The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1912-05-31
FAIRY TALES
FROM PALhTKA
Will be Used to Help ROOse-
welt Get Nomination.

Palatka, which endorsed President
Taft, was irregular, on the ground
that his negro supporters were bar
red from the convention hall, after
being tricked into leaving to refresh
themselves with soft drinks.
In asking that Florida delegates IA
vorable to himself, be seated at the
national Republican convention, which
meets in Chicago, June IS, he will
allege that when the state conven-
ton recessed at Palatka, admission
cards were given to Taft supporters,
while those known to be unfavorable
to the president failed to secure
pasteboards.
When they returned to the hall
they were in the same position as the
foolish virgins, who had forgotten
their oil and were barred from the
marriage feast.
Upon reassembling, the Republican
office holders, both white and black,
and such other Taft supporters as
they could corral, jammed through
resolutions endorsing the president,
and adjourned before the Roosevelt
delegates could regain admission to
the hall.
At subsequent convention held in
this city, Saturday, May Is, by the
Progressive wing of the Republican
party, Roosevelt was unanimously en-
dorsed. Six delegates and six alter
mates were elected, to attend the Chi
cago convention and instructed to
vote for Roosevelt first, last and all
the time.
On the same day, the Republican
conventions of the Second and Third
Congressional districts met here and
elected two delegates and two alter
mates, each with similar instructions.
Attorney Herbert l.. Anderson, who
has been in the forefront of the
Roosevelt battle in Florida, was elect
ed national committeeman, to contest
for the position of Henry C. Chubb,
who represents the Taft wing Of the
party in this capacity.
Acting under the personal orders of
Theodore Roosevelt, under whom he
served as a detective in New York,
when Teddy was police commissioner,
J. e. Burgess, principal of the eMtro-
politan Detective Agency, of this city,
sent operatives to Palatka to investi-
gate alleged threats and violence, to
which negro supporters of the former
president were said to have been sub
jected.
These Investigations indicate that
while Sheriff Kennerly of Putnam
county is alleged to have kanted to
forcibly eject negro supporters of
Roosevelt from the hall, he was re-
strained from doing so by party lead
ers with cooler heads. The scheme of
inviting the negroes out to take
drin kand keeping them out was then
Matched.
From Mrs. KalbiieId, who wrote the
convention proceedings for Jackson
vile morning paper, detective secured
the following statement:
81 was requested TO write up the oon.
vention and did so, giving a correct yer.
sion OF the proceedings. | told how the |
Roosevelt delegates had been railroadcd |
out, after being refused permission TO
speak or take any part in the usual bust
ness of the day.
"Joseph Lee, the negro collector of
internal revenue, at Jacksonville, ran |
the convention like king, and would |
not permit a Roosevelt delegate TO par
ticipate. When a Roosevelt delegate |
arose TO speak, he was either hooted |
down or Lee would advise him it was
not time for him TO speak. Lee would |
tell him that he could speak after
awhile, but the time never came. The
Roosevelt delegates were always de-
clared 10 be out OF order"
Mrs Kalblield also related TO the de-
tective the manner in which Roosevelt |
delegates were tricked into leaving the |
hall.
Lee is reported to have stated in his
speech that the white men wanted his |
position as collector of the port of Jack |
sonville and that if Mr. Taft were not |
reelected and Roosevelt won the nomi- |
nation, that the only good, lucrative |
Federal position held in the State of
Florida by one of his race would go to a
white man.
He is said TO haye urged the negroes
10 hold together as race, irrespective
of party, and to have told them the po-
sition he now held had been secured by
doing what he was told and letting the
men "higher up" run things.
The above story has been going the
rounds of the press of the country and
has so alarmed the administration sup
porterS that they are securing aiiidavilS
from persons who were in the conven-
ton TO refute them.
A representative of the Palatka News
was spectator at the convention, and
he is sure that the "Soft drink" tale is
wholly untrue. In fact The story is pre-
posterouS. Think of cnticing over a |
hundred negro delegates from a state
convention with the promise of drink
of fiZz water.
There was no general bolt from the
convention as reported in the Times
Union the following day. The conven-
ton was regular. Only delegates were
admitted TO the body OF the hall because
of its limited seating capacity, although
alternate negro delegates clamored for
admission and were sore because they
were not. They felt that they had
rights.
Three negroes, Powell of Jackson
vile, and PoSey and Robinson of Pa
latka, tried TO kick up disturbance but
they were squelched in a parliamentary
manner; after which they left the hall.
There was an undoubied undercurrent
of feeling among the negro delegates
in favor of Roosevelt Why mott Had
he not wined and dihed Booker Wash
ingtou at the White House? But this
undercurrent fonnd no expression; il
didn't know how. The convention
was smoothly managed by Joe Lee the
negro chairman-wh is an expert par
linnnnninrinn-nnd his urhitn assisianls