The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1920-09-30
Low DOWN POLITICS


II Governor Cox is to be judged BY
ms cheap utterances on the stump. he
IS not exactly man of high states
manship. Addressing a crowd al
Nampa, Idaho, last Tuesday he said
as reported by the Associated Press,
II 80 per cent of the people will
forget their politics and help me lick
the per cent that is raising a fund
OF from $25,OO0,000 to $4,000. 900
co beat me, we will make govern
ment an agency for the 100 per cent
and not for the 2 per cent.
probably Governor Cox imagined
that ne was speaking to a crowd of
ignorant radicals from whom he ex-
pected to get few votes, and he de-
scended to their level. Surely he did
not take into account the fact that
salient points in his speeches are
published by the press of the Pacific
Coast. While few hundred voters
could hear him, a thousand times as
many could read his remarks. The
average American voter, Republican
or Democrat, will blush for him. will
De genuinely disappointed that Amer
lean craftsmanship has sunk to this
When the Democratic nominee for
president said that 2 per cent of the
people were raising fund of S25.-
100000 to $3O,OOO,OOO to click" him
ne uttered a deliberate lie. We do
not base this assertion on our own
ideas, which might be partisan. but
on the comment of correspondents
OF Democratic papers country wide
who were frank to admit that the Gov
charges were not founded upon fact.
Some weeks ago Mr.. Cox started a
sensation by public declaration that
the Republican managers were Great
ing "slush" fund of SIS, 1000, 900 to
ouy the presidency, and pledged him
self to prove the statement. Later
ne reduced the amount to So. OOO. 600
Searching investigation by the senate
committee, which included prominent
democrats, revealed the fact that
about 100000 had been contrib
uted IN relatively small subscriptions
toward 100000 fund for legit-
innate campaign expenses. To save
his face, Cox told the committee that
a "slush" fund was being raised. and
that it was their duty to find it.
What manner of man is it who
having uttered a false statement. and
that statement having been proved
false, not only repeats the lie, but
makes the new lie twice as large as
the original one? Campaign lies are
common. All political parties use
them. The usual course is to en-
ploy irresponsible paid speakers or
hired publicity agents to promulgate
them. Party managers still their
conscience with the argument that
the end justifies the means, but the
present campaign affords the first
illustration in American history of a
candidate for president spreading, in
his own behalf, a proved campaign
lie
Governor Cox has fine powers as a
campaign orator. He has the capac-
ity to put enthusiasm into his party
supporters. He yields a kind of
hypnotic spell over sympathetic
hearers. 1t is a keen disappointment
to his fellow countrymen to see him
using great natural gifts to color the
truth, to deceive deliberately the very
persons at whose hands he expects
the greatest honor that it is possible
for Americans to bestow.
There is enough evil in the body
polite without manufacturing any.
At time when red-eyed bomb plots
are all ''the CO." it is a grave respon-
sibility indeed which a man of Mr..
Cox standing accepts when he tells
uniformed fellow countrymen that
2 per cent of the nation is buying
the presidency of the United States.
Every honest citizen would con-
denim practical campaign manager
for hiring low down speaker, equip
ped with large lung power, to spread
utterly false charges against the OPP
position party. What shall be said of
a man aspiring to the presidency of
the United States who persistentIy
asseverates campaign lie which he
knows to be a lie?-The Portland
(Ore.) Telegram, Sept. 18, 1920.
A former Wilson ambassador, Lee
Merriweather, in France, is puzzled.
He says in part:
"The presidents league commits
America to meddling in the affairs OF
the old world in other dangerous
ways. Only recently the president
demanded that we undertake a "Man-
datet" for Armenia. Mr.. Wilson OBJ
timistically thinks that $4,000 Amer
lean soldiers mad 7OO,OO0,00O Amer
lean dollars will see the mandate