The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-12-22

nent fitness to serve the people Of
Florida as governor, and because OF
a long friendship on your part for me.
MANY. many times your influential
naper. for twenty years, gave me most
complimentary and helping mention.
But I could not think for minute
that you would enter the fierce and
extensive struggle for that office
And that is what it would mean-two
primaries. and much expense, is what
getting a high public office now
means. And this is justly inevitable.
Such a high office will naturally be
sought by many ambitious men. And
the legitimate expense of such a can
vas is great. If you won, then you
would lose. The salary for four years
would barely cover your numerous
expenses. And, at the end Of four
years, you would find your fine news
paper gone You would be compelled
to utterly neglect it; and your last
state. financially, would be your
worst, if that paper is the basis Of
your income.
So congratulate yourself, my good
friend, that you have the moral cour-
age to withstand the pleasing and
dazzling lure of politics.
Look at the most successful of pub
lie men: Samuel ]. Randall, dying, !.
leaving a family and less than twenty
thousand dollars; L. @. c. Lamar, U.
S. senator, secretary of the interior,
Justice of the United States supreme
court, dying, leaving four children
and an estate of less than twenty
thousand dollars.
Public office means attending to
public business. Private life meanss
attending to ones private business.
Henry ]. Lamar of Macon, Georgia,
banker, planter and druggist, died,
leaving more than a million dollars.
His children are wealthy, with the
luxuries that wealth commands.
In Washington City 1 knew a
young lady, the granddaughter of one
of Georgia's most eminent lawyers
and United States senators. She had
position in department of the fed
eral government, with a salary of
twelve hundred dollars a year, and
the head of the department was-a
negro. Her grandfather's law prac-
tice in Atlanta, Ga, was fifty thou
sand dollars a year. He threw this
away for ambition and the public
good The world honors his memory,
but this does not restore a possible
fortune to his family.
l do not write this to belittle public
office. My own experience in it was
too agreeable and too contributory to
my pride to be otherwise than held in
honorable remembrance. And l con-
tributed something to the public good
in the legislature Of 1871 helped
frame our state railroad commission,
law. In that legislature l introduced
the act that became a law fixing the
liability OF railroads to their emploE
es and the public, where both Sides
We're at fault, but the railroad the
more guilty of the two. AS attorney
general | recovered, by law suit, as
back taxes, more than $4,000 from
the Seaboard Air Line railroad (the
old F. c. & P. R. r., and it was paid :
into the state treasury. This was more
money than the state of Florida and
the United States government paid
me in salary as public officer for the
period of twenty-five years.
am now content, as you will be.
to be out of the turmoil and expense
OF public life.
still keep my residence in Flor
ida, but reside part of the time
In Atlanta, Georgia, where my wife
and | are building an Italian villa on
100 acres of woodland, like those that
we saw in sunny Italy in 1908. There
we expect to see you, and other
friends from Florida, as our guests.
There | will open TO you a bottle of
old Falernian wine, such as Horace
IN old Rome drank ct his Sabine farm.
and on its sparkling surface we can
see visions in its bubbles of the greaE
good you would have done as govern
or, and I, as United States senator. .
mad we been-elected.
Most sincerely yours.