The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1910-08-26
NEW SENATOR
FROM FLORIDA
Hon. Duncan U. Fletcher Has Al
ready Become of AffIuenCe
IMPORTANT POSITION
Ills Selection as Member of the Balm
ger-Pinchot investigating Committee
High Compliment to His Ability.

1t is not often that q newly elected
member of Congress takes prominent
part in its most important deliberations
and there is no other one thing that
speaks as eloquently of his ability and
argues so well for his future usefulness
to the people who sent him there as that
his fellow members should select him
for appointment upon the most import.
ant Congressional special committee of
recent years.
The people of Florida are to be con-
graduated upon the record that Sena-
tor Duncan U. Fletcher has already
made in Congress. Within one year
from his first appearance in its halls. he
has won the recognition of Congress
for his ability, energy and fearlessness,
evidenced by his appointment upon the
special committee to investigate the
Department of the Interior and For
estry Service. When it is realized that
there were only six senators and six
Representatives upon the committee,
the selection being made from the
strongest men in both branches of Con-
gress, the compliment to Florida's junior
senator can be app eciated.
In addition to his work on this COM
mittee, attending two to four sessions
week, hearing evidence and arguments
in the celebrated "Ballinger-Pinchot"
Ease, he has taken prominent part in
the debate upon the tariff bill, discus
sing amendments which he offered to
the bill, particularly in regard to pine
apples and long staple cotton, demon
strating that the cotton manufacturers
of the East were demanding higher
duties (protection) on all manufactured
products and an additional 45 per cent
on all products made from our long
staple cotton, such as mercerized silks,
draperies and the like, while at the
same time, insisting that they should
get their raw material imported free Of
duty, thus forcing our Florida cotton
growers of long staple, to compete with
Egyptian cotton grown on the most
fertile land lin the Nile Valley by the
cheapest labor in the world. In this
debate Senator Fletcher earnestly up
held the interests of the people of his
state and section and exercised whole
some restraining influence upon the ar
rogant majority.
At the regular session, he secured a
special appropriation for investigating
the natural enemies of the white-hy
and actively co.operated with the other
members of the Florida delegation in
securing appropriations for the rivers
and harbors and public buildings, naval
stations. and Florida claims. The ap-
preparations of the bill carried over ST.
e. do ot
additional surveys looking to further
improvement of our waterways were
ordered. He also voted for all amend
ments to the Court of Com merce bill,
intended to give increased powers to
the Interstate Commerce Co mmission,
in the matter of regulating freight and
passenger rates and including express,
telephone and telegraph companies I'M
der their jurisdiction, thus giving in
dubitable evidence that his allegiance is
to the interests of the people and not
of the corporations, whose influence and
power were all used against this portion
of the bill.
In voting for the amendments to the
Postal Savings Bank bill intended to
keep the money in the communities
where it was made and prevent its con-
in the financial centers under
the direction of the trustees, he again
showed his loyalty to the interests Of
the people, rather than to the ''money
powers CT Wall street"
Senator Fletcher is also president o.,
the Mississippi to Atlantic Inland
Waterways Association, and has given
a great deal of effort and his money in
pushing the plans of the association to
a successful issue.
There is no other question now be-
fore the people that will 50 vitality affect
their prosperity as that project which
has been urged upon Congress by this
association. The construction of the
Florida Ship Canal and the connection
IF the great system of inland waterways
IF the Atlantic coast with those of the
Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi Valley
and the Great Lakes. would be the be-
ginning of an era of development,
progress and prosperity such as this
has never before seen, and it is
Tor such great movements as this that
Senator Fletcher stands ir-t and fore
most.
Duncan Upshaw Fletcher was born
n Sumter county. Georgia, January
9Th, 1859, his parents, Capt. Thomas j.
md Rebecca Ellen MCGOWAN Fletcher,
moved the following year to Monroe
county. Georgia. He was educated in
he country and preparatory schools
md Gordon Institute, GAINESVILLE, Ca,
md Vanderbilt University, Nashville,
Tenn, where he graduated in June,
1880, and studied law. Removing to
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