The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-02-21
BOOSTS THEOP. WEST FOR
PRESIDENT OF SENATE
Writer Tallahassee Sun Discussing Politics and Poll
ticians, Tells of Slate Making and Other
Matters of Interest

hassee Sun:
Proverbs are good things, and as
they are the carnations from bright
minds, brought forth by hard work,
they are generally true
Don't you ever think that proverbs,
OF anything else that's worth reading
or preserving are dashed off in an
idle half-hOuT
They are ground out by main
strength and are trimmed, primed and
rewritten, gone over a hundred times,
then boiled down and oftentimes
changed entirely before they are Civ
en- out as the scintillating thoughts
of genius.
The Latins had a proyerb I'm Vino
Veritas,'' which being treated to a
| liberal and twentieth century transla-
ton means that a man speaks the
! truth when he is full.
This, of course does not refer to
| JEFF Browne, because jeff drinks tea
| in the morning and water the balance
of the time he deyotes to drinking.
| There were a few drinks drunk at the
banquet which jeff gave at the Leon
| Hotel Just before his departure from
Tallahassee and may be the effect OF
| seeing others drink operated on Jen.
because he surely did enuncfate
truth in his speech Of welcome and
| farewell.
He said that one evil Of the primary
system was that it enabled few men
| to get together and fix up slate, and
by sheer force of sticking together
these few men oftentimes actually
dominated successful candidates for Of
fee; by this state of things the selec-
ton of candidates was reduced to even
narrower limits than by the old con-
ventiOn system.
AS / said, there's lots of truth in
this Some of us have seen 1t done
and all of US have seen the effect of
1t after it has been done.
Slate Making.
Now and then, though, there comes
along a man who treats these slate
makers to a jar, the result of which
is the breaking of the states.
Just the other day a man was tell
ing me about one of these little pri-
Vate Office conventions, at which was
gathered a busy little bunch Of slate
makers who had done this same stunt
before
don't know how this man got wise,
l don't even know whether or not he
is wise, but here's what he said:
The corporation crowd got TO-
! eether last week in Jacksonville and
decided who was going to hold the
principal Offices to be voted for in
the next primary They framed it
up this way:
Bob Davis for governor, Walter
Kehoe for congressman from the
Third district, Frank Clark for con-
gresham from the Second district,
Frank Adams for United States sena-
tor, and Steve Sparkman and JEFF
Browne to hustle, each man for him
| self, to cop out the job of congress
man from the First district.
''This program may be changed q
little, provided the corporation crowd
succeeds in landing Hunt Harris in
the presidents chair of the next FLOR
ida senate. If they win out for Hunt,
and if Hunt doesn't make any very
bad breaks, they may stake him for
race to congress against Sparkman
and the field.
All this talk about Grill and John
Watson carrying corporation colors
in the great gubernatorial handicap
next spring is what the Irishmen call
fapdoodle, which, as everybody knows
is the stuff they feed fools on
, Bob Davis is the man who will go
to the post with the most wise money
on him because he'll be the man who
will wear the green and yellow col
Ors of the dollar crowd The corpora
tons have lot of money invested in
Our Bob as a candidate and they
just naturally hate to see a bunch of
money like this thrown away.
The fact that they have picked out
Frank Adams for senator doesn't
mean that they are particularly
anxious to have him. because Adams
is not the kind of man the corpora
lions usually pick out They general
ly select a more easy going statesman
than Frank Adams would prove to be.
It means that they have come to
Adams instead Of Adams going to
them. in the hope of gaining strength
for their other candidates by bunch
ing them with his vote-getting propo-
sitipn from Hamilton county,
Frank Clark Uncertain.
This wise boy from whom | have
quoted may be dealing in straight
goods as far as reporting what he
heard goes. but l am inclined 10 be
lieve that the corporation slate max
ers are going TO have trouble with
Mr. Frank Clark As I said a short
while ago, Frank has a well developed
faculty of allowing the corporation
papers TO play him up as the real
political candy. tissue wrapped and
gold string tied, and then announcer
for the Office that he wants. and max.
ing the corporation crowd like it.
The successful pulling of of this
little corporation program depends
upon whether they are going to be
able to keep Frank Clark in line
always provided. of course. that gen
u