The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1921-10-10
Representatives from All Along Line
oil Road No. Renew Call for
Immediate Improvement
of the Route
IL. T. Izlar)


vile or Ocala, probably due to the
longer distance over bad roads that
the men from Jasper and Lake City
would have had to travel. The attend
ance Saturday night was about $50
but they made up in enthusiasm for
what they lacked in numbers and few
towns along the route of road No. 2
were not represented. There were
about twenty from Ocala.
Mr. E. RI. Cox, secretary of the
Orlando chamber of commerce, called
the meeting to order and introduced
Mr.. M. j. Daetwiler, president of the
Orlando chamber of commerce, who
first welcomed the Wis tors to Orlando
and then asked that Mr.. w. w. Phil
lips, of Lake City, state the object of
the meeting and give a short history
of what had been done at the previous
meetings of the convention. During
the course of his talk Mr.. Daetwiler
made an error in speech that threw
the house into convulsion of laugh
ter and created an atmosphere of at
homeness which did much to make
the meeting. a success. Mr.. Daetwiler
was commenting on the great work
that had been done by the Orlando
chamber of commerce and said that
it was not the work of any one man
because the. secretary was only a
figurehead. Everybody laughed and
Mr.. Daetwiler realized that he had
said the secretary was the fgurehead
when he had intended making that
remark about himself, the president.
Mr.. Phillips first stated that the
object of the meeting was to see that
road No. 2 was hard surfaced thru
Hamilton, Columbia. Alachua and
Marion counties. Then he gave a
brief review of the meetings already
held and then went more fully into
the word done by the state road de-
partment. Mr.. Phillips said that he
had been criticized considerably for
the accusations and remarks he had
made about the state road depart
ment but that he knew the statements
made were true and he felt that he
had right to make them as this work
was public work and belonged to US
ALL
Mr.. Phillips asked the people of the
convention not to feel that it was a
selfish motive alone that melted the
counties of Hamilton, Columbia,
Alachua and Marion to hold these
meetings and ask them to help put
this road through. He said that road
No. was the main artery of central
Florida and that although Lake and
Orange counties had fine system of
reads they were not reaping full ben
eft from them so long as there was
the terrible gap in North Florida. He
said that the South Florida road sys-
tenn was fine for the people down
there but that it was so hard for
other people to get to them and he
pointed out that it was the northern
investor that South Florida wanted.
Mr.. Phillips called attention to the
fact that the state road department
claims to be out of funds now and
asks why III such be the case (and he
believes it is) can't they use the mon
ey that Hamilton county has turned
over to them and their own convicts
to finish the roads that they have
graded and made almost impossible
in that county.
Mr.. Phillips stated that it is fact
that Nassau county has absolutely
refused to put a cent into roads and
that Duval county viii not say what
she viii give and yet the state road
department. is building the road thru
those counties at the states expense
while there are counties on road No.
who have the money for their roads
or who have turned the money over
tc the state and want their roads. He
says that unless road No. is COM
pleted So per cent of the travel will
come into the state from Waycross
and 60 to Jacksonville and down the
east coast. The report is that we of
central Florida are bearing down too
hard on the state road department
now and that if we are not careful we
won't get a thing He asked that
Orange county help Hamilton, Column
bia, Alachua and Marion to see that
we do.
The next speaker was Mr.. J. L.
Herring, editor of the Tifton, (Ga.l
Gazette. Mr. Herring said that in two
months LEO cars q day will be COM