Title: Letter from Ralph M. Munroe to Vincent Gilpin, July 6, 1918

Summary: This letter, from entrepreneur Ralph Munroe to Vincent Gilpin, a winter resident of Coconut Grove, contains discussion of wartime activity, the Dinner Key Aviation School, and labor shortage. From p. 1: "All that was asked for further than the Jersey Red paint was a proper fly swatter to keep off the eight or ten breeds of [airplanes] that incessantly buzz around..." From p. 2: "Have received almost positive assurance that the Aviation School will not be maintained after the war so feel better. Would now like to stop the evident graft in the ceaseless dredging going on around Dinner Key. Here we are skimping and paying double & treble prices for everything, and the blasted dredging company getting rich on thieving." From p. 3: "We are in great straits for labor. Camp work seems impossible. Am building chimneys with the help of an old English Boer War soldier. Can get a darky occasionally @ 2.50 per [day] to cut grass. Our boy Ed Bunyon was conscripted and is at Camp Wright, NJ freezing to death. All other labor is now at the new Army Aviation camp just this side of Cutler Hammock where they do as little as possible at highest pay so as to help the contractors earn millions on the percentage basis."

Creator: Munroe, Ralph, 1851-1933

Collection Title: Munroe Family Papers

Collection No.: ASM0409

Coverage Spatial: Dinner Key (Miami, Fla.)

Container: Box No.: 1, Folder Title: 1918-1919.

Coverage Temporal: 1910-1919

Date: 1918-07-06

Genre: Correspondence

Note: Vincent Gilpin co-authored with Ralph Middleton Munroe the book "The Commodore's Story," an autobiography of boatmaker, photographer and Coconut Grove pioneer Ralph Munroe.

Physical Description: 1 handwritten letter

Repository: University of Miami. Library. Special Collections

Series: Series: I Correspondence

Subject: Munroe, Ralph, 1851-1933; Labor supply;Dredging

Repository: Digital Collections

Standardized Rights Statement: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/

Rights: This material is in the public domain in the United States. For additional information, please visit: https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/custom/copyright-guidelines

Source: From: Letter from Ralph M. Munroe to Vincent Gilpin, July 6, 1918