The Indianapolis times., 1936-03-06
Vagabond
from
Indiana
MARCH 6, 1896
ERNIE PYLE
OcALA, Fla, March s.-There


~ seems to be less hullabaloo
about the vast digging on the Florida
Canal than about such jobs as Nor
ris Dam and PasSamaquoddy.
I suppose that's because here the
work necessarily is stretched out,
while at the big dams it is spectacu-
larly concentrated.
The $500 workmen here are scat
tered over 20 miles. You seldom see
more than 200 in a bunch.
Also, the different items" or
holes in the ground which they're
digging, don't all run together. In
other words, you can't stand on the
bank and see a ditch running as far
as the eye will carry, like a canal.
1t may run only quarter of mile.
Then it may be a mile to the next
hole. That's because they haven't
signed up all the land yet.
Even when they're going full tilt,
there1l be no great concentration. If
the appropriations keep coming
through, they expect to reach peak
activity in two years. That will
mean $4,000 men at work. That's a
lot of men. But there are about 40,-
600 in Florida on work relief now,
so the canal will never take care OF
all of them.
NCALA, where the work is GEN.
~ tered, hasn't become a typical
boom town. 1t is pleasant and
up-to-date city of 1000. About the
only resemblances it has to the ira
ditional Florida town of the travel
literature are the warm winter
dayS and a few palm trees. -
Canal workmen don't flock into
Ocsla to spend their money. Their
camps are from five to Is miles
away, and they have no way to get
into town. The government, while
setting up no restrictions. doesn't
go out of its way to provide trans
portation.
Business is good here. There is
not house available in town. There
are a few empty stores, and the
rents have gone up. The leading
stopping places for travellers charge
some pretty fancy prices, but if you
look around you can get good din
ner for so cents. Ocala is wet. They
sell beer at the workmen's camps,
too.
Tourists, incidentally, have pref
ty tough time trying to see any of
the canal. A tourist who braves
that hippety- -hoppety road alongside
the canal is tourist indeed.
TINE little city known as Camp
l. Roosevelt, set among the tall
pines, houses the administrative
force of the canal-the white COL
lar workers. They are the drafts
men, the clerks, the land buyers,
the engineers, the head inspectors.
There are $40 in the force.
The United States Army Engi-
neers are building this canal. Yet
to my surprise 1 found only six
commissioned Army officers here.
All the rest are civilians. There
are no enlisted men. They say
that's the way the Engineers al
ways work. A few commissioned
officers at the top; all the rest
civilians.
T WAS much interested in how
l. they get the land for this
canal.
In the first place, the State of
Florida buys the land, and gives it
to the Federal government. Flor
ida recently voted a $1,500,O00 bond
issue for this purpose.
Land through here isn't worth
a tinker's dam. You couldn't raise
a fit on it. The average price paid
is 81 to $5 an acre. A great deal
goes for 81. The very best brings
only $40. A lot of it bears the
stamp of having been sold to suck
ers in those rosy days back you re-
member when.
So far, the government hasn't
got the deed to a foot of land.
How, then, can they actually be
working on the canal? Well, they
have options on quite a bit, and
the owners just gave them permis-
sion to go ahead and start digging,
so they did.
Homer Rodeheaver, Billy Sum
days famous choir leader, had 1000
acres in the path of the canal.
He got 81 an acre for it.