The Savannah morning news., 1902-05-19
THE CAMPAIGN IN FLORIDA.
THE CANDIDATES FOR THE LEAD
ING OFFICES.

ple-The Contest for the once OF
Secretary of State-The Men Who
Want to Be Railroad Commission
ers-The Arguments Presented in
Their BehaIf-Other Matters OF
General Interest.
Tallahassee, May 1s-The political
situation in Florida has changed some
what within the past two weeks. Sen
ator Mallory continues to have no OPP
position for reelection to the United
States Senate and the final limit for
a candidate to enter the field is the
first of June.
The congressional situation is I'M
changed in the First and Second dis
tricts Sparkman and Davis have no
opposition. In the Third district the
fight continues warm. Myers and La
mar have both been speaking in the
west the past two weeks.
The two largest meetings of the past
week were at Mariana and Madison.
Myers spoke at Mariana on the 10th
at a big fish fry given by his friends
there and Lamar spoke at big pic
mic given near Madison by his friends
at that place.
Both candidates also spoke at Craw-
fordville in Wakulla county Monday.
The Executive Committee Of the
Third district met in this city yester-
day, and elected J. F. c. Griggs of
Apalachicola, chairman. Griggs is a
Myers man but no significance is at
tached to his election. There was moth
ing to be gained in the election of a
chairman of the Congressional Com
mittee. Griggs was nominated by a
Lamar man.
The settlement of the labor trouble
in Pensa cola this week was a signal
victory for Lamar. The dispute was
over the scale of wages paid by the
Daily News of that city Ga Lamar pa
per-. The local Typographical Union,
composed of friends of Myers. expelled
the News printers from the union and
ordered the union label withdrawn from
the paper, but the order of the repre-
sentative of the National Union. who
investigated the case this week, COM
PEELED the local union to restore the
News men to membership and to allow
the use of the Union label on that
paper. This was a great victory for
Lamar, from the fact that Myers sup
Z
against him to the effect that the Off
cial organ of his campaign in Escam-
bia county was fighting the unions.
Hon. John S. Beard of Pensacola, the
third candidate for Congress from this
district, opened his campaign at Milton
in Santa Rosa county, Monday night
He spoke to a large audience and the
greater part of his speech was devoted
TO discussing Myers record in the State
San1fa a..
Tallahassee and was here at the meet
ing of the executive committee yester-
day.
For the position of Secretary of State
a new Richmond has entered the field
in the person of Senator James. E.
Broome of Gadsden county. Senator
Broome has served many years as state
senator from Gadsden. He is a man
that is looked upon as a hard tighter
and an able debater. Hon H. Clay
Crawford, the present incumbent, is an
appointee of Governor Jennings, and
has only held the office a few months
He is son Of the late John L. Craw-
1ord. who was Florida's Secretary of
state for twenty-one years, and his son
Clay is a chip off the old block The
present secretary is thoroughly compe-
tent to fill the position and has for sew
eral years been the acting secretary.
He has a wide circle Of friends among
the prominent men of the state.
The race for controller is unchanged.
A. c. Groom of Brooksville, the pres
ent official and 1. ]. Mccall of Jasper
are the aspirants. 1t is a foregone
conclusion that Groom will be elected.
He has made a good record during his
short term of Office and he is also an
appointee of the Governor. two good
rtNNr ~ II.
position.
The race for justice of the Supreme
Court, to fill the office to be made va
cant by the retirement of Justice
Mabry, is going to be a close one. and
1t is hard to tell which of the two
candidates have the best chance. Judge
Joseph B. Wall of Tampa and Judge
William A. Hooker of Ocala are the
candidates. Both are good men and
have made splendid records as circuit
judges in this state. Judge Wall is at
present the presiding judge of the
Sixth judicial circuit, while Judge
Hooker has just left the bench in the
fifth circuit to serve as a commissioner
of the state Supreme Court The enc
mics, or some of them, of Judge Wall
have brought the charge against him
that he bolted the Democratic ticket
in 1896 and supported the Palmer and
Buckner ticket. This charge, instead
of injuring the Tampa jurist, has help
ed him. The matter of a judge voting
for a Gold Democratic ticket has not
much to do with his duties as a jurist
and the statement brought against the
judge has done him no harm. Neither
of the candidates will make a canvass
of the state, and the result will GER
tainly be one of where the best man
wins.
One of the most interesting contests
before the people is the election of
two railroad commissioners. OF the
three commissioners, Morgan, Day and
Bryan, the two latter have to stand
for reelection. Day, who is the
present chairman of the commission. is
a candidate for reelection, but Bryan
will not enter the race, preferring to
retire to private life.
Henry E. Day of Gainesville is one of
the original commissioners appointed
by Gov. Bloxham. He was appointed
as the representative of the railroads,
but since he has entered upon the dis
charge of his duties he has made such
an able and fair minded official that
he has won the confidence of both the
railroads and the people. He is,
therefore, almost certain of reelection.
John G. Ward of Pensacola is an as
pirant for the position and claims that
West Florida is entitled to a represen-
tative on the commission. He has
strong backing in this section of the
state and will poll a tremendous vote,
though IL is uncertaIsq what his vote
will be in other sections of the state.
His friends claim that he has a strong
following in the other sections, and If