The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-05-09
Press Comment
A Yelled Attack.

Doubtless many other persons beside
the Herald have received an anony
nous communication enclosed in an
envelope with a Washington postmark.
attacking, by inuendo, the record made
by Senator Fletcher in the United
States senate.
The matter might not be Of great i'm
portance were it not that the docu-
ment is gotten up with care and. evid-
Gently. by some person with good
education. It evidences the fact that
somebody is behind the governors
campaign with better command Of
the English language and perhaps
better control over his own temper.
There is nothing in the document
to indicate its authorship, but there
can be little doubt that it is inspired
from Tallahassee.
The anonymous document attempts
to deprive Senator Fletcher of credit
for his labers in the matter of farm
loan banks land for legislation Great
ing the United States Shipping Board.
It's reference to the Congressional
Record, upon which it relies to prove
its anonymous statements, is so
meager and covers so little ground,
that 1t is not statement of the case
from the Record, but as a biased and
untrue construction Of only few para
graphs.
If there were any truth in the insin-
uations contained in this anonymous
publication, if the originators were not
afraid of being pilloried as prevarica-
tors, they, whoever they are, would
have signed their names, and thus
have given their document something
Of standing. But they did not do
that. They preferred to adopt the
towards last refuge and cover their
vicious, but inoccuous attack, by
anonymity.
OF course, the people Of the state
of Florida should be on their guard,
for it is quite evident that this attack
lis to be followed by others from the
same concealed source. Intelligent
voters will pay no attention to doc
ument that its writer's were afraid to
sign.
The Herald does not know whether
the governor is financing this anony-
nous campaign or not. But if the
voters of Florida are to be reached,
very generally, it is going to cost con-
siderable money to spread this docu-
ment among the people. It will take
nearly hundred thousand of them to
paper, Of labor and postage stamps, the
bill will be fine one for somebody
to pay, whoever it is.-Miami Herald
One Vital Thing Missing.
Recent developments In Florida's
prospective extensive highway prob
lem have been quite interesting. First
came the plan Of Chairman NJ. NJ.
Smith, OF the State Road Department,
which plan would assess an automo-
bile tax sufficient to not only pay the
interest on an issue of $20,000,000 of
bonds but retire the principal within
reasonable length of time, all this
without increasing the state. millage
one iota. To the contrary it is figured
out that this plan would make un-
necessary the present two-mi1l tax for
roads and also relieve the counties of
the road tax burden. Then that great
friend OF better highways for Florida
known as Good Roads" Miller, OF
Jacksonville has another plan some
what similar to that Of Chairman
Smith and calculated to bring about
the greatest good for Florida possible
to conceive.
But there is one flaw in both plans
nothing is said as to how the automo-
bile license tax is to be collected. That
is the weak spot in the present plan of
procedure and it should not be per-
petuated in any new legislation. We
may be premature in calling attention
to this phase of the proposition, for
just such details may have already
been thought out by Mess-s. Smith and
Miller, but in case they have not it
win do no harm to call attention