| TRAVELS OF DURSMIRG VOLUME IV THE ROGUES OF ST. AUGUSTINE AND OTHER SOCIAL MISFITS Chapter 8 |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Chapter 8 ON THE SKIDS
It was not just one thing that turned the fortunes of St. Augustine sour. Here you will see the local and national events
that had colossal long lasting impact.
ED BALL AND THE FLORIDA EAST COAST RAILROAD;
Ed Ball’s iron fisted industrial clout with his Florida East Coast Railroad shaped up into one of St. Augustine’s most
monumental, economical and political events of the Ancient City’s modern day history.
Ed Ball, the colossal empire builder was not loved by all, especially his number one nemesis Claude Pepper who made
political hay throughout his entire life and even carried this vendetta all the way to his grave.
Exuberantly Claude Pepper stepped into a political whirlwind created by the collapse of the real estate bubble and the
depression of 1929. His crusade was made to order; Pepper eagerly picked up the political torch of the populist plight
and unrelentingly went for the jugular of big business.
There was Ed Ball on the other side of the coin caught in the cross hairs, an enemy of the down-trodden and ripe for
Pepper’s populist politics.
Claude Pepper was destined to lock horns several times over his life with the influential financial figure, Ed Ball.
Ball became a very shrewd and cunning businessman and his judgment energized the duPont holdings and integrated
them into innumerable interconnected duPont interests. In the process Ball was able to accumulate vast personal power
and increase his individual wealth exponentially to become a dominant force in Florida both politically and economically
for the rest of his long life. He lived into his 90s.
Claude Pepper was willing to help state business interests when it didn’t conflict with Roosevelt’s socialistic economic
programs.
The need for a rubber stamp Washington connection mitigated Ball’s instinctive conservatism and natural loathing of
Roosevelt and Pepper and their leftist New Deal.
This was “Catch 22” and Pepper needed Ed Ball’s strong financial support from time to time so the two molded a
pragmatic bond.
Who was using who?
In the early 1940s differences over the New Deal were subordinated by the imperative of defeating Nazi Germany and
Imperial Japan and this made the business community valued again because industrial power and production played
such a key role in the American “arsenal of democracy”. Pepper and Ball sustained their pragmatic relationship.
go to chapter 9
It was not just one thing that turned the fortunes of St. Augustine sour. Here you will see the local and national events
that had colossal long lasting impact.
ED BALL AND THE FLORIDA EAST COAST RAILROAD;
Ed Ball’s iron fisted industrial clout with his Florida East Coast Railroad shaped up into one of St. Augustine’s most
monumental, economical and political events of the Ancient City’s modern day history.
Ed Ball, the colossal empire builder was not loved by all, especially his number one nemesis Claude Pepper who made
political hay throughout his entire life and even carried this vendetta all the way to his grave.
Exuberantly Claude Pepper stepped into a political whirlwind created by the collapse of the real estate bubble and the
depression of 1929. His crusade was made to order; Pepper eagerly picked up the political torch of the populist plight
and unrelentingly went for the jugular of big business.
There was Ed Ball on the other side of the coin caught in the cross hairs, an enemy of the down-trodden and ripe for
Pepper’s populist politics.
Claude Pepper was destined to lock horns several times over his life with the influential financial figure, Ed Ball.
Ball became a very shrewd and cunning businessman and his judgment energized the duPont holdings and integrated
them into innumerable interconnected duPont interests. In the process Ball was able to accumulate vast personal power
and increase his individual wealth exponentially to become a dominant force in Florida both politically and economically
for the rest of his long life. He lived into his 90s.
Claude Pepper was willing to help state business interests when it didn’t conflict with Roosevelt’s socialistic economic
programs.
The need for a rubber stamp Washington connection mitigated Ball’s instinctive conservatism and natural loathing of
Roosevelt and Pepper and their leftist New Deal.
This was “Catch 22” and Pepper needed Ed Ball’s strong financial support from time to time so the two molded a
pragmatic bond.
Who was using who?
In the early 1940s differences over the New Deal were subordinated by the imperative of defeating Nazi Germany and
Imperial Japan and this made the business community valued again because industrial power and production played
such a key role in the American “arsenal of democracy”. Pepper and Ball sustained their pragmatic relationship.
go to chapter 9