The History of Florida (61 page)

ward, agrarian state. He spoke out for greater spending on public schools

and oversaw a more orderly organization of the state’s public school system,

although his proposal to provide free textbooks failed to pass the legislature.

Before the turn of the century, private schools played a large role in pro-

viding college-level education. Stetson University had been established in

DeLand in 1883, and Rollins College, in Winter Park, was founded in 1885.

In 1904, Mary McLeod Bethune established the Daytona Training School

proof

for Negro Girls that would later develop into Bethune-Cookman College.

The leading state-sponsored college was the Florida Agricultural College in

Lake City, established in 1870, but the state also gave meager support to a

handful of other institutions, including the State Normal School for Negroes

in Tal ahassee that had been organized in 1887. Funding for all of these in-

stitutions fell far short of the requirements of true colleges, and enrollments

were meager.

Broward’s most notable achievement in education came with passage of

the Buckman Act in 1905, which established the basis for orderly support of

higher education in the state. The Buckman Act provided for the creation

of a state board to oversee all state-sponsored colleges, with the intention

that over time the state would develop a system of higher education. The

Normal School for black students in Tal ahassee became Florida Agricul-

tural and Mechanical College, and, also in Tal ahassee, the Florida Female

College became Florida State College for Women, and, after World War II,

with the admission of male students, Florida State University. The location

of the other school, Florida Agricultural College, which enrolled only white

men, became a major controversy. Gainesville managed to lure the college

away from Lake City, partly because the city offered to furnish the college

The First Developers · 291

with free water from the municipal system. It was renamed the University

of Florida.

In step with the ideas current among progressives nationwide, Broward

saw to the passage of a law prohibiting child labor in factories, mines, and

saloons, as wel as a pure food law to create state inspection of meat and

vegetables. Broward also advocated the building of modern, hard-surface

roads around the state for the use of automobiles and trucks. A “good roads”

movement had started back in the 1890s before automobiles entered the pic-

ture, but once cars began to appear in Florida, the demand for better roads

increased dramatical y. Every major county had its organization to promote

road improvement. The state passed its first laws regulating automobiles and

required that autos be registered at a cost of two dol ars, with the money

going to build roads. In 1908, 733 cars were recorded.

The movement to prohibit alcoholic drinks had been gaining momentum

across the country during the final decades of the nineteenth century. Re-

ligious leaders and progressive reformers who saw alcoholism as a serious

social problem joined hands to support local and state laws limiting the

consumption of alcoholic beverages. By 1908, Gainesville, Tal ahassee, and

Live Oak had adopted “local option” laws prohibiting alcoholic beverages

within their boundaries.

proof

In the 1916 Democratic primary election, state comptrol er Wil iam V.

Knott, a mainstream party leader, faced four other opponents, including

outsider Sidney J. Catts, who had recently moved to DeFuniak Springs in

the Panhandle from Alabama. An impressive man with red hair who had

lost one eye in a childhood accident, Catts had been a Baptist minister, but

went into the business of selling life insurance. His career had given him a

strong sense of how the common people in backwoods areas viewed life.

Catts realized that he needed an issue that would separate him from the

other candidates, and he found it in anti-Catholicism.

Religion had never played a major role in state politics since the popula-

tion was overwhelmingly Protestant Christian. The two Stephen R. Mal-

lorys, father and son, had been elected to the U.S. Senate, in widely sepa-

rate eras, without their Catholic religion being a hindrance. However, Catts

found that it did not seem to matter that the Catholic population of Florida

was smal ; in rural areas, fears of an unseen threat lurking just over the

horizon could be amplified and exploited. The Democratic Party’s execu-

tive committee inadvertently added fuel to this fear by passing a provision

known as the Sturkie Resolution declaring that voters should not be in-

fluenced by religion in their choice of candidates and should not belong

292 · Thomas Graham

to any secret society advocating religious discrimination. The motion was

prompted by the rise of an organization cal ed the Guardians of Liberty,

dedicated to protecting native-born Americans against immigrant Catho-

lics. Catts seized upon the Sturkie Resolution as evidence that the leaders

of the state’s Democratic Party sympathized with Catholics and opposed

anyone who stood up for the rights of Protestants.

Lacking campaign money and newspaper support, Catts toured the

state’s rural areas declaring that he was the only candidate who cared about

the welfare of small-town people and farm families. When the primary bal-

lots were counted, Catts seemed to have won. However, the second-place

finisher, Knott, appealed to the state Supreme Court, which recounted the

ballots and declared Knott the victor by 270 votes. Claiming that the Demo-

cratic Party had stolen the nomination from him, Catts ran in the fall gen-

eral election as the candidate of the Prohibition Party. Adding a modern

touch to his campaign, Catts purchased a Model T Ford that allowed him

to reach even remote areas where the railroads did not go. Catts often bran-

dished two six-shooters, saying that he carried them for protection. He won

the general election by a good margin.

