Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1913-01-24
Marbury Out For Lee.

Marbury, who managed the primary cam
paisn for Gov. Wilson last spring, declared
that in his opinion Senator Blair Lee, by
reason of his progressive course in Mary
land, is the progressive candidate par ex-
cellence for the seat in the United States
Senate made vacant by the death of Isidor
Rayner.
( Mr.. Marbury regards it as of serious i'm
portance to the people of the State that
Mr.. Lee should be kept in public life and
that it is vital to the success of President
elect Wilson's administration that it should
have the cordial support of majority in
the United States Senate at the beginning.
Mr.. Marbury said
81 am for Blair Lee.
81 am free to say that when there are
other good Democrats in the field. or who
may become candidates, it is really painful
to have to make a choice. Yet the choice
must be made. There is no escape from
that, and my best judgment is, after con-
sidering the subject from every point of
view, that Senator Lee is the man the
men who want to see the Wilson admins
tration success ought to support for the
United States Senate to fill the vacancy
caused by the death of Senator Rayner.
congressman David ]. Lewis and Frank
o. Smith have in their recent interviews
stated the reasons so fully that they scarce
ly need to be repeated. They have pointed
out the fact that for the last s or 10 years
Senator Lee has devoted himself to pro-
noting legislation in the interest of the
public to greater extent than any man
in this State, with the possible exception
of the late Governor Crothers, and by his
record typifies the Wilson cause itself.
am in peculiar position to sustain what
they have so well said.
Last spring, at Governor Wilson's re-
quest, undertook the-to me-extremely
difficult task of acting as his campaign
manager in the primary fight. The year
before Senator Lee had made probably the
most remarkable campaign for Governor
this State had ever known. Standing upon
his record for progressive measures in the
State Senate, he had appealed directly to
the Democratic voters, with the result that
he was defeated by only one vote in the
State convention. In that campaign he
carried is out of the 20 counties and
showed a militant following in practically
every voting precinct in the State.
THAT he and his supporters then rep
resented the ideas now known in the ma
ton as the Wilson ideas was demonstrated
by the fact that they fell in solidly behind
Mr.. Wilson in the primaries last spring
and enabled him to carry the same coun-
ties that Lee carried, with few excep-
tons, and added to the Wilson column
three additional counties which Lee had
lost, but in which he had great strength.
Il do not hesitate to say that, with the
progressive record of Mr.. Clark. his per-
sonal popularity, his long standing promi-
nence in public life and the organized
forces behind him on the one hand and
the lack of funds for the Wilson fight and
the shortness of the campaign, headed as
it was by one of my inexperience, on the
other, no respectable showing could have
been made for Governor Wilson in this
State but for Senator Lee and the element
he represented
in my judgment, when Blair Lee. not
withstanding the position of his own COM
ty, came to the front in that emergency
and presided at the Lyric meeting with
Governor Wilson, he took his place as the
unmistakable leader of the Wilson forces
of this State. and would like to see every
Democrat in Maryland who wishes to see
the Wilson administration a success rally
to his standard.
ITO my mind, it is really matter of
serious importance to the people of Mary
land that he should be kept in public life,
where there is now room for him. He has
rendered great service to the people OF
this State, and for one feel grateful to
him for what he has done for us, and
would like to see him given the opportunity
to do more
81 have occasion to know how the peo-
pie OF this State, the masses of the Demo-
cratic party, feel toward Senator Lee be-
cause of the public service he has rendered
Il remember, for instance. one night dur
ing the summer Of 1911, when Senator Lee
was candidate for the Democratic nomi-
nation for Governor, | was on. little
motorboat with Governor Crothers, going
down ST. Clements Bay, in ST. Nary
county, after speaking at a meeting up in
the woods there. When some one asked
the young fellow who was steering the
boat which candidate he expected to vote
for. Why said he, I shall vote for Mr..
Lee, Of course. If II had not been for
Mr.. Lee. there would be no primary law
under which could vote for a candidate
for Governor. and think il would be q
mean thing to use the law he gave us to
beat him with.
But that is not all. II is vital 10 the
success OF the wilson administration that
he should have the cordial support of a
majority in the United States Senate in
the beginning Of his administration. I'm
der conditions now existing in the Senate
every vote will count. The Senator to be
elected from Maryland for the short term
will take his place Immediately upon his
election The question Of the success or
failure Of the Wilson administration will
probably be decided by that Congress.
For these practical reasons, il seems to
me that Lee is the man who should be put
forward for the short term.
Il believe there are thousands Of men
who, while like myself chained to the
course Of laborious business or profession,
are unable to enter the arena Of public life
themselves, will yet give their hearty sup
lr.r.w 40. L. 4