The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-04-11
OCALA DOES NOT
SEEM INTERESTED
Only a Small Attendance at Meeting
In Behalf of the American Auto
mobile Association

for the time being at least, the people |
of Ocala and Marion county have lost |
confidence in motor clubs. The attend |
ance at the meeting was exceedingly
slim, due, undoubtedly, to the turn of |
affairs taken by the Florida State Au-
tomobile Association. The representa-
tives of the American Automobile AS
sociation " We here last night
were not &, ecoura ged, however. Mr.. !
Charles @ onner field secretary of
the A. A A., spent over two hours
going owe with the few men present,
the purpcses of his organization, stat
ing in particular its plans for Florida
The other representatives of the A
A. A. present were Mr.. E. L. Cleveland
of Tampa, state secretary; Mr.. Rol L.
Dew, president Of the ST. Petersburg
Motor Club, and Mr.. j. H. Kerrick,
vice president and general manager
of the St. Petersburg Telephone Com
pany, and chairman of the good roads
committee of the st. Petersburg Motor
Club.
It developed at the meeting that the
American Automobile Association
will not orpanize any branch unless
the people in the locality in which the
branch is located ask for it. Through
a misunderstanding last nights meet
ing had been announced as being for
the purpose of organizing d county
branch of the A. A. A. AS Mr.. O'Con-
ner explained, the meeting was to
have been simply good roads meet
ing of the people of the county at
which the good roads activities of the
| A. A. A. were to be outlined, and the
people to be given an opportunity to
decide for themselves whether or not
they wish to form a county motor
| club as part Of the national organi-
zation. In order, therefore, that the
people of the city and county might
have an opportunity to hear a presen-
tatio nof the plans and purposes of
the A. A. A, a meeting will be held
in the court house Wednesday night,
April 10Th.
In explaining what the American
Automobile Association has in mind
for Florida, Mr.. O'Conner stated that
Florida has not now and never has
had good highway entering the
state. AS the result Of poor highways,
unsatisfactory road information, a
multiplicity of laws regulating motor
traffic and unsatisfactory service,
Florida has during the past five years
lost, through the failure of automo-
| biles to come to Florida, enough mon
ey to pave the entire state road sys-
tenn with concrete, Mr.. O'Conner said.
He said that last winter New York
sent twenty-five cars to California as
fifty cars to California as against one
to Florida, although California is
1900 miles further from the center OF
: population of the United States and
has climate that does not equal that
of Florida. During the last winter
the Auto Club of Southern California
= checked up 1850 cars in Los An.
/ geles county alone from the eastern
{ states, and the estimate of American
Automobile Association is that during
e the same period 1860 cars came tc
t Florida as whole. With these facts
e in view, Mr.. O'Conner said that the
5 A. A. A. made inquiry as to why the
motorists were going so much further
= to California instead of coming t.
D Florida. He said that the association
t found that mainly four things were
0 keeping motorists out of Florida: tn,
p lack of a highway into this state il
b passable condition throughout it
length, the multiplicity of routes, eacl
r claiming to be the shortest and best
:, thousands of different motor ordi
f nances and laws which the motorist
i find themselves constantly breaking
e and the lack of standardized garage
0 along the routes.
0 After reviewing the facts Nh
O'Conner said that the A. A. A. de
d cided that it could save the motorist
S of the United States several hundre
IS dollars each year by opening u
j. routes into Florida which would pu
h the center of population of the Unite
3, States that much nearer winter eli
mate that is beinr sought by million
n, of people annually. To this end, h
ID said that the association decided t
establish its organization in the south
10 eastern states with headquarters &
E. Montgomery, Ala, and to take immee
late steps to put into passable eond
se ton throughout their length by tn
,e first of October 1922, a highway frol
E. New York to Miami and from Chicag
Id to Fort Myers, the first taking tt
E. route down the east coast Of Florid
and the latter down the center of tt
OF state. These two routes have bee
to designated by the federal bureau
n highways as rational roads.
1n 1t is with the immediate view to ol
he tanning the two passable highwa!
- into Florida by next fall that the !
A. A. Is now organizing count