1674-7 Gov James CoxJOURNEY THROUGH MY YEARS
The Republican party fell into disrepute after this campaign be-
cause of its affiliation with Ku Kluxism. This doubtless helped my
return to the governorship in 1916 for a second term and my re-
election in 1918 to a third term.
The Ku Klux movement brought Harding back into politics and
Daugherty came with him to remain his chief aide and confidant.
Thus the "Ohio Gang" which Daugherty headed, essentially a politi-
cal underworld, came to Washington in 1921 with a place at the
right hand of the President. There followed promptly the public
scandals which make up the sad story which ensued.
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CHAPTER XXVIII
UNDER MIAMI'S PALMS
A ctnuovs 'ruRri of circumstances brought us into the Miami, Flor-
ida, newspaper field in 1923. It had its beginning, as a matter of fact,
in Dayton. Next to our newspaper plant was one of the first auto-
mobile garages in the country, run by Earl Kiser, who was known
internationally as the champion bicycle rider of the world. Possess-
ing great muscular strength, the eye of an eagle and the heart of a
lion, and being a fine judge of distance, he made his competitors
look commonplace. It was natural that he should turn to automobiles
and automobile racing. He had given room in an unoccupied story
of his building to Fred Avery, who had conceived the idea of sup-
plying gas from a tank to the front lights of an automobile. Until
then oil lamps had been used.
Another bicycle and automobile racer, Carl Fisher, resided in In-
dianapolis. He was an admirer of young Kiser and in one of his vis-
its to Dayton saw what Avery was trying to do. After Avery had
demonstrated to his own satisfaction the feasibility of his device he
sought funds to start production. Ten thousand dollars, he figured,
was what he must have. He had urged Earl Kiser to join him. The
elder Kiser, a quiet, conservative man whom I had grown to know
very well, advised the son that he would put up $5000 if I would
advance a like amount. I had not been in business long and $5000
was a matter of great magnitude to me. Besides, we needed every-
thing we could scrape up to keep our own business going. Kiser was
greatly disappointed.
Not long after this Fisher made another of his recurrent trips to
Dayton and was told of the proposal that Avery had made to Kiser.
Fisher was positive that there was a great future ahead for automo-
biles and this was the one thing at the moment most needed to make
driving more pleasant and safe. He told Avery he would advance the
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JOURNEY THROUGH MY YEARS
money. When he returned to Indianapolis, he told a friend of his, a
banker, James A. Allison, that he had purchased for Allison and
himself a two-thirds interest in something that would make them
rich and it would only cost Allison $ i o,000. Allison's immediate and
characteristic response was, "Where in the hell are you getting
$1 o,000?" Fisher answered: "It is this way, Jim. A two-thirds inter-
est costs $1o,000. You not only put up half of that, but I am charg-
ing you the same amount for letting you into a good thing." Allison,
something of a plunger himself, accepted the proposal.
That began the career of Carl Fisher as a national figure. Many
stories have been printed about him, but this one, I am sure, has
never before been told.
Within a year Avery was paid $loo,000 for his one-third interest
and the two Hoosier boys owned the business completely. They
made a great success of "Prestolite." Fisher not only had great imagi-
nation, but his sustained efforts were constructive. Someone once
said of him that he could sell bonds to finance a highway to the
moon. As a matter of fact, Fisher never made a deal with anyone
except in the utmost good faith as to values. Fisher and Allison took
•
$8,000,000 in dividends out of the business and then sold it to the
Union Carbide Company, taking cash and marketable securities, but
unfortunately no common stock. For this they were pointed out as
smart fellows, for in those clays when combinations were being
formed everywhere, small businesses turned into a consolidated unit
and usually, in numberless instances to their later regret, took com-
mon stock. I took pains recently to find out from the president of
the Carbide company, Mr. Benjamin O'Shea, what the result to
Fisher and Allison would have been if they had taken common
stock and held it until now. It would be worth over fifty million
dollars. Fisher, however, had no regrets. The beautiful empire which
he built in the Southland, the magical Miami Beach, meant more to
him than all the money in the world. Free from business, he was
forty years old and had fifteen million dollars in the bank.
Fisher was the type that required outlets for pent-up energies.
Boats and boating gave him what he needed. He had several craft
built. The one in particular which determined the major enterprise
of his life was called the "Eph," after his pet dog. It had been built
by the Seabury Ship Yards in New York City and shipped by freight
to Cairo, Illinois. His first adventure was to go down the Mississippi
310
UNDER MIAMI'S PALMS
River and then across the Gulf to south Florida. He induced John
Levi, later mayor of Miami Beach and then manager of the ship
company, to make the trip with him. At Mobile they ran ashore.
Fisher, in disgust, took the train back to Indianapolis. Levi, with the
aid of an amateur navigator and a couple of sailors, finally made his
way around Cape Sable to Miami. He wired Fisher to join him and
in mentioning the suggested destination said that it was "a pretty
little city."
