barrels. Now,
the rate is fixed at an hundred pounds
and upwards. But why an hundred
pounds? Why not fifty pounds? Be-
cause, this viii more largely benefit
the individual consumer, and If fifty
why not twenty-five, and if twenty
five. why not five?
| This policy, which. Mr.. Burr is COM
mitted to carry out, will not only make
wholesale houses impossible in the in
terror, but viii likewise destroy our
retail trade, and, if carried to its log
ical conclusion, will make Tnerchan-
dizing in the interior impossible.
To make this proposition palmer:
The freight, We shall say, on canned
goods from New York to Jacksonville,
Is Is cents on one hundred pounds. and
from Jacksonville to Ocala is so
Icents on one hundred pounds. Now,
| if the individual consumer can buy
these goods in Jacksonville in small
quantities and pay proportionately the
same rate of freight on them as the
merchant who buys them in car lots,
the rate, which will in the end not
only put our wholesale merchants out
of business, but will likewise destroy
and make impossible even retail
business in the interior
The individual when he learns that
he can buy can of tomatoes or a
sack of flour in Jacksonville as cheap
as can the Ocala wholesale merchant
land get the same freight rate, he will
transfer his retail grocery business
from Ocala to Jacksonville and will in
time do his dry goods trading there
also. The result will be that we can
do no mercantile business in any in
terror city Our merchants Will in time
have to go out of business. Other lines
lof business will have also TO do the
same thing. This will tend To depopu-
Hate our cities. Then the local mer-
Ichants having gone out of business,
their patronage will be withdrawn
| from newspapers and they. like the
Arab, will be compelled to fold their
tents and steal away Our schools will
gradually diminish and so viii our
churches and ''Ichabod" will be writ
ten on every interior portal.
According to Mr. Burr's speech we
lie prone and helpless and are bound
hand and foot
1t is dismal picture, but the COM
mittee of congress that recently made
Its report. and to which the editor of
this paper referred in his debate win
Mr.. Burr. sounds the same startl;Es'
alarm.
That report says that every interior
city from sea To sea and from lakes
to gulf, are Disseminated against. are
compelled To pay Tribute 10 the sea
port cities and there is feeling o..
insecurity and alarm everywhere prev
Ialent.
The jacksonville Metropolis Was
right when it said in reply 70 the
Ocala Banner. that If you want to do
business. you must pull up stakes and
move TO Jacksonville"
We have been living in Ocala ~ V
years. We have striven in season aEd
out of season TO build city here We
have "a beautiful country. pleasing
prospects, a balmy and delightful eli
mate. a rich and productive soil. enter
lprising business men, but we find i
Impossible TO build up a city. We have
no wholesale establishments to speak
! of. no manufacturing industries, ami
when our phosphate. turpentine a.;
lumber interests are exhausted, i the
lpolicy to which Mr.. Burr is committed.
and which seems to give him such a
large matt. If qualification, is con-
tinued this country must be aDan-
doned. There is no other hope nor no
lother how
Mr.. BurrS pollcy SOUNDS the hTatil
knell of every interior city, and pres
ent results justify our prediction. In
the whole scope of cou ltry c,rm the
lextreme western portion Ia the eX-
ltreme southern portion there 3 no in
Hand city. and under the policy OF the
FLORIDA railroad comm issi"u A. out
Timed by Mr.. Burr. there never an he.
As To- Mr.. Burr's personal a'iusl"ns
ito the editor of this uapef, they are
WHOLLY erroneous and 3r@ un~orthv pf
ipne occupying high official Position.
The editor nf this paper has never
seen Al article either n the FINES
Union or the ST. Augustine Record adj
iv1cating the adjustment % tlie Flo
ida railway commission. and neither
in his newspaper nor in 1ers'n. has
he urged that the maiu planNS In ;ha
Ipliicutn> Of the candldaI's FIR tn,
legisSiIre from this county he made
lthc abaHsnment of the railroad r'n-
aiSsipA
~ 10 our connection Ni'h Nnat ,ir
Burr calls the "Flagler divorce biH.
:, ..n,,,,.- - a., ,,nayif. ,,sA,J in this