The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1913-01-08
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
OF GOV. TRAMMELL
Advocates Adjustment OF Con.
Wet Lease System.
PLEDGES PROGRESSIVE POLICY
Incoming Governors Address Deals
With Many Reforms in the System
OF State Government AS Advocated
By Him During Campaign.

Ladies and Fellow Citizens:
In the breath and in the spirit OF
the solemn oath which has just been
administered to me by the states
highest judicial official officer, de-
sire now, not in any empty sense OF
formality, but with all the sincerity
and earnestness which | possess, tc
pledge my time, my best services and
whatever of ability / have, to the
cause of Florida; her moral advance
ment, her material growth, the better
raent of her institutions, the happi-
ness of her citizens, and to the ad-
fministering Of all the affairs of gov
ernment in a manner which will pro-
tect, promote and foster the interest
and welfare of the people of this great
state
Since it was decreed by the SOW
ereign will of the people of Florida
that upon this day / should succeed
to the office of governor, have, as
sure you, been filled with the keenest
and most sincere gratitude for the
honor conferred upon me, and have
priced more than anything beneath
the heavens the token of confidence
recorded by my fellow citizens. ]
am profoundly thankful for this op-
portunity, at the very threshold OF
the administration upon which we
are about to enter, to say that, come
what may, / shall always stand a
debtor to the people of Florida, and
it shall be both my pleasure and my
constant purpose, by a proper regard
for my fellowman, by an answering
fidelity and loyalty to every public
trust, to manifest my gratitude and
heartfelt appreciation for the honor
of having been called to the chief
magistracy of our state.
enter upon the duties of this i'm
portant office fully mindful that to
the man who has the right conception
| of his duty, the ambition to serve in
a public capacity is not for the pur-
pose of enriching himself, the pun
| ishment of enemies or rewarding at
| the public expense his friends, nor
that he may extend any special priv
ilege to any person or class; but he
is moved by the higher and noble1
| purpose of rendering the greatest
service of which he is capable to the
| whole people. So far as human limi-
tations and my own capacity will per-
NIT, / now assure you that my Off
| cial conduct during the next -four
years shall be ever guided and gov
erned by this high conception of pub
lie duty.
/ have been gratifed and pleased
to note the satisfaction with which
| the people of Florida generally seem
ed to accept the result of our recent
primary and the general election fol
lowing; and / hope and believe thai
whatever feeling may have arisen il
the heat of the campaign for the gov
ernorship has now given place tt
good will; and this happy condition
fills me with the confident hope thai
Florida is now preparing to enjoy {
most beneficial period of good feeling
and harmony-a period in which po
litical controversy will give way tt
the states advancement, in which ri
valries and iealousies of whateve1
nature will be subordinated to heart.
and healthy promotion of the genera
welfare.
No state is richer in its history, it
traditions or in romance than ours
None has a past more glorious, nor
, future fraught with greater promise
Surely, there are unerring indication
that Florida is now entering upon
new, brilliant and most fruitful pc
riod of industrial development. I
is impossible for the keenest prophet
ic vision to forecast her progress
within the next decade With ou
state alive in every field of endeavoi
necessarily the duties and responsi
bilities of those who are charged an
entrusted with the conduct of tn
public business are greatly augment
ed and the public demands broadene
and enlarged. The times demand ag
! gression and progress in public al
fairs. Government should kee
abreast with the times, and it is m
earnest hope that Florida's public ir
terests shall during the administra
ton now beginning, and throughou
the future, be fully responsive to tn
industrial and social progress c
her people.
Politically, we are at the dawn c
new era in the history of thi
great nation-an era marked by a
unparalleled awakening of the publ
conscience upon the problems of tn
age and in the matter of demandin
the highest standard of service frol
public officials. The masses hay
grasped full realization of the fat
e that the foundation of free govern
ment rest upon the consent ar
|. should be guided by the viii of II
people. Government is for the gel
eral good, and that public serval
who fails to honestly exert all h
energies towards securing the grea
est possible benefits for his col
stituents has fallen short of fulfil
{ ing the just and reasonable demant
6 which should be expected of tho
: called to positions of public trus
s Nothing short of the most constal
v