The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-08-11
COY. COXS SPEECHOF
ACCEPTANCE AN4LYZED
Deft Appeal to Popular Prejudices@ No Repudia-
ton of Wilson = Mirrepresents Senator Lodges
Appeal to Railroad Labor Vote - Something for
Men With Grievence i. ..4aa,

The senator used that language five
months before the armistice was signed
When Jimmy Cox inserted that little
paragraph in his long address he de-
scended to level that even his most de-
voted admirers cannot defend
The governor goes on to say that he
IS opposed to making any separate peace
with Germany, that the first duty of the
new administration will be the ratifica-
ton OF the treaty, that he favors going
INTO the league of nations with some kind
OF reservation or statement as to the Am
erIcan Interpretation of the covenant
so far he marches with Senator LODGE
but he is cautious upon that last point,
the idea obviously being to satisfy Mr.
Wilson without absolutely saying that
there shall be no qualifications of any
sort.
His attitude upon the railroad prob
lens is what might be expected from one
anxious to get the labor vote. He re-
ters to the present as a period for a
thorough test of private ownership. y
He says "before the war the entire rail
road systems of the country were in dis
Irepute." He declares that any attempt
to discredit the federal operation of the
railroads during the years of grave emer-
.gency is unfair" and even ''insincere".
Is he, then, in favor of government own
.ership? He takes pains not explicitly to
say so. And he must know that the gov
eminent did not take over the roads be-
cause private ownership had failed, and
he knows that an overwhelmingly public
sentiment demanded the return of the
roads to private ownership once the war
had ended He knows, too, that federal
operation had been vastly expensive and
extremely inefficient.
Mr.. Cox wants a budget system, al
though President Wilson recently vetoed
budget BILL He talks at length, hut
largely in generalities, about the prob
lens of the farmer, practically his only
definite recommendation being that farm
crs of practical experience should have
places on the interstate commerce com
mission, the federal reserve board, the
federal trade commission and the tariff
commission. His only offering in the mat
ter ct taxation is that "a small tax prob
the total business of every going con
eern,' with the exception of wage earn
ers. salaried men, small business men and
aGriculturists," a proposition that the
hest minds of the country certainly will
sNeech he continues to sound the notes
that he thinks viii please the ear Of la
Tor, now referring to "the failure Of the
government to prevent inequalities and
aaain to "abuses of the writ of injunc-
ton" Much that he claims for his party
in the last eight years is not justly appro-
priated, as we see when we remember the
long service OF Senator Aldrich in making
possible the final passage under Demo
cratic administration of the federal re-
serve act.
The speech reads we'll 1t is a good
campaign document There is something
in it for everybody, especially for the man
with a grievance, the discontented who
offer susceptible minds for candidates
arpeals It is the outgiving of a smooth
politician and as such it win be regarded
when once it is carefully studied.