The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-20
REPUBLICAN GUNS
 GET INTO ACTION
Big Shells Fired From Capi-
 tai Office Building
MIR. BRYAN ONE VICTIM
Pamphlets Charge Him With Secrecy and Not Taking Public Into His Confidence in State De-
 partment Matters

Washington. October 19.-(Special) From small arms and light artillery the republican congressional campaign lead CTS have turned to their 42-centimeter guns in their attack the democratic
 party on the verge of the election, and
 tremendous has been the havoc. Bombs drop from the seventh floor of a Wash-
 ngton office building on the heads of the democratic hordes and the carnage is fearful at both ends of Pennsylvania ave nue.
 First of the big shells fired in the recent
 bombardment was a pamphlet entitled,
 "Pitiless Publicity vs Sinister Secretive-
 ness" this bursting and throwing out
 smaller missiles under tho subtitles
 Turning Out the Light" Secrecy in the Treasury Department" and Even Bryan
 Keeps Still" the paragraph under the
 last heading reading:
 Probably the finest flower of this won derful school of publicity blossoms in the
 state department and Secretary William Jennings Bryan. His apologies set up the
 plea that the international affairs of the government must be carried on entirely in
 secret. Yet MT. Bryan's predecessors
 never have hesitated to discuss them
 frankly and openly with the newspaper correspondents The real secret is that men like John Hay and Eihu Root could
 trust themselves to discuss matters of internat tional law in public.'
 On which line it may be mentioned incl
 dentally that Senator Root recently said
 openly in the Senate that when in the cabinet as Secretary of War he had
 not seen or heard of certain treaties ne- gotiated and concluded at that time till they were made public.
 So, this entire tract dwells on the all of ,iais. ff@t. md contrasts 1t with the claim that 'repub- licans have been frank"
 And even more momentous is the charge in another effusion that Uncle Sam's sol- diers and sailors sport brass buttons made in England which charge the same effusion refutes
 Uncle Sams soldiers and sailors wear a lot of brass buttons,' says this cam paign committee. Some of them have two double rows down the front of their uni forms Then, there are army and navy ornaments, shoulder straps and other
 kind of official insignia. Uncle Sam's revenue officers wear brass buttons, too, and even the capitol policemen and watch men at the doors of the government de- partments are adorned with these shining emblems of official authority"
 And having presented the charge that the buttons are made in England" and having disclosed the momentous fact that government officials are so literally
 decorated with them that strong men
 stagger under the weight the very same
 publicity sheet says that proposed
 contract for the buttons actually was cancelled" and the buttons really were supplied by American manufacturers. The next charge involved Representative Hobson of Alabama, and Is worth giving i in its entirety as indicating the kind of | ammunition used by the republican con- ! Ur a pcQn al 0n fnn fc i,,f f,,II Fresh evidence that the so-called pro- gressive party is merely a tool Tn the hands of the democrats in this campaign was uncovered yesterday in room in the IIo,ise office buidlng used by the democratic progressive coalition for send ing out campaign literature to the vc ters of the country
 "A visitor to this gun factory of the allies chahced to see a huge iile of en- velopes bearing the frank of Representa- tive HoDson and marked on the upper left hand corner, The -Srea. Destroyer which was the title of Hohson celebrat cd speech attacking the rum traffic. ,rhe visitor, being a staunch advocate of pro- hibtion, asked for one of the envelopes On opening it, to his amazement n stea of the famous TTobson speech. he found 1t contained a speech by Representative
 Rup1ey, bull moose of Pennsylvania en- titled, "A Great New Party
 This speech, as a boassed great de- stroyei,' 1t appears, Is bells useu cn the left flank of the republicans which was
 somewhat weakened two years ago by
 assertions to the bull moose ranks To
 use few military terms. this IS proba
 ply what might be called an 'enveinring'
 movement. C; maybe the democrats. in
 fear of rout, are merely falling bacl;
 on their covering positions 1"
 Even lefore this pamphlet had been circulated. however, an investigation hnd
 been made by Captain Hobsons office and the result had been pupllsh.d in The Are-Herald. The expla nation was slm- bic: cieik had mixed Hobson's .nd
 Rur'cy's speeches and envelopes, and
 some Hobson speeches had been sent in
 Ripley envelopes and vice versa before
 the error was discovered and rectificd
 But the campaign document was sent
 out just the same, although, everyone
 iinov its charges were without feunda-
 ton.
 And so the attack continues daily sim
 ultaneousl, in the center and on both
 Hanks. And yet-and yet, shrewd ob- servers are betting that, the democratic
 mapority in this Congress will be con- tinued in the next-Frank ?. Woods to the contrary notwithstanding.