Catts rode to his inauguration in a procession of automobiles, including

his Model T, rather than the traditional carriages. Once in office, Catts ad-

proof

opted a moderate course. In most respects, the legislature continued to enact

laws that contributed to making Florida a modern state. Catts did push for

ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment outlawing alcoholic drinks, and

it was passed in December 1918. However, even in this case, Catts did not act

outside the mainstream of public opinion since most of the state’s counties

had already passed laws prohibiting alcoholic drinks, and the whole United

States went dry following ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919.

In other ways, Catts advanced the progressive agenda. He supported a

law that required youngsters between the ages of seven and fourteen to at-

tend school. He advocated two acts passed by the legislature in 1917 and 1919

that ended the leasing of state prisoners, although convict leasing continued

on the county level. Henceforth the state would use prisoners to maintain

the state’s developing road system.

In 1915, the legislature created a state road department. In October of that

year, the “Dixie Highway Motorcade” arrived in Jacksonville, having driven

in cars down from Chicago. Communities along the east coast of Florida

joined the movement and built roads that would be designated part of the

Dixie Highway. Florida’s future love affair with tourists in their automobiles

was already blossoming.

The First Developers · 293

The United States went to war against Germany just four months af-

ter Catts took office. In December 1917, at the start of the tourist season,

President Wilson took possession of all the railroads in the United States.

This, and the general disruptions of the war, caused the number of Florida

tourists to decrease during the 1918 season. In addition, overseas exports of

phosphate and lumber declined since European markets were closed during

the fighting.

However, the Florida economy boomed during the war. Railroad traffic

actual y increased as the movement of soldiers and building supplies for

military bases were added to the usual civilian traffic in lumber, winter veg-

etables, citrus, and tourists. Shipyards in Jacksonville and Tampa increased

production of ships for civilian owners. Lumber went to neighboring states

to build army camps. A labor shortage developed during the fighting. One

factor that added to the shortage was the increased migration of black Flo-

ridians to the North in search of better employment opportunities and

greater freedom.

Florida’s most significant contribution to the military came from avia-

tion training bases established in the state. With year-round good weather,

Florida made an ideal place to train aviators. The U.S. Navy had already

established Pensacola Naval Air Station 1914 as its primary base for training

proof

pilots. Miami received two fields: Curtiss and Chapman, while Arcadia was

home to Carlstrom and Dorr Fields.

Key West became noted as a base for submarines and as the U.S. Navy’s

home port for the Caribbean basin. A south Jacksonville location served as

the U.S. Army’s Camp Joseph E. Johnston (today’s Jacksonvil e Naval Air

Station).

The war imposed few hardships on civilians. Floridians voluntarily ra-

tioned their consumption of meat and planted more land in corn and po-

tatoes to increase the available food supply. Some farmers earned enough

money to replace their mules with tractors. However, prices for food,

clothing, and rent went up rapidly due to increased demand. During the

war, 42,000 Floridians served in the military. Approximately 1,100 died in

combat.

Just as the war was being won in Europe in the fall of 1918, an influenza

pandemic engulfed the world. The flu first appeared in Florida in the port

cities of Key West and Pensacola. Across the state, people wore squares of

gauze over their mouths and noses. Schools, movie theaters, churches, and

other places of public gatherings closed. Jacksonville recorded 234 deaths,

by far the most, and statewide probably more than 1,000 died.

294 · Thomas Graham

On November 5, 1915, Lieutenant Commander Henry C. Mustin flew the first aircraft

launched from a ship by catapult. He flew a Curtiss AB-2 flying boat off the stern of

proof

the USS
North
Carolina
anchored in Pensacola Bay. Before he began designing aircraft,

Glenn Curtiss had set a world speed record for motorcycles on Daytona Beach. Cour-

tesy of the State Archives of Florida,
Florida Memory
, http://floridamemory.com/items/

show/6943.

Fol owing the war, the United States was engulfed in labor disputes.

Wages had not kept up with inflation in the prices of consumer goods.

Strikes broke out in Florida cities with large numbers of unionized workers.

Tampa and Jacksonvil e had the largest strikes, but strikes also occurred

in other cities. Even some policemen and firemen went on strike. Racial

tensions rose as employers brought in black men to replace striking white

workers. Black men, who had been forced out of many skil ed trades in

previous decades, saw this as a chance to improve their employment status.

Fortunately, the strikes were settled without the kind of major violence that

happened in some northern cities.

Soon good times returned, and Sunny Florida stood poised to lead

America into the Roaring Twenties.

The First Developers · 295

Notes

1. Akin,
Flagler
, 117.

2. Braden,
Architecture
of
Leisure
, 221.

3. Colburn,
Government
in
the
Sunshine
, 12.

4. Stronge,
Sunshine
Economy
, 13.

5. Ibid., 34–35.

6. Davis,
Paradise
Lost
, 243–51.

7. Proctor,
Broward
, 190.

Bibliography

Akin, Edward N.
Flagler:
Rockefel er
Partner
and
Florida
Baron
. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1988.