The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1906-08-03

MIAMI SPEECH
Pays Tribute to Work Done by
Henry N. FlagIer.
THE GREAT BENEfACTOR
Possessed OF Large Wealth, Magnificent
Brain and Heart Pulsating With
Love for teliOwman."

Congressman Frank Clark made fine
speech down at Miami Wednesday, of
lust week, when that city was celebra-
ting her tenth anniversary, and there
was one feature of special excellence in
It which we and all citizens of Florida
can commend, says the Live Oak Dem
Ocrat.
Everyone knows what Henry NJ Flag
Ter has done for the East Coast; how he
has poured his millions into that section
and made il blossom as a rose, giving
homes and profitable employment to
thousands of people; and yet there are
public men and newspapers in Florida
familiar with these facts who seem
afraid to commend the man and his
work because he Is in the multimillion-
are class. and to give him the praise,
the simple justice he deserves might
arouse the prejudices of the great
masses supposed to be at all times hos
tile to the fortunate few who have ac-
cuilluldteu ~ IlucI VI tHc WOIiu
wealth. But Frank Clark, Democratic
congressman, orthodox to his finger
tips and in full touch with the plain
people of Florida, is troubled with no
fears of that character. He renders
unto Flagler the things that are Flag
ler's, including praise for his great de-
velopment work on the Fast Coast, and
in his Miami speech, he had the follow
ing to say, which, coming from such a
source, will be an effective rebuke to
the narrow, prosecriptive spirit which
seeks to dictate our opinions to us and
arouse and array prejudice against II
man merely because, in the pursuit of
wealth, he got there and We didn't:
"In your great work of development
and evolution, as is always the case,
there is one central figure, one chief
factor, one person who by reason of his
circumstances or environment is able
to contribute more to the common good
than any other one individual. In the
case of Miami this one individual to
whom we are more indebted than to
any other one person for the upbuildng
of this beautiful city and the entire
eastern coast of Florida is Henry M.
Flagler.
Possessed of large wealth, endowed
with magnificent brain, and evidently
blessed with heart pulsating with love
for his felowman, he saw the great fu-
ture possibilities of this region and in
voked the power of his millions to bring
into being the undeveloped resources of
the land, to expose to view the beau
teous landscape of this hitherto mac
cessibe Eden, and to make possible the
building and maintaining of thousands
of prosperous homes. The results of
this generous and enterprsng action
are today seen along the whole eastern
shore of Florida, from Jacksonville to
Key West, and before many moons
shall wax and wane' the snort of the
iron horse will be heard in the island
City of Florida, and the greatest feat
of railroad building in the world will
have been accomplished. Henry M.
Flagler, for what he has done and is
doing for our fair Florida, is entitled to
the gratitude of this people and right
richly has he deserved the plaudit, "Well
done, thou good and faithful servant. "
"My friends. as you know, am in
politics, and know full we'll that there
will be in Florida some souls SO small
that my poor tribute to Mr.. Flagler will
be used against me. expect this, but
let me tell you something: If the day
ever comes when am too cowar'ly to
render to whom honor is due for fear
that may lose the favor of some meas
lev, "two-by-four" street-corner poll
tician, then ought to be kicked out of
the field of politics with scant ceremony.
despise the selfish, misery rich. |
condemn and loath the criminal rich.
But the man of vast wealth who ex-
ponds his means in building up the
waste places among US, and for the bet
terment of mankind, is benefactor Of
the race and deserving of our common