The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1915-07-24
MUCH INTEREST AMONG
OUR BUSINESS MEN
Created by the Movement to Cut the
Silver Springs and Ocala
Canal

The meeting of the Board Of Trade
Friday night, to discuss the propo-
sition Of the Silver Springs and Ocala |
canal was we'll attended-the largest, |
i'm fact, that has been held for months.
Mr.. J. NJ BraxtOn, the government |
engineer, who had been sent here by |
the war department, gave his opinion |
| in a rather guarded manner. He said |
| there were no great difficulties in the
way Of the work, and it could be
| quickly accomplished if the army en-
| gineers recommended it and Congress
appropriated the necessary money.
| These ifs seem very large ones to
the Star, when it has been so plainly
proven that it is, in the first place,
as shown by the Oklawaha river, a
work of months, if not years, to in
| duce engineers to make recommended
tions, and that Congress is largely
made up of men from northern states
who generally appropriate all the pub
lie money available for their own dis
tricts before step-child Florida can
obtain a look-in.
There is no great natural difficulty
in the work, though the expense
would be too great to be met without
help from the government. 1t would
involve digging a water level canal
from the Springs to Ocala, as the
springs furnish the only supply of
water available. This canal, by the
time it reached its Ocala terminal
would be about forty feet deep. There
is little doubt that some of these
days the government will cut canal
across the Florida peninsula, in which
case from Silver Springs to Blue
Springs would be the most practic-
: able route.
The Star is not in the least opti-
mistic about this canal, for it knows
that so many other places that are
after public money have a so much
bigger pull with the government that
it doubts that this section will be able
to secure the needed assistance any
time in the next ten years.
In the meantime, it is not neces-
sary to wait for a canal. Silver
: Springs is only six miles from the
heart of the city, and that is very lit
> tie distance over good road in these
days of auto trucks and auto wagons
: We can send and secure freight In
: large quantities by the river right
i now, if we only improve the oppor
Il tunities open to US. We have freight
) enough to keep a dozen freight boat:
going between Silver Springs anC
Jacksonville right now if we would
II only send and receive it that way
II The best way to secure government
u help is to use what we have to tn,
II limit. Army engineers who see onl!
u few boats going up and down tn
river are likely to report that whethe
IL the project of a canal be practical o
not, there is no need for it, in pro
- portion to the expense, as Ocala
~ not using the river to any great eX
I tent, tho its headwaters are inside tn
q q city limits.
III Months ago, Ed Carmichael put
freight boat on the river, and praC
tically offered to give it to the busi
IN ness men of Ocala if they would rails
to money enough to build another. Sine
~ then, Mr.. Carmichael has, in the fac
ne of great difficulty, kept the one boa
. running, but all the Ocala bushes
men haven't put on the other boa
he They have Investigated and resolute,
~ but they haven't done a BANKED thin
&c that amounted to anything. They {
not even give Mr.. Carmichael
freight line half the business the
could give to it.
If we viii go to work and send ar
receive all the freight possible by OF
present facilities, and thereby have
least half a dozen boats runnir
where only one runs now, the bus
ness on the river will increase t
possibly the government viii briT
: Silver Springs to Ocala. If Y
broaden and improve the Silv
a Springs boulevard, build a dock al
2 warehouse at the springs, put mo
I boats on the river, and keep a proce
sion of auto trucks moving betwe'
the business center and the waite
Ocala win be at Silver Springs, al
it will not make much differen
whether we have canal or not.
these things we could do at not mo
than one-fifth, possibly not more tn
|. one-tenth, the cost of a canal.
Resolutions by the Board of Ira
The following resolution was p
Y pared by Secretary Rooney and ait
a slight amendment, was pass
unanimously:
Whereas, the plan for a canal fr'