The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-05-20
NTHE FASHION OF MUDsLINGING'

1.-THE FASHION OF hCDsLINUiNO
Under the above head, the Times
Union publishes an elegant little Sun
day sermon. so prettily worded that We
can't help wishing il was all true. The
T.-U. begins by saying:
From time out of mind we have
heard of the mud and mire of politics
though those who talked about it years
ago did not know how muddy and miry
politics could become"
Surely, they are all very young men
on the Times-U Union. The editor OF the
Star has not reached his half century
mark, but he can remember the cam
paigns back to 10 and when he thinks
of the charges thrown and the eplthetS
slung at Tilden and Hayes, at Hancock
and Garfield. at Cleveland and Blaine
and Harrison. even those clean and up
right men, Bryan and Mckinley, the
present campaign seems almost lady
like.
The Times-Union goes on TO say:
ut has become the fashion for men to
run for office not on their own records
or on their own merits but on the re-
cords or dement's of their rivals. 1t
would not be as bad as it is if the re-
cords or the claims of the rivals We're
stated thuthfully but they are general
ly stated without regard for truth"
Very true. most esteemed contem-
porary; il became the fashion in the
streets of Carthage. Athens and Rome,
more than twenty-five centuries ago.
when pointed arguments generally
hardened into steel blades and verbal
mud solidified into javelins before the
campaign was over. You may more
accurately say it is becoming, very
slowly becoming, the fashion for men
to appeal to reason with reason, and
that while there is yet immense room
for Improvement there is not quite SO
much as. there was a score or even a
dozen years ago
But in the classic folds of this
deliberately word woven article Of the
T.-U. was wrapped up a rebuke for
LEngle, the bold, bad Claude, the only
man in this Florida campaign accused
of singing mud. In the words of the
wireless, the message ends with the
following highly moral precept
when candidate makes charges
against his opponent the people &c
whom he appeals ought to make him
prove them or if he fails ought tc
trustworthy No fair minded mar
should vote for a candidate who in
dulges in improved abuse of his oppon-
ent. Men who make a habit of this
should be taught that it does not pay
Certainly they should not be rewarded
with the confidence of their fellow citi-
zens"
This, you see is yelled, but no
too thickly yelled, rebuke to the coarse
rough Claude for the rude things ht
has said about the gentle and polished
Mr. Toomer The deuce of it is tina
if Claude had said anything about Mr.
Toomer that is so, you need not eXpec
the T. L. to rebuke Mr.. TOomer. Oh
not That isn't what its there for.
For Instance: Claude LEngle says
"Mr. Toomer forgot to tell that he wa
a paid lobbyist of the Jacksonville race
track during the last session of tht
legislature. Ask your 1911 Legislative
representative to confirm this"
Our 1911 representative could no
entirely confirm this, for he saw NJ
money paid Mr. Toomer, and of cours
1t is possible to say, tho nobody woult
believe it, that Mr.. Toomer appeared
for the racetrack interests from purel!
ahruistic motives. But appear he did
o as a dozen men in this quiet little cit!
can testify, and made a speech agains
the anti-racetrack bill before the judi
ciary committee of the House of Rep
resentatives. such speech being mad
in the hall of the House in the capito
at Tallahassee, in the presence of hun
dreds of people. and duly reported t.
the press of the state; the Times
Union among other papers.
x-in hat
watermelon that the Times-Union viii
not admit that this charge is proven
or. if it prefers. this COB of mud ha
stuck. And there are others.
Not near so elegantly, but mucl
more accurately. is the subject of mud
singing dealt with by the sometime
erratic but always outspoken Alder
N. Williamson. He says:
1.-The most colossal liars ever fount
in a political campaign are those wh'
declare they are not Singing mud
This old pot-metal gag has become alb
solutely nauseating under the nOstril
of the decent people who are forced Il
read it in our daily papers. The voter
OF the state have a perfect right t
know who they are asked to support
and it is the duty of every lover of
decent government to tell whatever h
may know of the shortcoming tn
qualifications of every aspirant 70
public office. The men who howl tn
Ioudest against mud singing ar
made OF the same material of the COW
ard who would shoot down a man an,
then run when he saw that his victim
also had a gun. We have no tolera
ton for such hypocrisy. If man i
unwilling TO have his record exposed t
the public, he has no right TO ask tn
suffrage of his people"