Bradford County telegraph. (Starke, Fla.) 1888-current, 1910-10-14
Pensacola, Fla, Oct. 8. 1910.
HoN. E. s. MATTHEW'S,
Starke, Fla.

Pensacola, Fla, Oct. 3, 1910.
HoN. E. s. MATTHEW'S,
Starke, Fla.
MY DEAR SR:
Ihave BEEN absent from the state for
thirty days. Just before leaving, along
during my absence and since nay return
home 1 received letters from friends who
have been nominated for members of
the next House of Representatives. in
some instances enclosing your letter and
in others quoting from what you had
written, the paragraph in each being
practically the same and reading about
as follows:
II am informed that Mr.. jennings,
after making a very active campaign,
finds himself many votes short of the
necessary number to elect him Speaker
of the House. This would seem to in
dictate that the majority of the members
wish some one else and q number of my
friends seem to think can win, and l
have decided to make al active cam
paign for the position"
Just how and by whom you have been
informed that 1 have made an "active
campaign" and that 1 find myself
many votes short of the necessary
number to elect" am at a loss to un-
derstand. assure you that your in
formation is incorrect have not made
an active campaign otherwise than by
letters and have not been out of Escam-
bia county in the interest of my race.
Neither have 1 had any one else to take
any trip for me, nor has any one taken
any such trip to my knowledge. do
not find myself "many votes short Of the
necessary number to elect" but on the
other hand more than q majority Of
those who will be members Of the next
House of Representatives have commit
ted themselves to my support. If shall
not be elected 1t would be because some
of the members will change their minds
and not vote as they have promised. ]
do not believe any of them will do this.
This letter is written for the purpose
Of correcting q wrong impression under
which you seem to be laboring. shall
leave it entirely to you as to whether
Won will correct the statement that you
have made. shall in the mean time,
however, favor my friends with copy
Of this letter.
Iremain, with assurances of high es-
TEEN,
Very truly yours,
T. A. JENNINGS.
MATTHEW'S MAKES REPLY.
Starke, Fla, October l3, 1910,
Hon. T. 4. JENNINGS,
Pensacola, Fla.
Ny DEAR Mr. JENNINGS:
In replying to your letter of 81 inst
allow me first of all to congratulate YOU
upon the deft manner in which you
have. upon very slight pretext or provo
cation, placed before the nominees fol-
the House of Representatives, YOU
claim that a majority of such nominees
have committed themselves to vote fol
you for speaker. This is an old mAneuv
: er in politics, practiced for time out o.
memory by candidates with ambitions
ranging all the way from the office o.
constable up to that of president. 4
claim of this kind is commonly supposed
to make the opposition lie down and q
one and the same time bring voters il
droves to the standard of the candidate
making it-something of double-head
er, so to speak For this reason it il
held in very high regard by some poll
ticians, but do not remember to have
=, seen any one handle it with such finesst
as you have shCwn. know that AM
effort along this line that may hav'
made or that l might now make wOulC
seem unfinished and crude beside thi
letter of yours. and l shall, therefore
deny myself of the satisfaction that
. might naturally be expected to deriv
from retorting that it is 1, not You, VIII,
:, have majority of the nominees pledges
on the speakership.
Your statement that you have no
, made an active campaign, that You hav
had no one to take any trip for you, bu
that you have majority of the nom
inees pledged to your support, couple
with the intimation in the closing para
=. graph of your letter that it is incumben
upon me to retract certain statement
made By me on information, seems {
: me to be equivalent to suggesting that
rush ont q letter to our future colleague
informing them that everything is a
II srranged-thst you have had the speal
n ership handed to You on q silver platter
,, etc., etc. This doubtless appealed
d you as q fine bit of strategy, and it
II too bad that am so intractable as I
d refuse to fall in with the plan. Lea
n not accommodate you for reasons 70
10 lowing:
5, First and foremost was not laborin
under q wrong impression when 1 wro
the letter from which You have quotes