134
L: A man in Gainesville, a lawyer, was elected to the State legislature.
He came to see me one day with a letter. He said it was very
embarrassing and he didn't know how he ought to handle the thing.
It was a copy of a letter Sam Getzen had written to Ed Ball
and he said, "I want to recommend to you, Representative-elect
Ira somebody for appointment to the house Ways and Means Committee.
He is a very responsible person, I think he will support all
your proposals for taxes. He doesn't have a place to live and
if you would furnish him a place down in Wakulla Springs I'm sure
he would appreciate it." He came to me and he said, "I don't
want to be tied up with Ball like that. I don't want to accept
those favors. How can I get around this? What shall I do?" I've
forgotten my advice to him. If he'd come to me today, I'd say
just ignore it and not do anything. Well, I found out later on
that he came up here while I was here and he bought a trailer and
lived in a trailer during the legislative session. He's dead now,
Ira someone, who was the legislator then. Anyway, Sam Getzen had
told Ed Ball he would be a good man for the house Ways and Means
Committee. And I have some other evidence that Mr. Ball may
have influenced the selection of members for the house Ways and
Means Committee.
All right, going back to the university; that was a rather unpleasant
experience. At about the same time, the case involving the
football team being on WPA came up.
P: Now, that was the summer of '39.
L: Yes. Now this was almost the same period of time because the whole
idea of a golf course, everything dropped with the outbreak of war.
P: Sure we could be wrong on the football team. It could be the summer
of '38 or '39.
L: No, I think it's '39 or '40. The investigation took place in '40,
as I recall. I was a teacher in government. I knew some of the
things that happened outside. I knew about the congressional
investigation. I knew that the county director of WPA was fired.
I knew the state director was fired, and fired specifically for
allowing the football team to be put on WPA rolls. WPA was passed
by Congress to help families without an income, working-class
people, and at the time it was said by the people in the social
work field that there were families in Alachua County who were
denied WPA jobs because the football members took their place.
It was like that, and I knew that. When the investigation was
going on my good friend, Joe Weil, and I were discussing some