The Ocala banner., 1921-10-07
HoGGING ROAD MONEY

Mr.. Christopher Columbus Codring-
ton, editor of the DeLand News, re-
icently made an automobile trip from
/ DeLand to Pensacola and return, and
sat down at his desk and wrote the
following
.sThe news that comes from Ocala
and Gainesville would be amusing if
i it were not so aggravating Boosters
j of that section are holding a series of
meetings in various towns and work
i ing up sentiment to capture big part
IOf the available road funds to be ex-
pended by the state and the federal
government, demanding that over one
million dollars be spent on Road NJ.
III. They claim that Jacksonville and
East Florida are endeavoring to cap
ture all the available road money in
sight.
The writer made an auto trip from
DeLand to Pensacola lass summer
lie found that the State Road Depart
ment was building beautiful concrete
bridges, costing hundreds of thousands
OF dollars, over bridges and creeks all
over that section of the state; he
found that rights of ways Sc feet wide
had been cleared out, roads graded
] "a feet wide and hard-surfaced by the
State Road Department, without the.
expenditure of cent by the counties
II or the issuance of a dollars worth
| OF bonds. He found sentiment de-
manding the bridging of Escambia
Bay-five miles long all at the ex-
lpense OF the state at large, and with
out the expenditure of a cent of bond
money issued by the people to be
most directly benefited He came
back home and told what he had seen.
In this section Of the state we have
bonded ourselves and our homes and
have built every mile of road we en-
JOY, we have some good roads, but
we have made them ourselves. To
the best of our knowledge, Alachua
county has never spent dollars
worth of bond money on her roads.
Since last year she may have voted
some bonds and now she wants road
work in all the rest of the state to
lag, while she gobbles the whole state
and national appropriation.
We don't blame Gainesville. She
will be entitled to it if she can get it.
L the rest of the state permits West
Florida, Central Florida, or South
Florida, to capture the entire fund,
the rest of the state will be entitled
TO just what is left--if anything is left.
The State Road Department has
never hard-surfaced a foot of road
In Volusia county; to be sure. we
have had promises of assistance for
several years but it has so far all
been taken out in promises and no
money Every foot of hard-surfaced
road in VOlusia county has been built
by the people of Volusia county with
their own money and the sweat of their
brows. Our bridges have been built
with private capital and we are still
paying for them.
The News cannot see what the
State Road Department has ever done
Tor Volusia county, where we have
already voted over two million dol
lars in good road bonds. Why should
not our two million dollars be match
ed with two millions from the state
and the federal funds before money
is given to Alachna or any other coun-
ty that has just issued bonds and
not vet sold them?
why does not the State Road De-
partment buy the bridges over the
st Johns river and make them free,
Wnen It is spending hundreds of
thousands OF dollars for bridges over
the river at Chattahoochee, or Milton,
Florida. -
There has been a nigger in the
Woodplie IN the state road fund for
severeI years, and West Florida has
burned the wood while the rest of the
state has been given the chips Z
HsnlfnT Inoah rf Il