The St. Lucie County Tribune

Do not be deceived by the literature
that is being sent out by the Dealers
Association from Wall Street, the
Liquor interests of New York, or their
henchmen in Jacksonville.

This county election will be flooded
between now and election day with
literature from the Florida headquar-
ters. This state and county election will
be no oppor-
tunity to disprove their assertions.
Voters beware of this treachery.

They have held in reserve a
lot of their damnable lies to be spread
broadcast when there will
be no oppor-
tunity to disprove their assertions.
Let
They have had plenty of time to put
up any argument for the good of
their cause, but deliberately wait be-
cause there is not a word of truth in
any of them.

We are not
afraid to state that the News
talk on the streets is put out by them and
a newspaper man in charge - if the
election goes wet.

Blind Tiger Argument Knocked Out;
News Joins Saloon Ranks at Last Minute

Goes over to the Enemies of Good Morals and Takes Stand Against
Best Interests of our People. Foul Slanders and Untruthful
Statements Published to Deceive the Voters.

Under the caption of "Licensed Sa-
loon vs. Blind Tigers" in the Fort
Pierce News, there appears some of
the most glaring inconsistencies that any
editor has ever been guilty of produe-
ing, even when bought and paid for
by those who are dependent upon the
mess of pottage which they have bought
with money drawn from the needy fam-
iles of the land.

The first statement in this article
says: "Any law that is on the statute
books and is not enforced is a curse and
a blight to the name and honor of a
county." In another article in the
same paper there appears the following:
"The blind tiger is an unrestrained
enemy who does not hesitate to deal
out liquid damnation to the youth of
our county, and who are not amendable
to any statutory restrictions for so
doing." In one breath the News
states there is no law to punish blind
tigers and in the next breath laments
that the law against them cannot or
will not be enforced. Now, we all
know that these two statements, con-
tradictory as they are cannot be true.
and we know further that neither of
them are true. To admit that there is
no "statutory restrictions" against
blind tigers is to acknowledge to the
world that we are ignorant of the laws
of our land, which cover the blind tigers
as thoroughly as any other transgres-
sions of the law.

In the matter of the failure or im-
possibility of enforcing the laws against
the blind tigers, it comes with very
bad grace, when it is taken into con-
sideration that those who are making
this howl are the very ones who moved
heaven and earth to nominate the county
officers who will be called upon for the
ensuing two years to enforce these
laws. During the primary it was con-
tended that the candidates for the ex-
ecutive offices could and would enforce
the laws, and the citizens believing this
honored them with their votes. Now
that the officers are nominated and sure
of election, some of their warmest sup-
porters show the utter depravity of
their nature by turning on the nominee
for sheriff and proclaiming to the world
that he cannot and will not do his sworn
duty. To make such a statement is,
first of all, an insult to the nominee and
present incumbent, and it is an insult
to the citizens who are behind the offi-
cers, and an open admission that those
who made it, and are making it, are
base enough to stultify the integrity of
an officer whom the majority of the
citizens have elected, in their frantic
efforts to save the carcass of a business
that is a stench in the nostrils of every
morally sane and self-respecting citizen.

We have faith in our officers and be-
lieve that both the present sheriff and
the nominee for next term will perform
their duty towards blind tigers, regard-
less of the wet people's cry that they
cannot.

Now let us take a look at the incon-
sistency of the list published in the
News as to government licenses in var-
ious counties. Twenty-one dry counties
are mentioned, purporting to show the
number of government licenses issued
in them, but they carefully abstained
from giving the number of government
licenses issued to applicants in wet
counties who do not operate saloons.
But from this same book in the govern-
ment office in Jacksonville, the fact is
proven that in the city of Jacksonville,
Tampa and Key West, there have been
more blind tiger government licenses
issued than the combined number enum-
erated in the eighteen dry counties
quoted. While they were pretending to
enlighten the people of St. Lucie county
as to where the blind tiger thrives best,
why did they not tell about these terri-
ble beasts in the wet counties? Why
did they not tell the whole truth about
these things if they wanted to return
the respect of any man who believes in
honesty and fair play. It might be
asked why the officers of these three
places do not enforce the laws against
them, and we can answer that best by
quoting from the letter of Judge Minor
S. Jones in the recent issue of THE
TRIBUNE where he says, "Indeed the
blind tiger thrives only when the senti-
ment of the public is indifferent," and
every man knows that in the larger
cities, crime, debauchery and flagrant
violations of the law, morally and
otherwise, are tolerated to a degree
that would shock the even hardened
sinner of our rural districts. If the
wets are as afraid of the blind tigers as
they claim they are, and the dries hate
them as they claim they do, there is no
possibility of the blind tiger gaining a
foot hold in St. Lucie county, for with
the wets running away from the beasts
in fright, and the dries running after
him in anger, he will never be able to
stop long enough to tank up.

We assume the wets are sincere in their
cry of fright and will never go near one
of them, and we can assure them that
if the dries go near them it will be in
company with the sheriff whom we be-
lieve will put the strong hand of the
law upon him and thus prove to the
citizens of St. Lucie county that he will
do the things which the wets are con-
tending he cannot and will not do. We
propose to stand by our officers and
have no fear of their being
"weighed
in the balance and found wanting.

Saloons Only Argument Exploded.

The saloon element will tell the voters
that there are more United States li-
quor licenses issued in dry counties than
there are in wet ones.

