The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1916-09-30
WHAT TO EXPECT.

for some obscure reason has come to be
known as the Knotts-Catts controversy,
who were willing that the evidence alleging
errors due to complicated and new system
of computation, should be examined and the
vote recounted to ascertain the truth, have
never been under the necessity of defending
Mr. Knotts motives or the courts probity
by anything he or his partisans may have
said.
Either the fraud charged against Knott
was palpably and physically impossible OF
fulfillment, or there was ample utterance on
the Cats side, denying the charges.
If, to give only one instance, Mr.. Cats or
his followers hoped to gain anything by &C
cusing the supreme court of being biased in
cusing the supreme court of a denial of re-
counts except where Knott was favored,
how bitter must be their chagrin that Cats
own attorney, Col. Flournoy, should de-
stroy their great expectations.
L know the court of my state will be fair,
as it has always BEEN" said Col. Flournoy
in a signed telegram to the Tampa Tribune,
one of the papers charging willful denial
of Justice to Cats. Paying exceptional
tribute to the fairness, the integrity, the
competency" of the court, Col Flournoy
concludes with these eloquent words:
~ not refrain from sending you this mes
sage. In the trial of this great public case, in
which all Florida is interested, the names of and
effects of and upon the candidates are
compared to the science, oratory and
spirit of inspired American institutions.
And as pen this message its integrity is nvolun-
ary sealed with the tear of the patriot who loves
these institutions which erected and saved by
the previous blood of our forefathers."
Surely if there were any fraud on the part
of Knott in the counts, Col. Flournoy would
not attempt to cover it up. Or if there was
fraud which he was unwilling to charge
publicly, he would at least not go out of his
way to extol an institution and countenance
q condition which he thought was false
The fact that Col. F1ournoy, Cats at
torney, should discredit the only appeal
Cats can make to the voters of the state
namely, his martyrdom, by an untrue court,
for sinister purposes-should disillusion
everybody.
That Cats is man of remarkable talent,
reaching personality and uncommon politi-
cal grasp, has always been recognized, He
was indeed a candidate to fire the imagin-
alton; one whom in his earlier days any
body might have been glad to follow, if the
doctrine he preached had only been less
visionary and of more practical avail in a
workaday world. 1t is, therefore, keen
source of regret to us that Cats easy de-
sertion of the principles which he swore to
uphold destroys whatever favorable inn
preston we had of his ability, for ability
without sincerity availeth nothing.
His only justification having been ex-
posed as fallacious by his own attorney,
Cats reason for DESERVING the Democrats
is that he didn't get what he was after
from the Democrats. That is why Roosevelt
deserted the ProgressiVes. Cats is now
making certain promises to the Prohibi-
tionists and Independents because he hopes
to gain a certain definite object. 1t is not
illogical to suppose that he would desert
the Prohibitionists and the Independents
for the Republicans and the anti-Prohibi-
tionists if he thought the latter would give
him what the former lacked the power to
bestow. And having secured what he
wanted, it is not illogical to suppose that
he would spurn the ladder of promises by
which he climbed to the coveted vantage
ground.
These are considerations which consci-
entious Democrats will Law to heart before
they join any wild game of fo1low-my-
leader and bolt the party for the profit oil
a man from whose lack of sincerity in the
past can be expected only oblique inten-
tions for the future.