The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1910-01-02


bring to me a West Florida support
to be added to that which | was al
ready assured of getting, that will
doubtless be enough to give me
lead, west of the river, over all other
candidates. l am living in the west
ern part of Florida and the West Flor
ida vote can come to me without fail
ing in their loyalty to their section.
But above all / am Floridian. All
parts of Florida and all kinds of
F'loridians look alike to me.
There are two separate and dis
tinct lines of thought in this state,
covering all political and governmental
questions, and there are two separate
and distinct groups of people repre-
senting and affected by these two sep
arate lines of political and govern
mental thought. The first line of po
litical thought is, that the interests,
or those representing the interests
(meaning those who have by legisla-
tive grant acquired control of the pub
lie franchises, to which must be added
those who, by reason of special legis
lation, have gained control of the dis
tribution of commodities that every
man must have) should have the con-
troll and direction of all governmental
affairs placed in their hands.
The prophet of this line Of thought
is Mr.. Peter o. knight of Tampa, who
has declared repeatedly that the in
terests and the property should con-
troll in governmental affairs. The
apostles of this doctrine are the men
high in the councils and the direction
of affairs of the public service and the
great industrial corporations. The
captains of the forces of this line OF
thought are the managers of the prop
critics Of the great transportation and
commercial corporations. Mr.. J. r.
Parrot is conspicuously the man who
can be designated as this captain in
Florida. The captain has had an army
at his command and whether he will
now command in person or not, the
army is ready to follow where he has
formerly led.
The other line of political thought
is manifested in those who believe that
the Peep e. meaning all the people,
should rule; and that the only reason
for having government at all is that it
should be directed and controlled by
the people, and it's servants chosen by
the people, from the people; that those
men only should be chosen to office
who are knoU< by the people to be
best fitted to represent them all alike;
that equality of opportunity-which
does not mean equality of property,
but solely equality of opportunity, the
only thing true American could want
should be the rule in all govern
ments, and that the best vehicle to
carry and express these true principles
Of government is democracy.
These things being SO, and no man
who reads even small part of the
history of his time as expressed in
the current magazines and other pup
LEGATIONS. including the Congressional
Record, can doubt their truth, or that
the people are generally Informed
about them-the people will divide in
their support between the two men
left in the senatorial race who repre-
sent these two great divisions of po-
litical and governmental thought
AS To TaIiaferro.
THE first line of political thought
that I have described has a candi-
date who fills all the specifications
and requirements of it's captains, its
managers, it's foot soldiers and its
camp followers, in the person of Mr.
James Piper Taliaferro, the present
senator, whose term is about to ex-
pire. The votes of those who believe
in the first line of political thought.
and those who can be controlled or
persuaded by it's captains and manag-
ers. will go to Mr.. Taliaferro.
1T is my task to convince the peO-
for what l stand, that l am the one
whom those who believe that the peo-
pie should control the government
should select to carry out their ideas,
and on whom they should concentrate
their support, influence and votes.
These are the men whom money can
not buy, whom hirelings posing as po-
litical workers cannot influence, and
whom power as evidenced by the in
terests cannot scare.
Il have made a close canvass of the
entire state excepting three counties,
on my first trip, and i have made
a much closer canvass, on my second
trip, of those counties lying west of
the Apalachicola river. | have met
upwards of $4,000 men. Every calling
in life has been represented by the
people | have met. | have met poor
people, comfortable well-off people and
rich people. | have met farmers,
mechanics, day laborers, woodsmen,
merchants and professional men, and
| have not been Inundated by my
contact with them as a man, or as
candidate for the u. S. senate.
Il have not asked a single man to
vote for me, nor has my presence in
any community been figured as a So
licitation for a vote. l have told the
people that l was determined to owe
my election to everybody instead of
to somebody, and for that reason
was endeavoring to see everybody and
tell them for what | stand.
Il have pointed out to them that a
man cannot work for all the people
if he owes his election TO a few of the
people, and | have emphasized this
statement by referring to the senate
of the United States a majority of
whose members are elected by the
special interests. and to sample of
the legislation they turn out for the
benefit of the special interests, furn-
ished by the recent tariff bill. which
was enacted by the manufacturers of
New England. Pennsylvania and New