The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1916-05-07
Mr.. Knots Record Will
Bear Every Investigation

n
"The Pensacola Journal says that Mr..
Knott should be elected Governor because
he stays in Tallahassee and attends to his
duties. This is certainly joke. If the
editor of The Journal really thinks this, he
should come to Tallahassee on an invest1-
eating our."-Tallahasse Democrat.
The Journal investigated the record OF Mr..
Knott at the beginning of his campaign for
the governorship of the state, and these IN
vestigations have proven not only that The
Journal is not mistaken in supporting Mr..
Knott for governor, but that the charges
which have been made against the record
of the comptroller have no basis Whatso-
ever in fact.
For nearly twenty years Mr.. Knott has
served the state of Florida in conscientious
application to duty, and during that time
the editor of The Democrat, Milton
IA. Smith, has been one of his most
ardent supporters. No complaint was
ever made of Mr.. Knott's record, as State
Auditor, State Treasurer or comptroller.
He served in the cabinet of four governors,
but not until he entered the campaign for
governor himself did the editor of The Dem
crat or the other newspapers of the state,
find any fault with his record as a public
official.
1t was Mr.. Smith, editor then of the True
Democrat, who said of Mr.. Knott: "The
True Democrat can assert without success
full contradiction that no man has accom-
plshed more for Florida than he"
"He is not man to count dollars nor re-
sponsibilities nor labor, but man who re
CARDS only where he can give the best ser
vice and do the most good
This is the same Milton A. Smith who
a few weeks ago published vicious at
tack upon Mr. Knott, which was sent all
over the state by Mr. Hudson, charging
that at a meeting of the Florida Press Asso-
citation in Jacksonville Mr.. Knott not only
took bottle of beer, ''but paraded up and
down with it conspicuously in his hand for
half an hour or more" and that during that
time "his official duty required him at a
meeting of the Board of State Institutions
in Ocala, and that he had telegraphed them
that he would attend"
There was no board meeting in Ocala al
this time. No telegram was sent by Mr.
Knott that he would be there, and one who
was in Jacksonville at the time that this
incident of the beer bottle was reported te
have occurred has written the Journal"
was III jdCKSOuV1ll6 WIFI u1Iu the
A man handed him bottle of beer, as 9
joke Mr. Knott, thinking it a bottle o.
soda water, took it. Looking at the liable
a moment afterward, he discovered it to be
a bottle of beer and Immediately put it or
a table And that was Ill there was to it. ,
The enemies of Mr.. Knott must resort
to other ammunition than such futile and
misleading charges as these presented by
the editor of The Democrat, if they wish
to defeat Mr.. Knott for the governorship.
Mr. Knott has never sought office at the
hands Of the people of the state of Florida
by STOPPING to unfair tactics or to mud
singing.
For more than eighteen years he has
served his state conscientiously and eff
GENTLY, and during these years the mar
who is now seeking to defeat him through
publishing ridiculous charges which can
not be proven, was one Of his firnest sup
porters.
Mr.. Knott is the man today of whom Mil
ton A. Smith wrote Like all truly great
men, he has lived to serve" And of whom
the Pensacola News said Surely the of,
flee sought the man of it ever did, when w
". Knott was made Comptroller. We of
ten hear men tell about how they love to
serve their state and people, but here is an