The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-12-14
Next Governor Says Ma chine Men Didn't Think He Could Do It, But
 He Did
 AND ANTI-CATHOLICS
 STOOD BEHIND HIM
Says Guardians of Liberty and True Americans Ex- tend Efforts Into Every
 State Where Needed

"They didn't think l could do 1t, but 1 showed them," de- clared Sidney J. Catts, gover- norelect of Florida, who spent yesterday and last night in
 Birmingham.
 T smashed the powerful democratic machine in Florida and defeated it's candidate, not only once, but twice. They read me out of the party and handed the nomination to my oppo- nent, MT. Knott, but ran as an inde- pendent prohibition democrat and won by much larger majority than I re- ceived in the primary
 MT. Catts a Baptist minister and q native of Alabama, where he resided until six years ago, arrived yesterday morning over the Louisville and Nash ville railroad from Tennessee to see his son, F. D. Catts, of Fairfield, and his brother-in-law, Al F. Campbell.
 NEW ISSUES BROUGHT UP The race for the governorship of
 Florida waged by MT. Catts attracted Widespread attention on account Of the issues which were injected He attributes his success largely to his advocacy of the doctrine that the "'American flag must come first" and
 to the unqualified support of the Guardians of Liberty, an organization he daa bers in the state of Florida The pur- poses of the Guardians, he said, are similar to those of the True Ameri- cans, the principal difference being that the True Americans is a secret organization, while the Guardians pub licly declare their purposes and plans. T have lived in Florida only six years, going to DeFuniak Springs from Dallas county, Alabama, to serve as pastor of the Baptist church there Aft CT several years I resigned to enter the insurance business to make my living while I ran for the governor ship.
 when my candidacy was am nOunced the political leaders and the corporation heads considered it Joke. l was newcomer, had no money, no powerful and wealthy friends and no political strength, as they thought. My leading oppOn-
 ent. Mir. Knott, had been a promf- nent figure in state politics for 20 years. He had held important state offices and had been mak-
 ing his plans for years to get the sOvernOrship. The machine had de-
 cfded to award the honor to him.
 ANTI-C CATHOLIC FORCES
 But they failed to reckon with the Guardians of Liberty, who constituted my chief support, and the prohibition lsts We were opposed to the Roman Catholics of the state, who constituted less than one-fifth of the people, prac- tically controlling everything, and we determined to elect officials who were in sympathy with our ideas and ideals. Park Trammel defeated Senator Bryan because MT. Trammell was opposed to the Catholics controlling too much the public affairs of our governmental bodies Senator Bryan was not right on this matter, in our opinion.
 When the democratic machine be- gan to realize that my candidacy was no joke and as they learned something of the strength of our movement. they had the state executive committee adopt what was known as the Sur key resolution, which practically read all the Guardians out of the party Park Trammelrs opposition to this resolution made him United States sen ator. We made it so uncomfortable for the machine men, however, that they finally had to rescind their ac- ton and allow us the right to vote if we were democrats.
 MADE TWO RACES
 "In the primary last spring I ran ahead of Knott, my leading opponent, several thousand votes on first choice, but after the second choice votes were considered my plurality over him was only about 250. Knott instituted mandamus proceedings in the supreme court to have himself de- clared the nominee and refused to make me a party to the action. The machine finally gave him the nomina- ton and I announced as an inde- pendent prohibition-d democratic candi- date My majority over Knott in the general election was more than 5000. sThe Guardians of Liberty had tri- umphed over the Knights of Columbus and other Catholic organizations and the doctrines of the little red school house. were in the ascendency as op- posed to the parochial schools. We
 believe irrevocably in the entire sep