The Detroit times., 1914-10-07
INGRAM FLAYS
PARTY BOSSES IN
NOON SPEECH
Double Crossed Both Employer
and Employe In Defeat Of
New Charter
PROGRESSIVE FEATURE
CAUSED IT'S DOWNFALL
Large Crowd at Chalmers Plant
Hears Democratic Candidate
For Mayor

"The ring politicians, fearing the
preferential ballot. the recall. and
other progressive features in the pro
posed new charter. caused its de-
feat"
That IL what Frederick r. Ingram,
Democratic nominee for mayor. told
an assemblage OF employees In front
Of the Chalmers Motor Co.'s factory
Tuesday noon.
The ring politicians double-crossed
both the employer and the employe
by their demagogic appeals. They
told the employer thai the new char.
ter was too good to labor and that
their business would suffer if the pro.
posed charter was adopted. Then
they turned around and told the en-.
ploye that the charter was not good
for them because the Board Of Com
merce and many prominent Detroit
ers were behind II with their sup.
port. They went further and prom
ised the laboring class that the labor
features In the charter would be
taken care Of by piecemeal amend
ment. Has any effort been made 20
keep this promise? No, Of course
not.
when ] was fghting for the, pro
gressfve measures In the new char.
ter, was approached by the ring
politicians and their emissaries. They
told me that the charter would b.
defeated unless the progressive meas
tires we're dropped from II. They
promised to support 1t. II we would
agree TO modify some OF the amend
ments. We told them we would stand
by the good features In the charter,
believing and knowing that that would
be helpful to the honest and eficient
government OF our city. Finally the
ring politicians argued down to one
provision. II we would forget the
preferential ballot, they told ns, the
charter would be adopted. They knew
that this provision would be the
death knell OF machine rule and nat
urally they did not want to lose their
grip on the throats of the voters.
I'VE stood by our guns. despite
overtures that were made to us from
time to time by the leaders Of the
ring. What was the result? They
went out and used their forces to de-
feat the charter. They filed the
people with lies and quoted bogus
decisions 70 knock the proposed char
ter. They succeeded. and now we
are trying Ia another way "a. do for
the people what the ring politicians
prevented us from doing by securing
the adoption Of the charter, .s
1lr. Ingram referred to mis- personAl
work on the charter commissi0h and
also 10 his efforts IN the constitution
al convention. He 1ayed the present
administration for allowing itself to
be controlled by private interests 10
the detriment Of the city at large.
III ] have to pledge my soul and
buy my election. will say right here
that I don't want it, declared Mr.. In
gram. AZ want 70 60 into the city
hall once dnfettered and capable OF
carrying out my own ideas. or not at
ALL
Mr.. Ingram's speech, which lasted
until after the whistle had sounded
for the return Of the workmen to the
shops, was listened to with wrapt
attention by the throng and he was
literally applauded when he finished.
He was accompanied By John Faust,
his campaign manager, and Joseph
Merrell, Democratic candidate for city
clerk.