The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1910-06-16
} . . . . o o . . q q q q q q 4
, THE TUG BOAT CAPTAIN
FOR u. S. SENATOR.
New York SUM-


The voters of Florida seem to have
belleVed the Hon. Napoleon Broward,
and not his political opponents who
charged him with acquiring $1,000
acres of land in the Everglades venal-
ly while serving the people as COVER
nor. The primary returns indicate
mat he will replace the Hon. James
PIPER Iallaferro as senator at Wash
ington- In the campaign that closed on
Monday the land deal of the retainer
or the camping ground of the Semi
noies was the great personal issue;
the tariff, the trusts, high cost of liv-
ing dwindled before 1t. The Hon.
Napoleon Broward pleaded that the
tract of swamp, saw grass, scrub pine
and ragged palmetto was legitimate
business commission which he had a
right to accept as citizen who hap
pened to be governor. The primary
has decided. The verdict is not guilty.
A closed incident
The name of the Hon. James Piper
Tal1aferro has not been conspicuous
in reports of senate debates recently.
The court of commerce bill was push
ed through without him. He has been
absent in the Peninsula looking after
his fences and contending with the ris-
ing Broward tide. Merely a banker
and man of business with a good edu-
cation, his case was probably hopeless
IN popular contest with the tugboat
captain. the battle SCARED commander
of the Three Friends. There was moth
/ ing in the career of Senator TaliaferTo
that stirred the imagination. He
could hardly expect to measure two in
dustrious and respectable terms in the
senate against the romantic struggle
upward from obscurity of the Hon. Na-
poleon Broward. Besides, Mr.. Taliarer-
70 was not son of Florida. He had
never Whitfield wateroak pins for the
raftsmen, or driven razorback hogs
through the scrub, or shipped as cook
and fireman on a st. Johns River pad
die steamboat. or f1shed ON the Great
Banks, or done his turn as a rousta-
bout, or run the Spanish blockade with
Cubans and remfngtons ond an ocean
going tug.
Napoleon Broward had done all
these things. this big, iron listed ma
tive SON." Towboat captain, filibuster,
wrecker, he had already tested the OPP.
portunities the primary system af-
fords. No orator he; just a plain,
homespun, pine wood F1oridian !;
against the trusts, of course, and the
tariff barons, and for state rights
every time, giving the people what
they wanted in straight talk. A can
didate for governor, I'm going to
stump every crossroads village be-
tween Fernandina and Pensacola" he
said, land talk to the farmers and the
Crackers and show them that their
top ends were meant to be used for
something better than hat racks
And so he became governor, and
began to reclaim the Everglades, tow
ering up as the great conservator who
would make cotton grow in the home
of the alligators, doubling the tillabl
soil of Florida. Tallahassee was too
confined for such a genius. Washing,
ton was his appointed field. The
writing was on the wall. Captain
Broward had tested the primary and
it was indicated in his person. Real
ly it was only a question of time
when the Hon. James Piper Taliaferro,
who was evidently not made of the
best primary timber, would have to re-
tire in his favor.