The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-08-17
.COX'S PLAUS|B|[|TY
REACHES CROWD
sSsss
Makes Good Impression In
Speech at. Wheeling, w.
!. Va, G, o. P. Territory,
His LABOR RECORD
A STRONG CARD
May Play that More than League of
Nations In Industrial Cities-Says
People May Call Him Jimmy After
He Is Elected President.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

4
By DAVID LAWRENCE.
Especial Despatch to The Reformer Copy
right 1920
| WHEELING, w Va, Aug. 17.--Gov-
ernor Cox's first effort outside his own
state was perhaps CHARACTERISTIC of his
whole eampaign-it was uphill The first
audience the Democratic state conven-
tion of West Virginia--ean be dismissed
without much comment. The partisans as
sembled liked the speech and the speaker,
eheered him and came away cheered over
their aggressive leader. Inc second audi
enee, gathered out of doors at night. on
the grassy slopes that forms a sort of nat
ural bIeaehers at the river front, was
made up of Republicans as well as Dem
ocratss
1t was an average crowd Governor
Cox's voice carried well. He got close
to his audience and talked a language
they fully understood 1t was a typical
| Jimmy Cox speech which means that he
| told the crowd they could continue to call
him Jimmy il he were elected president
and that they could forget about the
Futile OF president, that he wasn't fighting
| Harding personally, whom he respected
and admired, but fighting his record in
| public life and the party that nominated
him at Chicago and that Performance
counted $4,000 times more than promise. =
| This theme, enabled the governor to de-
fine in elementary terms why he re-
garded Harding as a reactionary and
himself as a, progressive.
4 The Ohio governor talked about the
new constitution in Ohio and how the
l poor man used to be denied justice and
| how injured workmen were unable to
| ,et compensation through the courts. He
| told how Harding fought the adoption OF
| the new constitution and how he, Cover
| nor Cox, won the fight in a referendum
lbY an Overwhelming majority, Then he
| discussed his own methods of deaiing
with industrial troubles and declared
proudly that he had not cast single sol
der into a labor controversy, that the
state militia had not fred single shot
nor pointed a single bayonet to settle a
strike And when the governor asked his
audience to inquire of any employer in
Ohio if property had been preserved or
of any employee if the state had done
him violence or of any Justice Of the SUI
preme court if the majesty of the law
lad been upheld, there We're real cheers.
For they have their fill of industrial
roubles In the West Virginia coal fields
md even the Democratic governor OF the
state isn't any too popular with labor
The audience was far more interested
II the governors discussion of Industrial
unrest than anything else and it is safe
nrediction that he viii win more votes IN
the big cities by talking about that than
the league of nations with all its com.
plexities.
The writer would not say that Cover
nor Cox took his audience by storm and
won a 100 per cent or even IS per cent
share of converts to his cause. But he
did introduce enough plausibillty In his
regiment and talked just enough about
things the avealge crowd undeRtands
to send thousands home thinking more
concretely about campaign issues. And
that is progress, at least, with an audience
that came with so many well set preju-
liees For the governor seems to admit
ne is fighting uphill when he tackles the
notion that "this is a Republican year
eontending that while that view may have
prevailed some months ago. the nomina.
ton at Chicago changed things consider
ably
1t was interesting to listen to the
comment of some of the persons in the
crowd after the speech was ended 1t
ran something like this:
Good talker, anyway.
Eyes, but he's a Democrat
'.Smart man-and he will drive Hard
ing off the front porch, too"
/ Harding don't need to get off the
porch-everybody knows what he stands
for
Tt looks to me as if Jimmy Cox would
give us glass of beer if he is elected.
II never thought he had chance-but