The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-05-19

mistaken, said, in a speech at At
lantic City, was that the building of
a national highway system would ac-
complish the abolition of provincial
ism. The league of nations is de-
pendent upon a closer relationship
among the peoples of the earth"
We do not see any reason for lug
ging President Wilson and the league
of nations into this small local mat
ter. We are as a grain of sand on
the seashore compared with Woodrow
Wilson, but we wrote and spoke for
Americanism and against sectional
ism before Mr.. Wilson was heard of
outside his own town, and before Mr..
Chazal was born. When our boys
began going to France, and the silly
dispute started as to whether to call
them "Sammies" or "Teddies," the
Star said, and was probably the first
southern paper to say it, that they
should be called Yankees, and Yam
KEGS or Yanks has been the name
generally applied to them. Yankee is
good, strong American word, and
TO man from the North is going to be
offended by having it applied to him.
1t is true that to some people Yam
kee, or northerner, or southerner, or
easterner, is a term of reproach, but
we are not responsible for their I'M
fortunate turn of mind.
Mr.. Chazal says "Ocala cannot de-
velop independently" Perhaps not,
but he will not deny that the town
has developed immensely in fifty
years, and that nearly all its develop
ment has been made by men born and
raised in Marion county, or men who
came here with comparatively small
means and helped to build up the
town while building up their own
homes and fortunes.
Mr. Chazal further says:
"In the past the Star has taken a
rather deprecatory attitude toward
the tourist. 1t has been the tendency
in the city. And it has been a serious
mistake"
So far as the Star is concerned, this
assertion is erroneous and most I'M
just, and as we have all faith in Mr..
Chazal's honesty and sense of fair
ness, we can't imagine where he OBJ
tanned this impression. The Star has
certainly done all it could to impress
or our people the necessity of trying
to induce tourists to come here. If he
will look over the files of the paper he
will find many articles to that eff
feet written in the last half a dozen
years, and he won't find any to the
opposite. There are several members
of the Board of Trade who know that
we tried repeatedly last summer and
fall to induce the board to do some
effective advertising to attract tour
lists to come here. Mr.. Chazal does
not know this, of course, as he was in
France at the time, but others know
it and know it very we'll.
We. don't think there is any depre-
catory tendency in the town toward
tourists. The town is not equipped
to care for any large number of Wis
itors, and it has not the attractions
the general run of tourists require.
Ocala is city of homes, and the
great majority of the people don't
want to take strangers into their
homes. They are not to blame for
that
About 5000 tourists passed thru
here last winter-more than we have
had for many years. The Board of
Trade did nothing to attract them
here. They nearly all came either be-
cause of the Dixie Highway or the
Oklawaha river trip. Some of them
stopped in town for several days,
60 Fr,- H,,A
of the Board of Trade doing any
thing to make Ocala pleasant for them
while they were here. What was done
was done by individuals and the
Womans' Club, and the Star helped
the Woman's Club all it could. The
Star did lot of things, too many to
mention, to make individual tourists
like Ocala, and we are willing to bet
Mr.. Chazal that he can't produce any
one of them who saw anything in the
paper that aggrieved him.
Mr.. Chazal closes with the follow
ing:
"Ocala has got to have her share of
the hundreds of thousands who are
coming into Florida from other states.
And she will not get them if the Star
or any paper or person makes such
statements as made in your editor
ial."
Mr.. Chazal may calm his fears.
Very few tourists ever see the local
papers of little towns like Ocala.
Those who pass thru here are con-
cerned about the roads, the hotels,
and the railroad and boat connections,
but we doubt that it ever occurs to
them to ascertain public sentiment.
They buy the big city dailies and read
the press dispatches, market reports,
etc., but pay very little attention to
local affairs and local opinions, even
of Jacksonville and Tampa. let alone
Ocala, Orlando or Lakeland.
That class of tourists who are bet
ter known as winter residents, who
stay for weeks and months, the class
the Star is most DESTROYS of obtaining
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