Fisher at the time was attending an automobile show in New
York. Without much enthusiasm he headed south. With him came
Harry S. Lehman, then a young man, whose mind was filled with
engines and automotive possibilities. He later made his millions as
a distributor in Cincinnati and is now chairman of the board of the
First National Bank and a very useful citizen of Ohio. He spends
his winters at Miami Beach.
There is something in the Miami scene that takes hold of every-
one. Seen for the first time, it doesn't seem possible that it is a part
of the United States. Fisher's imagination, great lover of nature that
he was, was stirred.
In the office of Frank B. Shutts, an Indianan who had come to
Miami as receiver of a bank, he was asked whether he would like to
buy some bonds on a wooden bridge that was being erected across
Biscayne Bay to a beach skirting the sea. Fisher laughed at the idea,
but it wasn't long before he was surveying the reefs, islands, inlets
and bays of the area served by the bridge. Here he fell in with John
Collins, who I think can properly be called the father of Miami
Beach. Collins had come from New Jersey, bought a strip of the
island peninsula running north and south about eight or nine miles
long and conceived the idea of establishing a cocoanut oil business
there. He planted thousands of nuts, but as soon as the shoots came
up they were eaten by the rabbits. Then he turned to growing avo-
cado pears and did well at it. The fruit could be delivered across the
bay only by oar -driven boats, and so he conceived the idea of erect-
ing the wooden bridge.
Collins himself must have had the power of graphic description,
for Fisher took the remaining part of the bond issue and received
as a bonus 15o acres of swampland along the beach. The bonds paid
out dollar for dollar. Then the dream began to unfold. Scrub trees
in the mangrove swamps were cut, bulkheads were built about and
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JOURNEY THROUGH MY YEARS
. beyond their edges and dredges were put at work pumping sand
and silt from the bay onto what was soon to become high, dry land.
They did more than that. In order to get enough dirt for their pur-
pose, they cut canals through the marked -out area and every cubic
foot of excavation was used for fill. Most people laughed at it then.
It is easy now to see how practical the whole operation was. In 1914
I visited Miami and by houseboat and small craft went through the
canals to Lake Okeechobee and then down the Caloosahatchee River
to Fort Myers on the Gulf. I was told of Fisher's activities and, even
though we were close friends and I would have enjoyed meeting
him again, the whole project seemed so fantastic that I didn't want
to hear of it.
The canals brought great beauty to the picture. The tide keeps
the waters pure and when one looks now at Miami Beach with its
waterways, the boulevards planted in oleanders, hibiscus and the
whole profusion of tropical foliage, one does not wonder that vis-
itors from all over the world pronounce it in many respects one of
the most beautiful spots on earth.
In due time, Allison joined Fisher in the enterprise and Collins
brought into it for construction and later administration his son,
Irving Collins, and his son-in-law, Thomas J. Pancoast. The younger
generation of the Pancoast family makes the Beach its permanent
home. Both Fisher and Allison were men of large benefactions. Alli-
son built a beautiful hospital which in time was turned over to the
Sisters of St. Francis.
Fisher, this enterprise a great success, felt he had yet other worlds
to conquer. As he envisioned the future, Montauk Point at the east
tip of Long Island would become a great shipping terminal. He
bought thousands of acres, erected boulevards, hotels and residences
and was engaged in the fulfillment of his second dream when the
depression following 1929 came. Of his own funds, he had advanced
about $3,000,000. Subsequently, he floated two bond issues running
into the millions. As evidence of his confidence in the worth of his
securities and his faith in the enterprise, he guaranteed payment of
the bonds. This led to his financial undoing. What he possessed on
the Beach was taken over by the bondholders. He was given a com-
fortable salary to carry him through to what Fisher felt would be
a favorable turn in his affairs and, as his interests on the Beach were
liquidated, any balance ensuing would be given to Fisher. The prop -
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UNDER MIAMI'S PALMS
erty in question has all been disposed of in the last few years. Fisher's
debts were paid and two or three years after his death a comfortable
competency was turned over to his widow. His life was a romance
of constructive enterprise. If you review the history of any great
project you will find behind it a personality whose struggles and
triumphs and even failures make a story truly stranger than fiction.
Fisher had importuned me to come to Miami. I finally did, in
1923, and fell completely in love with the place, confident that it
would grow into a great city. Living in a hotel was always an intol-
erable experience for me. When I made up my mind to spend a part
of each year in Miami, I realized that to find happiness there, I must
get something to occupy my time. Carl Fisher suggested that I pur-
chase the only afternoon paper, the Miami Metropolis, the oldest
paper in this region. It was owned by Bobo Dean. Fisher arranged a
meeting for me with Mr. Dean. We came to terms quickly and the
deal was made for cash. Before going back North in the spring I
purchased land on the Beach and had a residence erected during the
summer of 1923. At that time the Nautilus Hotel and our house
were the only structures north of the Biscayne canal. Now the city
is built solidly more than six miles beyond to the north. To judge
by appearances, there will soon be very little unoccupied area be-
tween Miami Beach and Hollywood and then on to Fort Lauderdale.
