The weekly true Democrat. (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1905-1912, 1906-07-06
LETTER FROM
HON. w. B. LAMAR.
Makes q Correction In His Vote and
Has Another Say.
House Of Representatives U. s.,

Dear Sir: In the last issue of your
paper you give the vote for Mr.. Stephens
and myself in the late Congressional
primary You state that my majority
oyer Mr. Stephens is 1861 votes. You
evidently copied the statement first
printed in the Pensacola Journal, which
was erroneous and was afterwards cor
rectly printed in that paper. In the
statement you publish, you credit me
with only 229 votes in Jefferson county,
when my vote in that county was really
629 votes. This would make my major
ity 1851 votes over Mr.. Stephens in the
late primary; and that, ! think, is a very
good majority indeed. If you were
candidate for State printer in a Demo
cratic primary and were beaten by that
majority, l think you would consider
yourself as rather badly left in the race.
very active effort for a year past
was made in the Third Congressional
District against me on the Quiet by my
opponents, and ! had but two weeks to
canvass the district before the primary
And when / canvass the Third Con-
gressional District this fall and explain
to the people Of Leon county, and to the
people of the other counties, the money
they are losing by railway overcharges,
railway discrimination and railway over
capitalization, and the effort that have
made here for three years and recently
also TO have these gross abuses cor
rected, think my majority in the next
primary probably will be larger than it
was at the recent primary.
When the people of Leon county and
the Third Congressional District, and of
all Florida, and of all the United States,
find out fully and completely the full
extent to which they are imposed upon
and extorted from by railway over
charges and determinations, and espec-
tally over-infiation and over-capitaliza-
ton of railway values, they will be
thoroughly and justly angered at such
state of affairs; and when they fully |
and completely see the extent Of my
efforts here for three years past and
recently to get these abuses corrected, |
think they will sustain me in future
Congressional primaries. And even
though your paper is not favorable at
all to my candidacy for Congress, you |
will be compelled by the very nature of |
the facts and the showing to either |
throw your support in my behalf, or in |
thu scale for whoever will be placed .
against me as a Congressional competj- !
tor in the primary, backed by the rail-
way support.
This railway support means, prima-
rily, theGailway lawyers and the out
of-State railway influences, whose
hands though unseen, are nevertheless
felt in the politics of the Third Con-
gressional District and all over the State
of Florida. The other railway infiu-
ences that | allude TO, with some eXcep-
tions, are such persons as these railway
lawyers can control and influence, and
as many newspapers as they can impose
their views upon.
Tho railuouo of EloriJo
capitalized more than one hundred per
cent to the mile. The railways Of the
UnitedS States are over-capitalized in
the same way over one hundred per
cent 70 the mile. And upon this enor-
nous burden of fictitious stocks and
bonds, and of fraudulent imitation, the
people of Leon county and of every
other county in the Third Congressional
district, and of every other county in
the State of Florida, are paying az un-
just tribute in the way Of too high rail
way charges, They are paying divi-
dends on stocks and interest on bonds
owned by railways and those to whom
they have sold them, and one-half of
these railway bonds and railway stocks
is pure over-capitalzation and fictitious
value, having no just basis in law or in (
morals. The people will not always en-
dure this eXhaustlng taxation to pay in
terest on bonds and dividends on stocks I
by overcharges on passenger fares and :
freight rates Whatever candidate is !
put out against me will have the basis 4
of his support primarily in the offices 7
of the leading railway lawyers in the :
Third Congressional district A part Of {
my congressional service here has been {
in working for legislation that will cor :
rect these grave and enormous evils to |
the people of our district. {
] will be in Tallahassee in about a
week, and hope to bring with me DR..
Galloway, the chief of the Bureau Of
Plant Industry here. He will visit .
Gadsden county, If he comes to Florida, !
TO witness the tobacco growing there, ;
and hope TO induce him to Leon county
also and witness the tobacco growing in :
that county
In the course of two or three weeks a
pamphlet will be issued by the Depart
ment of Agriculture here, treating 81 the d
soils in Leon county and their adaptation r
to the different tobaccos, the filler and the h
wrapper leaf Accompanying this pam S
plet will be very fine map, in colors, v
Of Leon county. showing the location Of e
the different classes of land. 1t is also 4
a fine road map of Leon county. This v
soil survey was made in the past two i
years, and the pamphlet lie almost ready 2