Who pays for these licenses? It is a well known fact
that the Wholesale Liquor Dealers As-
sociation buys a large number of these
licenses in the name of residents of dry
counties, so as to produce them as evi-
dence in every election contest in the
State. A large number of these licenses
are issued in fictitious names, in the
names of dead drunkards or the imps
of the saloon who have no honorable
name to maintain.

WHISKEY CROWD
ARE ON THE RUN
As soon as The Tribune was on the
streets early Friday morning the saloon
element became very much excited, and
groups of them gathered at the corners
to discuss the brave and manly stand
taken by Judge Minor S. Jones against
the open saloon. The convincing argu-
ments made by the Judge completely
knocked all the thunder out of their
Wall Street literature which had been
sent out broadcast by the National
Wholesale and Retail Liquor Dealers'
Association.

They had awoke to the fact that their
contemptible lies manufactured by cor-
rupt lawyers of New York concerning
the status of the several northern
states and that the convincing arguments of
respectable voters of St. Lucie county.
figures and sworn statements made by
the prohibition speakers, and the facts,
the business men and county officials
of the dry counties of Florida, showing
a wonderful improvement in every way
as a result of their county going dry,
and published in THE TRIBUNE each
week during the campaign, was fast
convincing the people that the saloon
was their worst enemy, and their hope
of carrying the election was gone.

They planned hurriedly to manufae-
ture arguments by which they could
scare the people into voting to continue
their unholy business. They got busy
on the blind tiger argument but refer-
ence to the letter of Judge Jones stated
that blind tigers could not live in any
community where public sentiment was
aroused and goodness knows public
sentiment is almost to the burning
point in St. Lucie county. "We will
just deny that the letter was written
by Judge Jones" said the chief advisor,
and as THE TRIBUNE will not come out
again before election, we can fool the
people into believing it and voting for
us.'

But they had judged THE TRIBUNE
wrong.

It is published in the interest
of the people of the county and if their
interests are jeopardized we will bring
out an edition every day to defeat the
designing ones who would deceive them.

The following affidavit explains itself:

STATE OF FLORIDA
COUNTY OF ST. LUCIE.

ss

Before me personally appeared A. K.
Wilson, President of the TRIBUNE
PRINTING COMPANY, who being duly
sworn, on oath says that the article
which appeared in the issue of the ST.
LUCIE COUNTY TRIBUNE of August 10.
1906, and reproduced in the special
edition of said newspaper dated August
13, 1906, and purporting to be signed
by Minor S. Jones, is genuine, and that
the same was written by said Minor S.
Jones, Judge of the Seventh Judicial
Circuit of the State of Florida, upon
the request of said affiant, and that the
same was written and signed by the
said Minor S. Jones in his own hand-
writing, and that the handwriting and
signature of the said Minor S. Jones is
well known to his affiant.

A. K. WILSON.

Sworn to and subscribed before me
this 11th day of August, 1906, at Fort
Pierce, said County and State,

F. L. HEMMINGS,
Notary Public State of Florida.

(My commission expires Dec. 11, 1909.)

The Colored Column Fraud

The Fort Pierce News runs a depart-
ment entitled "Among the Colored
People." In the "Saloon Edition" of
Friday there appeared the following in
that column, with no other colored
items:

"Two white preachers came to
our church last Sunday and gave us
the 'glad hand.' Last week the dry
newspaper in Fort Pierce said it
was a disgrace to go to the polls
with niggers; and that the saloon-
keepers paid our poll tax: but they
did not, the dry crowd did. At the
hall before the white folks they
called us "Our colored brethren,
and next week they will call us
niggers like they always have done.
At Sanford one wet and dry elec-
tion the white women pinned white
ribbons on the colored voters coats.
A few days later we were called
niggers by them, and they said that
we should be lynched."

That paragraph is considered by many
to be the most disreputable in the
whole issue. In the first place it is a
forgery and a misrepresentation and
was never written by a colored man.
It's a libel on the editor of that depart-
ment, who is pastor of the church in
which the speaking took place, and
furthermore it's a slander on the fair
name of the women of Sanford.

One perusal is all that's necessary to
any man who is acquainted with news-
paper conditions in Fort Pierce, to defin-
itely place the authorship and we ven-
ture the assertion that to put the ques-
tion of who wrote it to any ten reput-
able men in town, will bring forth no
less than eight direct and harmonizing
answers. None of them will be to the
effect that a colored man wrote it
either.

The editor of "Among the Colored
People" in the News, called at our
office Friday afternoon and stated em-
phatically that no copy was sent in by
him, or anyone else authorized to do so,
for the last issue of the News and no
one in their section of town knew of
the article until after the paper was
out. He also stated that no such senti-
ments existed among the colored peo-
ple.

We brand that paragraph as a false-
hood, forgery, libel and slander and
defy the publishers of the News to pro-
duce evidence that it came through
legitimate channels for that depart-
ment.

The Devil or the Deep Blue Sea?

If an editor says how he stands on
any important question people blame
him, and if he doesn't commit himself
he is blamed. There is nothing on
earth he can do to retain the friend-
ship of everybody. He is between the
devil and the deep blue sea. - Fort
Pierce News, Aug. 10.

In this particular instance the half-
way ground became too warm. The
above editor chose the devil in prefer-
ence to the deep blue sea, but in the
opinion of all respectable men he would
have been a thousand times better off
had he taken the latter.