The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1909-07-23
IS THIS STATE
REPUBLICAN,?
Tom WatsOn's JeffersOnian Asks
This Question in Last Issue
SHOTAT OUR SENATOR'S
Says They Have Followed Senator AldriCh
in a lambiike Way-Condemns Them
for Voting for Republican Tariff.

Asserting that the Florida Senators
have followed the beck and call of SEN
ator Aldrich and that they have betrayed
the Democratic party by their votes on
the tariff bill Tom WatsOn's Jefferson
ian this week hands out roast to Sen
ators TaliaferrO and Fletcher.
us Florida republican State? asks
the Jeffersonian. Judged by the record
being made by its two Senators, we
are compelled to answer, YES re-
plies Mr.. Watson's Magazine.
"Disgraceful and astounding as have
been the votes of many Southern Sena-
tors at the extra session of Congress,
no state has been so consistently Re-
publican, in it's Senatorial action as
Florida.
Other Southern states have occasion
ally had the pleasure of seeing both
their Senators break away from the
lead of the cynical old liar and Sound
REL Aldrich of Rhode Island.
But Florida has two men represent
ing her in the United States Senate
who have made record that is with
out break or blemish in its stalwart Re-
publicanism.
Fletcher and Taliaferro have followed
Rhode Islands Mary like two little
docile and affectionate lambs. Every
where that Aldrich went, the Florida
sheep were sure to 60. Every time
that Aldrich cried "Sheep! Sheep!
there went Fletcher and TaliaferrO,
tracking along after Lodge, Gallinger,
Hale, Smoot, Root and Depew bl.at-
ing with the Republican flock and
swelling the tuneful chorus of the stand
pat "Ba-a! Ba-a!!"
Upon my word it has been the most
astonishing, disgusting and shameful
spectacle that the extra session has
presented. Who elected these Florida
Senators, anyway? Whom do they
represent? In whose interest are they
voting?
One would think that the Democratic
party were dead in the Land of Flow
ers, and that the Republicans are in
full control.
When the lumber schedule was reached
Fletcher and Taliaferro both voted in
the interest of the Georgia Florida
Saw Mill Association, and against
everybody who has to buy lumber.
When the hides schedule came up, they
voted with the Packers Trust, and
against the millions who have to buy
shoes
Every citizen of Florida will have to
nav more to the GeOrgia-FlOrida Saw
Mill Association for timber and plank
and shingles because the Florida Sena-
tors refused to honor the Democratic
national platform and deserted to the
Republicans. Every man, woman and
child in Florida will have to pay more
for Shoes, because their two senator's
abandoned the principals of Democracy
and gave their votes to the dishonest
Northern Trust whose embalmed beef
poisoned our troops during the Spanish
war.
1t is a shame!
Are there no Democrats left in Flor
ida? Is there no man down there, who
will take up the fight for the people
whose interests have been foully be-
trayed by these two Senators?
1t is not pleasant to expose the be-
travail of the common people of the
South by their Democratic Senators,
but it is a duty, and we must not shirk
it.
Hides ought to be on the free list.
Not one farmer in thousand has any
to sell, and everybody has them to buy
The very man who has hide to sell
and who would therefore get few
cents more for it if tariff duty is
placed on it, will have to buy more than
one hide during the year in the pur-
chase of the shoes, belts, saddles, har-
ness, etc., which are made out of hides
and whose cost will be increased by
the tax on hides.
Who will get the lions share of the
benefit of the tax on hides? The meat
packers of Chicago, Kansas City and
St. Louis. These combined capitalists
are usually referred to as the Beef
Trust, and they are the main buyers
of the cattle that furnish the hides.
They control the market in buying
beeves and in selling meats. They will
not give the cattle breeder dime more
for his steer because of the hide duty.
They buy the animal by weight, and
the duty on hides will not make the cow
weigh q pound more.
Therefore, when we shut out the
hides of Central and South America ~
tariff duty we si"''S
Gomez zar wAnke