The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-01-21

of the new city council, made a
| short, snappy little talk on the Push
and Smile" style, and said that he
never went into anything that he
did not give the people the best he
| had in the shop; that he had gone
into this very council business with
the same idea in his head and he
proposed to put all of his energy and
brain into the work and try to do
something of good for the city and
strive for the best interests of the
Of the willingness of the council to
grant all reasonable concessions to
manufacturing enterprises to en-
| courage them to come here and re-
ferred to the resolution just passed
by the council looking to that end.
He referred to the feasible project
of a canal from Silver Springs, six
miles away, to OUR city and the solv-
ing forever of the freight rate prob
| lem, and in addition it would put
Ocala on the tourist map. He as
sured Mr.. Rooney and all present
that it would be his pleasure to CO.
/ operate. with the Board of Trade and
the newspapers and the business men
| OF the city in general to the end that
Ocala be made a better, bigger and
more progressive city. Mr.. Hunter
reminded his hearers that they could
get busy at once and by June have
a bond issue in force big enough to
/ care for the sewerage, street paving,
public buildings and any other
measures that we might wish to car
ry out. This is what we will have to
| do and the sooner we get down to
it the better for US.
MIR. F. f. Harris
Mr.. Harris said that he considered
it very unfortunate that Secretary
Rooney came to Oeala in the year
1913. He then gave some of the
trials and hardships of the old year
now past; that the war in the East
and the fear of it's spreading to
other countries and involving other
| powers had greatly demoralized the
money markets of the world and it's
effect had been felt in this country !;
many misfortunes had marked the
old year, but the outlook for 1914
was much brighter and better and
he hoped for many good things and
| especially for some good results in
Ocala with the council, the Board of
Trade and the newspapers pulling
together and boosting. He compli-
mented Secretary Rooney on his
good work here and said he saw a
! big field of usefulness opening out
for him and the city and county and
expected big showing for the new
year.
Mr.. Spencer
Mr. Edwin Spencer was asked to
give a little talk on freight rates
aud he explained briefly the long
and short haul bill which he put
| through the last legislature. He
said the bill was law on the statute
books but the railroads were not
complying with it; that the people
were endeavoring to make them do
SO and the meeting of the railroad
commission in this city next month
will really be trial of the railroads
by the people to see whether or not
the people can show enough evidence
to cause the commission to enforce
the law. He said the freight rate
men who appeared before the legis-
lature explained the discrimination
| against interior points in favor of
| seaports in this way: The railroad
companies lose money on the COM
petitive rates maintained at seaports
and the higher rates to the interior
points are to cover this loss. Mr.
Spencer said the companies failed to
explain why they maintained so
many wide-awake solicitors, fighting
| all the time for business at Tampa
and Jacksonville, when it was
handled at loss. He said he was
getting evidence and data, lots of it,
and would have more before the
| commission met here, and he want
| ed every shipper to do likewise and
come to that meeting armed with it;
that he would never rest till this
| long and short haul law was en-
forced and OcaIa had begun to en-
JOY just freight rate, without
| which we could talk and work for
factories till doomsday, but we
would never get them
Mr.. George Mackay
Mr. George MacKay, president of