Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-10-13
MIR. KNOX ASSAMS
WILSONIAN SHAM
Former Secretary of State
Makes Striking Speech in
Westmorcland County

Greensburg, Pa. Oct. 13. - Demo-
cratic eXtravagances and shams were
exposed here last night by Philander
c. Knox, eX-Secretary of State, in u
notable speech opening the Republican
campaign in Westmoreland county.
The meeting brought together one of
the largest audiences assembled in
years. The district candidates and
MANY prominent men were here.
Secretary of the Commonwealth
Cyrus e. Woods presided at the meet
ing and made the opening address in
which he outlined the issues of the
campaign.
Senator Charles A. Snyder, candi-
date for Auditor General; Congress
sional candidates at large and district
candidates also spoke.
Mr.. Knox said, in part
with political parties, as with in
diNiduals, it pays to be honest Very
seldom has the electorate been suf-
ficiently deceived to influence an cleo
ton. and whenever this has occurred
the public has not hesitated to right
the wrong and wreak it's vengeance
upon the guilty parties when the de-
ception was disclosed.
THE Democratic party in this cam
paign is offering spurious wares to the
public in an effort to re-elect President
Wilson; it is practicing receptions
which should be exposed to the world;
1t is misbranding its goods with all the
effrontery of the dishonest merchant
who sells you oleomargarine for butter
or sand for sugar.
1T is bidding for the votes of the
workingmen with so-called eight
hour law which is no eight-ho law
at ALL but merely sham, and jeopar-
dies the freedom and vital interests of
labor generally.
The most glaring sham in the
claims of the Democratic party is the
Adamson law, which purports to be an
eisht-hour law. and the title of which
reads, An act to establish an eight
hour day
But the act does not establish an
elght-hour day, or pretend to establish
it, or even intimate its desirability. 1t
is an act to increase for a period of
nine months the wages of men work
ing on railroad trains operating be-
tween States, and directing the ap-
pointment of a commission to deter
mine how the new basis of wages will
work out as between the employer and
the employe.
The eight-hour day. as you and I
and all the world understand it, is not
involved. When the bill was before
Congress members of that body and
the public generally were given to un-
derstand that this was a bill to estab-
lish an eight-hour workday for certain
railroad employees. Even now the
Democrats are clinging to that term in
describing the law, and thus are try
ing to keep up the deception.
But the people are coming to. un-
derstand it now and are learning that
the label upon the package does not
truthfully describe the goods contained
therein. The deception is being eX-
posed,
I'm contrast to this Adamson law,
with it sdeceptive mask of an eight
hour day, is the record of genuine
legislation that has been enacted by
the Republican party in the interest of
labor. Consider the real eight-hour
workday that has been provided by
law for government employees and for
men employed upon government con-
tracts laws which leave no doubt as
to their meaning and which were
framed and passed, not under duress,
but after full and complete investi-
cation and study, thus representing
the deliberate Judgment of Congress.
President Wilson has publicly
claimed for the Democratic party the
credit for giving the country the Fed
eral reserve law when as matter of
fact this law was modelled after the
Aldrich currency law, the passage of
which was prevented by the Democrats
in Congress.
THE President also claimed that the
new Federal reserve law prevented a
panic in 1914, when as a matter of
fact his own son-in-law. Secretary of
the Treasury McAdoo, has stated Off
cially that the panic was prevented by
the Republican Aldrich-Vreeland emer-
gency law and not by the Federal re-
serve law.
This list of false claims could be
extended indefinitely. We hear them
uttered from every stump from Shadow
Lawn to the Golden Gate, and we read
them in every publication that has
espoused the cause of the President
of humanity"