The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-03-03
MAKES REPLY
TO EDITORIAL
CRITICISM
CLAUDE L'ENGLE SAYS WEST
FLORIDA NEWSPAPER At
TEMPTED TO MlsREPREsENT
FAcTs-HiGHEsT PRAISE FOR
PENSAcOLA-HIS LETTER TO
THE NEWS.

The following communications are
self-explantory and need no comment:
February %, 1912.
Editor Pensacola Journal.
Pensacola, Florida.
Dear Sir: AS Mondays and Tues
days issue of the Pensacola Evening
News did not carry my letter to the
editor in reply to his recent double
column display editorial criticism on
me. and as the copy reached him In
time for Mondays issue, l am now
sending the letter to you with the re-
quest that you print it. / think that
am not asking too much from one OF
my brethren of the press when re-
quest that my reply to an editorial
criticism on me should be given pub
licity, particularly when that criticism
contained errors.
Very try yours.
CLAUDE L'ENGLE.
February "a. 1912.
Editor Evening News,
Pensa cola, Fla.
Dear Sir: Some one brought into
Lly Office today your Issue of Thurs
day, February %. Please accept this
as an expression Of my gratitude for
the kindness you did me in adding
publicity, as far IS your circulation
permitted you, to the things / had to
say In reply to your two former edi-
tcrial comments on my candidacy.
l would let it go at this If 1t were
not for the fact that your editorial zeal
to make out a strong case has tricked
you into forgetting some of the well
known facts about my work as an
editor of public journal owned and
controlled by me cad devoted to plain
and truthful speatang.
In the opening paragraph of your
editorial Of Thursday last l read the
expression that you were not permitted
to print my reply to your editorial but
had to get your news of 1t from the
columns of your morning contempt
xary. In choosing the medium to carry
my article in reply to your structures,
i acted like others do who desire to
give a thing publicity. l selected the
paper which has the largest circula-
tion in West Florida. / certainly have
no objection to your reproducing in
your editorial columns or elsewhere
what / may either say or write. In
fact, / like 1t. I will only pause long
enough to point out to you the ele-
mentary principle of editorial repro
duction of a previously published ar
ticle, which Is that true courtesy will
not permit one to pick up sentences
here and there and print them. leaving
out others, and by this convey a wrong
impression.
AS a sample of this, refer you Il
the paragraph you reproduced contain
ing my censure of the service that thu
T.. & n. Railroad Company to Pensa
cola, as well as the one in which
said that Pensacola had been imposed
upon by this corporation which hat
been the chief agency in retarding tn,
growth Of Pensacola. You stopped
right there and interjected your words
that you will not further circulate
more OF my damaging utterances. l
al nj he TNo 20 -oVOfa rTY
started in to print, those good peopl
in Pensacola and West Florida VIII,
read your paper and do not read TIL
Journal would have known that l pal,
very high tribute to Pensacola, b,
saying that II it had not been for tn
l.. g. N. tactics, Pensacola's natural re
sources and admirable situation woul'
have made it the second, If not tn
largest city In Florida.
/ repeat that II pointing out baJ
conditions in communities hurts them
] am going to hurt every communit,
in Florida that can find the bad con
diionS In.
You really went far enough to max
some positive misstatements befor
you wound up your last editorial d
me, because you say that / "disadver
tise" (Oh, what was Webster dom
that he could not find this wordD Pen
sacola by knocking it's train servict
and did not say anything about Jack
sonville having this train servict
although the same service reache
from one town to another, and that
did not say anything about Tallahassee
when printed a paper there. Lear
oh! young man, new to the editoria
chair, what everybody else in F1orid
has learned some years ago: / do no
stop to consider where my paper
printed, from whom / expect to ge
business to fill my advertising column:
or how my neighbors or friends ar
going to like It when start in to prin
the truth about public conditions.
You surely will remember that no
very long ago you attempted to ca
me down when I said that the trail
service between Jacksonville and Pen
sacola was bad, because I said tina
sometimes they get the coaches mike
one way and for white people tn
other. You told me yourself that yo
read my paper very carefully. There
fore. you must have seen that I mad
such row about the rotten condition
at the terminal station in Jacksonvill
recently that the Board of Trade too
1t up with a view to getting a neS
station built; and I have been maxim
such fuss about conditions generall
In Jacksonville that the people ar
demanding new charter.
When I was publishing a paper i
L the Q1SSTaCe1uIl
dirty condition of the cars on the c
+. & A. Railroad and the general ba
service, and the railroad commission
Issued an order calling on the railroa
to show cause why it did not keep il
cars clean and had me in as a witness
Everybody but you knows that
have been printing the stories abou
the reckless extravaganza OF the coun
~ commissioners of Duval county an
the bad condition of Jacksonville
streets and the mistakes and 'malad
ministrations of Jacksonvilles official
for months past in Dixie. Talkin
about saying nothing about the ba
facilities, / printed a story showin
that Jacksonville had but one doc
that could berth a ship drawing owe
twenty feet of water and by actua
soundings showed that Jacksonvill
was practically without terminal ia
cilities. The result of this was tina
the Board of Trade, through a sub
committee, has worked out a plan 70
municipal ownership of docks thu