The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-07-14
Press Comment
Please Wake Us Up.

TleaSe wake Us Up.
Another example of the unfortunate
lack of public spirit and community
interest in this town was given lasr
Saturday when the freighter Hast
ings," named for this town in honor of
it's hundred per cent Liberty Loan
record, was launched in Pensacola
without the slightest notice or inter-
est in the fact being shown locally.
The ship which now bears the name
Of this town was .christened by a
woman from Daytona, while two
women from st. Augustine acted as
sponsors.
The worst feature of the affair
however, is the fact that Hastings had
been given plenty of notice of the
proposed launching and had been in
vited to supply sponsors and to send
one of it's own women to christen the
ship. Digging back into past history
for several months, it is discovered
that this letter from the shipbuilding
corporations official was received in
this town about a year ago announc-
ing the fact that the ship would be
completed early this summer and rec
questing that Hastings woman be
honored by being selected to christen
it. There seems no doubt that some
notice of the invitation must have
been taken at that time, although
everything indicates that the matter
must have been forgotten immediate
ly afterward
Consequently, instead of exhibiting
local pride in the honor paid the
town and virtually assuming charge
of the launching ceremonies, Hastings
allowed the matter to go by default
and the ship was christened by a
| woman who div not even live in st.
Johns county.
| The mere fact that a woman who
| lived in Daytona, instead of one who
| lived in Hastings, broke a bottle con-
| tanning what was said to be cham
paigne. on the bow of new freighter
! is less important in itself than is the
condition it illustrates. Four months
ago another freighter in another ship
| yard was named for a town no larger
than Hastings and located more than
a thousand miles from the scene of
the launching That town not only
sent it's favorite daughter to christen
the ship, but also sent special Pull
man car full of it's leading citizens to
attend the launching. That town had
| local pride and public spirit. It's citi-
zens felt pride in it and in the fact
that whatever recognition it received
was reflected on those who lived
within its limits. They were boosters.
| Hastings, unfortunately, is not filled
| with boosters. In a general summing
up OF its intangible possessions, the
column devoted to public spirit and
local pride would contain a big zero.
Such things do not exist in Hastings.
Almost any other town in the coun-
| try, having the wide reputation
| Hastings. has for any given product,
to say nothing of it's many possibili-
ties for future development, would
possess hustling, aggressive board
of trade or some similar civic organ
ization, which would see that the for
warding of the towns interests and
the keeping of the town before the
outside world was attended to in no
uncertain manner. Hastings has no
such organization, nor anything even
remotely approaching such an organ
Eization. The best it has to offer is
what is called a merchants associa-
+. ton, the sole purpose of which, so far
| as is evident, is to keep tabs on the
credit standing of the local citizens.
Hastings Herald.
1AAS ILoiS 1hdyeSy SuAtOI dHu owner
OF The Pensacola Journal has been
selected as member of the national
democratic committee This is in
tended as a compliment to Mrs. Mayes
and, through her, compliment to the
| women of Florida. But what a trav-
esty it is. Mrs. Mayes. brilliant, ca
pable, loyal, doing greater citizen SER
! vice, perhaps than is any other resi-
dent of her city, yet forced to sub
NIT to the injustice of taxation with
| out representation, denied a voice in
the selection of men who makes the
laws, denied a voice in the making
of the laws-an alien.-Miami Me-
tropolis.
| We thought We had reached the
+, limit in our story of the annual meet
| ing OF the state press association,
when we took over half a page to
| tell about it, but Willis B. Powell, the
secretary of the board of trade of
Lake County, used only a page and
a half in the Eustis Lake Region.
Written in Mr.. Powell's clever way. it