The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1913-06-24
CLAUDE ISN'T eONTR|IE
Is just as Independent and Out
spoken and Unrepentant
as Ever

L.
giles last Washington letter to Dixie
shows that the anvil chorus has had
no effect on this outspoken man, who
the people of Florida sent to Con-
gress principally because he showed
that he had the independence
to blaze trail of his own instead of
following the beaten paths in jour-
|nalism and politics:
If the cuckoo press gang in Flor
ida-those boys l mean who, either
by the consent of the owners or be-
cause they just naturally like to
travel the easy road, are allowed to
run the owned, controlled and scar
ed papers, should find anything to
approve of in my way of doing things
would begin to suspect myself If
they should learn to love me enough
to print about me the slop that they
have printed about public men who
don't do anything to displease the
interests, l should begin to hate my
self, which, just to beat Stowe or
Stoneman to it, l will say would
be- "a complete reversal of form"
Somewhere about the middle of
last week a patriotic citizen of Flor
ida happened to be in my office, and
drawing up his chair close to mine
so close that even the stenographer
couldn't hear him-told me that
some of the papers in Florida were
printing mighty mean things about
me, and that / ought to do something
to stop it.
After he got through whispering,
talked out loud, and I told him that
the plute papers had been chewing
on my name for six years and that
the anvil chorus had always been
ready and willing to work overtime
to put the kibosh on me; that the
peon press had been improving every
opportunity it had to lie and misrep-
resent and to manufacture outright
in their desire to print anything
that would put me in bad
/ told him that it did not sur
prise me or jar me a little bit to
know that the boys were at it again.
On the contrary, it satisfied me that
was doing, and talking and writing
the same way in Washington as had
done, and talked, and written in
Florida. | reminded him that the
people of Florida seemed to like
what / did, how / talked, and the
way l wrote enough to favor me with
more than twice as big a majority
as they ever gave anybody else who
asked for their endorsement at the
polls.
1t is true that young Herbert Fell
kel, whom Albert Jennings lets run
a paper for him and the plutes, and
middle-aged Stoneman who was con-
verted in a single day from a fol-
lower and beneficiary of the Stock
on-Broward-Barrs brand of politics
to that with the hallmark of a big
voice OF the East Coast r. r. who
represented politically and financial
ly ''he who must be obeyed''-since
gathered to his fathers-have dis
covered and have made as much to-
do about it as they can by printing it
in their well regulated columns that
l. in Washington, as the represen-
tative of the people of Florida, have
not blindly followed the leaders of
the party, nor anyone else, and that
have antagonized certain people.
These papers and the little ones
like McCreary's, and Jordan's, and
genial Genes, and some more, could
not print anything at all about me
unless they would, as they sometimes
have done, manufacture it outright
without carrying the news to their
owners and bosses that / refused to
follow the leaders of my party or
any other kind of a leader, when i
thought the leaders going in the
wrong direction. | did this when Mr..
Underwood opposed the resolution
for an open session of the demo-
cratic caucus. There were eighty
four of US members of that dem
ocratic caucus who refused to follow
this lead.
These same papers surely did not
think that they were printing any
news when they said that l had an
tagonized most of the Florida dele
CATION. / have been antagonizing
the legislative ideas of Congressman
Sparkman and Clark for long time,
and | don't hesitate to antagonize
Senators Bryan and Fletcher when
ever they act like they did in the
Florida custom service matter. Or
when the junior senator tries to pre-
vent the appointment of a good dem
ocrat for no other reason than that it
viii hurt him politically, and that
the Pensacola News and the Times
Union viii jump him about it.
/ did not antagonize the junior
senator when he took the position he
did with the Peerless. / was foolish
enough to run the risk of antagoniz-
ing the Peerless, just because /
thought the senator was right and
the Peerless was wrong. Nor will
antagonize the rest of the delegation
when they act for the good of the
people of Florida instead of solely
for the good of their political friends