The Metropolis was operated in a small place on Flagler Street.
Believing that Biscayne Boulevard would become the Fifth Avenue
of south Florida, I purchased a lot overlooking the bay and erected
on it one of Miami's first skyscrapers, 279 feet in height. I also
changed the name of the paper to the Daily News.
The land boom was brewing then. The nature of it can be seen
by our experience in purchasing the plot of ground for the News
Tower building. We found a mortgage on it for a relatively small
sum that had been given to an undertaker. It had been paid off, but
' the records did not show it. On inquiry it developed that the owner
had died with a great deal of real estate, but not money enough to
bury him. The undertaker took the mortgage in payment. The Bank
of Bay Biscayne was administering the estate, and one million dol-
lars in cash was turned over to the heirs.
'While making my survey, I chanced one day to visit the Miami
docks and ran into a man of Canadian birth, Captain Len Lewis, who
was in charge of the affairs of the Clyde Steamship Line. I asked
313
9'
JOURNEY THROUGH MY YEARS
of the Daily News for $S,000,000 in cash. The property was not
worth that amount at that time, and there was not the slightest
doubt in my mind that the Capone interests were behind the offer.
This proved later to be the fact. The emissary did not stay long. I
told him that he looked like a gentleman and I wondered if he felt
proud of his clients. He was told that no amount of money would
be tempting, that it would not be a matter of disposing of a news-
paper but selling out a community which was in sore need of pro-
tection. He seemed very much embarrassed, expressed regret that he
had been drawn into the offer and departed. I never saw nor heard
of him afterwards.
To rid the city of the Capone gang, it was decided to enforce a
local ordinance against vagrants. The first Capone criminal picked
up by the officers had $ 15,000 in cash on his person. This made a
good deal of a travesty out of this procedure. An appeal was made
by me to a man very close to President Hoover. The plea was sub-
stantially in this form: "The Capone gang is attempting to break
down the legal and moral restraints of this community. Money is
not a consideration. The millions at its disposal are acquired, as you
know, through the violation and defiance of our federal statutes.
We are still suffering from the results of the hurricane and the best
within us must be asserted to rebuild a city. The federal government
is apparently paying no attention to the situation. We are fighting •
here with our backs to the wall and the situation is not creditable
to the federal authorities."
The reply was, "What can we do?" The answer was "Taxes."
That was the beginning of Capone's end. In due course he, with
other members of his crowd, was on his way to prison. The Daily
News was left to make this fight alone. This should not imply that
the other newspaper was at all in sympathy with Capone. In too
many places, if one newspaper begins a bold and necessary crusade,
its competitors deny the movement either sympathy or support. The
fact is not creditable to the profession, but it is a fault which will be
admitted, I think, by most publishers and editors.
There is nothing truer than that every seeming disaster brings
compensations in due time. This was true of Greater Miami. The
task of reconstruction after the storm and the end of the cr.
regime was an inspiring one.
When Carl Fisher arrived here, Miami was already a most aura
316
UNDER MIAMI'S PALMS
tive place. Clean, well laid out, abounding with flowers everywhere
and with glimpses of the sea through the cut between the reefs, it
was a beautiful picture. Some things about Miami should be said
that the public in general knows nothing of. Its glamorous side has
been well publicized, but behind the gay life of winter, the night
clubs, racing, golf and water sports, is the life of a community which
could never have been built without pioneers who will take high
rank in the view of the historian. The pleasure side of Greater Miami
would never have been possible without a continuing year-round
population. Attractive stores, adequate public buildings, well-run
banks, a fine school system, an impressive church life, all of these,
on their own account, had created something to which Miami
Beach and other suburbs could tie themselves. Through the con-
struction of fine harbors it has become a great shipping point. This
was the contribution of E. G. Sewell, who gave to this development
more than any other person. Nature had given her wondrous touch.
The sand and salt of the seas, and the sun which gives so abundantly
of the ultraviolet ray, have spread the fame of this section as a
health -giving place. William J. Bryan and I once addressed a gath-
ering here and I remarked that Miami, as I saw it at that time, was
"America's greatest human dry dock." Bryan seemed tremendously
impressed by this observation.
As you view the citizenry, you find that families of physicians,
lawyers, bankers, professors and scientists have come here for the
health of someone in the family. Restored health begets happiness as
nothing else can. Out of all of this has come a large element of the
population—useful men and women who love Miami because here
they gained health where health had failed in other sections. Retired
naval and army officers have found it a haven for their remaining
days. Cultural interests have grown apace with the development of
the community. This kind of citizenship has kept its heel on the
hoodlum development which has been attracted by the resort phase
of the life here. It has risen to every challenge. It once uprooted a
corrupt regime in the city hall. It cleaned out Tropical Park, a rac-
ing resort, under a drive assisted by Governor Holland and at the
continued insistence of Senator Ernest Graham. M. O. Annenberg,
known well throughout the North, squandered uncounted thousands
of dollars to establish himself here. Rebuffed, he pulled up stakes and
moved away. For the part which our newspaper, the Daily News,
317