The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1914-04-21
SENATOR DUNCAN u.
FLETCHER-PRO ESSIVE
OR REACTlONARY
Jacksonville state.
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"By their fruits We shall know
them"
If Mr.. Fletcher is noe member OF
the reactionary force in Florida. then
Mr.. Holt and his faction have been
left in the mire and the senator has
as a last resort to keep in office at
tempted to climb into the progress
siye vehicle.
The friends of Senator Fletcher will
in all probability find in President
Wilson's letter a boomerang instead of
a helping document, for the president
very wisely answered that Senator
Fletcher had supported progressive
measures since Mr.. Wilson has been
president.
Admitting such is the case, we pause
a moment to ask did he not fall into
line with the republican administra-
ton and vote with Aldrich against
the democratic platform when the
democrats We're in the minority
Golfers Weekly, which closely
watches the records Of all conlgress-
men and senators, admits that Sena-
tor Fletcher has been satisfactorily
progressive since the democrats have
been in power. and the time came for
the senior senator of Florida to go be-
fore the people in the primary.
Mr.. Fletcher might have asked
President Wilson what he thought of
his votes with the republicans and
his defence of Lorimer and his eulogy
If Mr.. Arthur Williams, who wrote
to the president had really wanted
to know-if he did not know already
whether Senator Fletcher is a reac-
tionary, then he should have asked
any one or twenty of the progressive
leaders in Florida who know Mr..
Fletcher's record. If he had been a
progressive and his opponent also
progressive, then there would be a
division of the progressive faction as
was the case when Park Trammel and
w. III. Milton were in the race for
governor.
But Mr.. Williams knew that Mr..
Fletcher is a reactionary.
The senior senator is progressive
just now because he cannot be other
wise; the campaign is approaching
and as the administration is a pro-
gressive one he has been compelled to
fall into line. But The State would
fear for the nation and the common
people if there should come a time
before he is retired to private life
when his vote would be the one which
would decide an issue between the
special interests and the people.
Admitting, for the sake of argument,
that Senator Fletcher is not a reac-
tionary. We would like to ask when
he had a change of heart.
When the people of Illinois were
deprived of their seat in the United
States senate by corrupt methods and
money, Senator Fletcher,
by his vote, said he approved Of such
action. That vote was not a pro-
gressive one.
of getting rid of Bailey, the corrupt
agent of the oil trust, we find Sena-
tor Fletcher, with other reactionaries,
the governor of Texas
that he would consider the retirement
of Bailey to private life a national
,Tr,-, 49, hot ut 6a frsf
of a reactionary, then The State does
not understand the meaning of the
word.
When Underwood's campaign was
on in FLORIDA, financed by Ryan's
tainted money, where did we find Sen
ator Fletcher giving assistance? 1t
was against the progressive candidate
the nation afterward chose as its chief
executive.
In the same campaign when state
offices were to be filled. The State
would like to ask the senator for
whom he voted in the gubernatorial
race Likewise it would like to know
the name of the candidate receiving
his vote for congressman al large and
in the Second district.
In making recommendations for
federal appointments we find that Mr..
Fletcher invariably preferred reac-
tfonary to progressive.
Senator Fletcher is a reactionary.
He has been one for years, and now
the natural manhood which is in him
ought to assert itself and make him
fight with his own people and either
win or lose in his true colors. If he
had been a progressive during his ten
ure of office he would not feel called
upon to ask President Wilson to give
him a clean bill of health when he
has only heen under the presidents
eye for less than a year.
And it must be remembered that
Alton B, Parker began his speech at
the Baltimore convention with the
sentence, Il am a progressive demo-
GRAFT"
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