The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-04-11

of that preliminary skirmish The per-
sonal characteristics of the two speaker
snip aspiTants also influenced the issue
Mr.. McNamee has all along been perfectly
outspoken upon every question which has
arisen since he became a candidate for the
legislature He early announced that he
favored Mr.. Tafiaferro for the Senate, and
ne has made no compromising promises.
He has brains and independence and
knows how to say No He is a splendid
tighter, for he comes from county hope
lessly split by factional differences, and
only when the vote was counted last
November could he feel sure of his cleo
ton to the House. His mastery and manly
conduct during the last year has attracted
the attention of the state to him, and 1t is
a safe prophecy that he will be heard from
again in higher stations.
On the other hand, Mr.. Zewadski has
been consistently non-committa1, and to
this day no man but himself can be abso-
lutely sure of how he will vote in the sem
atoral contest He is placed in the Pasco
column, 1t Is true, but more by conject-
ure than on account of any declaration
from him. Mr. Zewadsh is an able and
highly respected man. but he made a great
mistake in assuming a Sphinx-like attt-
Jude upon the overshadowing issue of the
current session. 1t certainly helped to ap-
preciably deprive him of the speakership
of the House.
Pasco Makes a Coup.
Saturday morning the Taliaferro men
sought to still further ingratiate them
selves with the West Florida Pasco mem
bers of whom Mr. Hilliard was one Of
the leaders, by creating the position of
speaker pro tenn, and giving it to Hill
lard. Pascos supporters were quick to
lar fha Gil
perb generalship of Nat Walker, they took
up the proposition themselves and elected
billiard in a manner which gave the en-
tire credit of his selection to them
This latter political coup was quite as
neat and effective as the one accomplished
by Mr. Taliaferro early in the week, and
shows that Mr.. Pasco has been giving his
Iieutenants some valuable dots lately.
Senatorial Fight Summed Up.
So far neither House has been IN session
more than two hours of either day, and
committee meetings have not consumed
two hours all told The rest of the time
during the week has practically all been
spent in discussion of the senatorial fight.
There is no end Of gossip, most OF it too
vague for reproduction, but the situation
can be summed up in a few words: A
week ago, when the legislators were gath
ering here. Senator Pasco was the strong
est candidate, and had the balloting be-
gun right away he would most probably
have been elected. During the week he
has lost strength among the West Florida
legislators, and Mr.. Taliaferro is more ia
vorably regarded than he has been here
tofore This does not necessarily mean
that either one of them has victory as
sured or that either one is beaten. Another
week must pass before the balloting be
gins. and with couple of hundred of the
shrewdest politicians in the state on the
ground, about evenly divided and working
as never before the outcome is obscured
in uncertainty
There are 100 members Of the legislature,
and an entirely disinterested but very OBJ
serving state official stated TO the Morning
News representative this morning that he
was satisfied that neither PaSco nor Talia-
ferro could claim with certainty more than
thirty-fve votes
Ex-senator Call is here and can count on
ten or twelve votes to stand by him for a
few ballots. 1t is understood that the
Call people would prefer Pasco to Talia-
ferro. although Mr.. Call himself is very
bitter towards the senator. Pasco's adj
vantage. In short, lies in the facts that
he has been senator twelve years, and is
still in, and knows more about Florida pol
itics than Taliaferro does while Taliafer-
ro's advantage consists in his having made
no mistakes since the fight commenced in
earnest here a week ago and he has been
steadily gaining friends.