New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-05
WILSON CHARGES
LABOR COERCION
Continued from page

Citations brought many cheers from the
audience.
President Wilson said, in part:
81 mu< say, it has been very hard
in recent weeks not to take of my
coat and get back into the fighting
that is now developing in this state
in the effort TO reinstate in power the
men whom We routed six years ago
and held up TO the reprobation and
contempt of all lovers Of just and
true government. because 1t is apt TO
stir the blood very holly to see THESE
men trying to get into power again:
1--WE have heard great deal OF
talk in condemnation of invisible
government Invisible government
never existed in more hateful form
than il has existed in past years IN
this state of New Jersey, and that
invisible government never had more
successful places of concealment than
it had in such localities as Atlantic
City, from where the candidate for
Governor on the Republican side has
been chosen, and it never received
more successful and persistent de-
fence than it has received from the
newspapers which he owns and con-
trolls.
1T is delightful to fight the things
that are wrong. 1t is delightful to
hit something that is worth destroy
ing. The only thing that is disap-
pointing in contests of this sort is
that these fellows dodge and will not
get hit They sneak and will not re-
veal their purpose. They have no
sand or stomach for the fight in the
open and they erect things that look
like bulwarks, but are mere pretences.
Disappearing Issues
"But, after all, my fellow citizens,
the thing that is being attempted in
New Jersey is only part of what is
being attempted in the United States,
and being attempted in the United
States with more and more transpar-
ency of purpose. Look how the cam
paigu has gone!
First Of all. an attempt to set up
some kind of handsome issue-not
very interesting attempt, because the
issue was new one every week. As
soon as you approached what was said
to be the issue it seemed to fade and
disappear, and there was nothing for
you to grasp or grapple. And after
finding that the search for an issue
was IN vain latN came uOWH OHCe nlOIc
to the only thing they have in recent
years ever known how to talk about
and that was the protective tariff.
They know perfectly well that all
the pretences about the protective
tariff have been torn away, not by the
oratory of Democratic speakers, but by
the patent demonstrations of fact. They
know that the working men OF this
country may have been deceived for n
little while, but they cannot be de-
ceved all the time.
They know just as well as we know
that the industries in which the high
est protection was given paid the lowest
wages, and they know that the highest
wages were paid in the least protected
industries. That is matter Of record.
Not only that, they know that in some
of the most highly protected industries
the conditions under which the labor
ing people lived were disgrace to our
civilization.
Conditions of Labor
"They know that the men and women
were ground as low as they could be
ground, and that these gentlemen who
profess American patriotic feeling for
the American laborer were most eager
10 import laborers from abroad and en-
ploy those who, because they did not
know what America could afford them.
were willing 10 take what they could
get. They know that the conditions Of
the laboring people in their employ
were a patent contradiction OF all the