The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-11-07
THE INSIDI0TS ROoRBACK.
Campaign Lies Cause Political Man
ayers Much Trouble.

LIE 1NSiD1UuS RoQRBACK.
Campaign Lies Cause Political Man
ayers Much Trouble.
N. Y Tribune
The last week of presidential cam
paISH is known as ''roorback week. and
managers the various headquarters and
their fri 4rds are cons family on the look
out for campaign lies. The word ''r0or-
back. to designate a fictitious story pub
AShed for political effect, and as parlia-
mentary term for campaign lies, had it's
origin IN tie Clay Polk campaign in 1874
a lot of matter was published at that
time, said an old-time politician, ''in the
1htercs: of james K Polk, in which Hen
ry Clay was raundly slaRdered and paint
Z ed in false eeIors. There were about one
tenth truth ard nine-thnths lies in the
natter. The matter appeared under the
title, Travels of Baron Roorbacn
'Roorbach became 'roorback' few
years later, ana ever since then the big
campaign fakes. the whoppers, the lies
by which great masses of votes We're to
be made, have been called roorbacks, and
Roorbach has become the political Nun
chausen But it is an injustice to put the
two the same class, because Munchau-
sens tales are SIMPLY amusing STORIES
While the roorbaek is invented for Tie
purpose of deceiving the voter and of
gaining his vote under false pretense."
There has not been a presidential cam
paign since that time in which the roor-
back did not make its appearance. The
most notable one was the Merely letter
in the Garfield campaign. This letter was
published in a newspaper called Truth. -
on October q, 1880, and purported to be
a statement by Gen Garfield on the ques-
ton of the employment of Chinese labor
in which the Republican candidate took
sides with the Chinese and against the
majority of the people of the West On
the following day Mr.. Gar ED teIegraphed
from Mentor Ohio, to Marshall Jewell
and S. w. Dorsey:
81 will not break the rule have adopt
ed by making a public reply to campaign
lies, but 1 authorize you to denounce the
so-called Morey letter as bold forgery,
both in language and sentiment. Until
its publication 1 never heard of the exist
ence Of the Employers Union, OF Lynn
Mass, or of such a person as II. L.
Morey."
The Morey letter, although it was the
work, according to Mr.. Garfeld's words,
''of some clever villain who cannot spell
or write English or initiate my hand
writing" created much excitement, and
despite the fact that efforts were made to
show that it was a clumsy trick, it made
many votes against the Republican candi-
GATE.
The publication of the correspondence
between Charles F. Murchison, of PoTao-
ma, Cal. and Lord Sackville West, In the
closing days of the Cleveland Blaine cam
paign, was not a roorback, because the
circumstances were true, but it has al
ways been counted among the celebrated
.mpaiga doGges.
Murehison had written TO Lord SackviIIe
West, stating that he was Of English
II
mother country, and asked the British
representative for advice as to now he
and his friends should vote. To Tits let
ter the British minister replied from
Beverly, Mass, that any political party
which openly favored the mother country
would lose popularity. He SAID further
that the administration knew this and
acted accordingly, but he advised MUrcht-
SON and his friends to vote for Cleveland
This letter was made public by tue man
who received it, probably without any in
tention further thar to aid the cause of
Grover Cleveland, but It had the effect
of turning many Irish votes against the
Democratic candidate, and resulted in
the dismissal of Lord SackvilIe West.
DR.. Burchard's famous sentence, utter
ed in the Fifth Avenue hotel at the meet
ing of cIergymen, in the Blaine campaign,
was probably more widely circulated and
with better effect than any roorboek
that was ever invented, and to guard
against similar inpolitic and lll-consid-
cred remarks it has been the custom
since that time to submit campaign adj
dresses to competent persons for iuspee-
ton before allowing them to be delivered
In Indiana, where elections are always
hotly contested. the roorback has Deen
to more extensively than in any
other state, and voters are constantly
on the lookout for it's appearance. In one
local campaign it took a queer form. The
party in power had expended much money
in making street repairs, some of mich
were looked upon as unnecessary, and
speakers had been urging voters to TURN
the extravaganza party cut of office On
the day before the election men were sent
about equipped with engineers InstTu-
ments, who went through the motions of
taking measurements. In answer to ques-
tons they said that new pavements were
to be put down all over the city The
people We're indignant. and showed their
by voting against the party
in power the next day, not knowing that
the pavement scheme was a practical
roorback.
The crop of roorbacks has been large
in this campaign, and has kept the press
department at Republican headquarters
busy. The first one of any Importance
was the statement from a Western
source to the effect that President Nc
Kinley had expressed himself against
the existing pension laws Then came
quotation from alleged Roosevelt speak
ers, in which the governor was made to
say that man who took part IN
strike should be stood up an shot. These
roorbacks had hardly been denied when
the cleveland interview appeared In
Philadelphia paper, and the ex-prestdent
was made to say that the election would
be a Bryan landslide Then the MetcaIf
denial had to be sent out to brand the
Auburn coercion story as a clumsy roof
back, and Senator Beveridge found it nee
essary to telegraph all over the country
that the statement credited to him, that
there would be a Bryan landslide, was an
outrageous and monstrous Ife"
THE number and the quality of roor-
backs" said a prominent Republican |
worker, ''shows the condition of the other |
side, and, judging by the great number |
that they have endeavored to circulate in
the last two weeks, we feel that they are |
n desperate condition"