The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-05-14
nGE CROWD
HEARD ADDRESS
II. j. FLETCHER
{DA'S SENIOR SENATOR
!{6DE FINE IMPRESSION
ped His Record During Past
7&;z - Years and Answered All
Charges of Opponent

Duncan U. Fletcher. United
] |lenator, and candidate for re-
to that high office, ad-
= The people of Lakeland and
# In the city park last night,
Eof the best attended and most
5tAd political meetings ever
lakeland.
Senator arrived at 7:30 from
8fty. and was met at the train
e6mmittee of citizens. He was
& to the speakers stand
lad been erected in the park,
HUI a brilliant introduction by
6r Fl j. Drane, Mr.. Fletcher
Sfor about an hour and a half,
&1ng a most forceful and eff
61ddress.
!; nrefaced his speech by some
Conplimentary observations rel
<0Rthe growth and progress of
nd. her creditable institutions
0ne citizenship. He then re-
with thoroughness and clar-
expression his record in the
E enumerating the commit
ixnments with which he had
0nored, and which places him
N6osition where he can be OF
Sryice to his constituents,
80 a newly elected senator,
1.-The people be so unwise as to
'1aitch one to represent them,
be whoHHy UnoG.v 70 --.,e
8nectively until he had gained
.fnce and proven his capacity.
{ can elect a man to take my
l1n the Senate" declared Mr.,
r, "but you cannot elect any
make the place ! hold on the
Rtnportant committees of that
D Tor these committee asrSn-
arc given only to men OF eN-
Xce and whose ability, in the
Ill of their colleagues, entitle
{o these assignments
gfead the correspondence be-
6himself and Mr.. Stockton, in
he challenged Mr.. Stockton
him in joint debate, and the
replied that he thought such
- s'unnecessary . He took up,
IN, the charges Mr.. Stockton
DIT in his letter, primarily the
incident. He explained his
&IN the Lorimer matter so clear
6fairly that no man who heard
hid have unfavorable criticism
action. He explained that
zone of the committee of eight
he Congress who was on the
investigating committee,
heard the witnesses, cross
ed them and carefully studied
hence in the case, which Gov
me 5000 pages. In all thai
evidence there was not one
te rejecting on the purity o.
rs private life or establish
political wrong-doing on hi'
Lorimer was simply a man O
q ability. energy and politica
Acity, who, in a perfectly lie
way, had taken advantage o
lin clause of the Illinois con
I{Ion, and turned it to his po
advantage; but three grea
I1fopers, backed by capital to tn
1T of $20,000,oOO and the In
1<ipnal Harvester Trust whom
1er had antagonized set abou
<oco omplish his political undoing
q that end, manufactured pun
ctInion. so that those who wer
I9hiliar with the evidence wer
70 look upon Lorimer as the IN
lion of political corruption \
no heard Mr.. Fletcher's ez
ltion of the true facts of the cas-
I'D blame him for his action l
: after.
me Bailey telegram" which Nj
'ekton referred to, presumably &
nething mysteriously bad, wa
'Apiy telegram which a numbF
zeaators sent to the governor
zza merely as a matter of sen;
- courtesy, asking him not
cert Bailey's resignation as
'IEe1 States Senator. The who
vel was a very trivial inciden
zHzfed for political purposes.
Fletcher also took up Il
that he had opposed Woo