The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1934-06-12
A DIRTY DIG

gled,' regarding the vote cast in Monroe
county for the candidates for state senator
in last Tuesdays primary, the Fort Myers
News-Press not only uses fevered language
but also oversteps the boundary of fairness
and justice.
The first sentence of the second para
graph reads, "The most suspicious cir
cumstance was that nobody could get any
authentic returns from Key West until
about 2 o'clock Wednesday morning
If that statement is true, then one of
two things happened: either the Western
Union was exceedingly slow in delivering
message sent the News-Press by The Citi-
zen or the editor of the News-Press did not
bother to open the telegram until about
o'clock Wednesday morning" because The
Citizen has official information to prove
that it sent a message to the Fort Myers
paper at IL :32, which was a reply to a
telegram received from the News-Press a
short time before. Here is the message:
Four out of ten complete and re-
mainder incomplete give Albury eight
three two Gomez six two nine Frank
lin five six.
At the longest the News Press should
have received that message in Is minutes,
but let US assume that it required about
half an hour, still that would be two hours
earlier than "about o'clock Wednesday
morning"
Three of the 10 precincts in Monroe
county are isolated on the upper keys and,
as rule, it is the following day before re-
turns are received from there, but, anxious
to give the News-Press all the information
it could, The Citizen telephoned to several
residences on the keys (there were no tele-
phones in the polling booths there) to get
returns and relay them to Fort Myers.
The News-Press may not be aware of
il but, nonetheless, it made grave charge
against the inspectors in Monroe county
when it said that q" it looked mighty
funny and left no doubt among the know
ing that the returns from Key West came
out Of the adding machine instead of the
ballot box
That charge is false and vicious Mr..
Franklin got in the count every vote that
was cast for him. However heated cam
paigns might have been in Key West, there
is not case on record wherein the re-
turns have been deliberately miscounted
Ballet hnvnc have hao,, c,,orod -, 1Irao
races, and the counts have been found to be
correct.
Mr.. Albury and Mr. Gomez rep
resented opposing schools of political
thought in Monroe county, and there were
few voters who did not belong to one or
the other in those schools, so that Mr..
Franklin had very small element from
which to draw support in Monroe. Even
at that, he would not only have been in the
second primary but would also have been
the leader had Lee, his home county, given
him from % to 80 percent of the vote that
Monroe gave her "home sons" Further,
Mr.. Campbell would have been nominated
fonfs years ago had Lee .givea him as large
a percentage of its vote as Monroe gave to
Mr.. Gomez
In view of those facts. Lee county and
not Monroe is to blame for Mr.. Franklins
elimination from the race.
Finally, it was dirty dig. based on
falseness and wildly suspicious mind,
that the News-Press gave the people of
Monroe when it said:
Being flim-flammed in state SEN
atorial races is no new experience for Lee
county. As long as they do business that
way down there it perhaps was favor to
Mr.. Franklin to count him out in the first
go-round. !"