Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1921-09-15
RUSSELL ASKS AID
OF kIWANIANS FOR
COMPLETING ROAD

yesterdays luncheon of the hlWanls
club when about thirty-fve members
were present. Senator Russell had
been asked to make a few remarks
and chose for his subject the Palatka
Crescent City road, appealing to
the Kiwanians to lend their aid in
putting this road in passable shape.
Mr.. Russell spoke in his usually
happy vein. After his preliminary
remarks he said:
AS you all know, my home town
is Crescent City, and if you will par
don me, l want to tell you some
things about that home town."
where
81 live in house by the side of the
road,
Where the sons of men go by;
Tn meen who are good, the men who
are bad,
AS good and as bad as /"
Crescent City constitutes the most
populous election precinct in Putnam
county, and it covers less territory
than any precinct in the county out
side of Palatka. 1t has a summer
population, according to the census
of 1920, of 1856. Its winter popu-
lation is easily double that number.
The Crescent City section is at pre-
sent the second largest citrus fruit
producing section in all Florida. No
other station, save Arcadia alone,
ships as many boxes of fruit as Cres-
cent City. Its crop for the present
year will exceed 100000 boxes. There
are six large packing plants at Cres-
cent City. From November to May
their weekly pay roll is enormous.
Much of this money would find a nat
ural outflow Palatkaward, were it
not for the handicap of a miserable
road.
at is of this road l desire to speak
and for which l desire to invoke your
aid. When the two short links OF
road in southern Putnam and northern
.Volusia are completed, there will be
a hard-surfaced highway from Jack
sonville to Tampa, through Palatka,
Crescent City, Seville, DeLand, San
ford, Orlando, Kissimmee, Lakeland,
Plant City. Two links doesn't mean
much in sausage, but they are i'm
portant when it comes to a through
highway. The Putnam county link
was organized on the special tax
district plan, and bonds in amount
of 100000 were voted. The money
from sale of these bonds has been
laying in bank now for over two
years, drawing interest at the rate
of per cent per annum. We want
this money to go to work like a re-
spectacle entity, and not loaf its life
away in idle, handmade luxury at
the expense Of the tax payer.
Over the major part of this pro-
posed road We once had a very fair
sand-clay highway; today that sand
clay highway is heaped high with a
sand-graded road bed 80 feet wide
and three feet deep, through which
meanders a snak-like track that in
dry weather practically shuts Cres-
cent City out from the world. We
can neither get in nor out. This.
gentlmen of Kiwanis, is an outrage
on an unoffending people. We want
to reach Palatka for important mar
keting, but We cannot. We are in the
grip of the State Road Department
and the Federal Aid Commission,
VINO seem to have gone to sleep on
their jobs.
THE State Road Department has
prosmised that just as soon as the
Federal Department approves the
material, the State will hard surface
But when will that be? Will it be
in the life Of men now living? Let
me whisper; won't Kimanis help us
by asking Gov. Hardre to push II
his road department, and won't you
bark loud and frequently over this
injustice to a section Of your coun-
ty that has been a faithful feeder
to your city? l know you will.
Il regret that some of o~r people
are skeptical Of Palatka; they think
you selfish. You can easily eliminate
that feeling by cutting out certain
tricks, or practices, that to YOU seem
harmless, but the indulgence in
which hurts our civic pride and acts
Jas a stumbling block in the way of
tia perfect harmony that ought to
exist between communities whose in
te,e5ts are so closely allied. As an
example. Last week our depot burn
ed down. A telegram was sent to
the Times-Union from Palatka,
which started out in this language.
IPalatka, Sept. 6-The Atlantic Coast
Line station at Crescent City, A
JUNCTION POINT NEAR HERE,
burned etc. Instead of giving our
little progressive city credit for be-
ing a worthy municipal entity, your
correspondent refers to it as a
junction point near Palatka. No
less than 80 people have referred to
his injustice.