The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1920-05-04
Tuesday, May A. 1920.
THE THUNDERS OF SILENCE
(By George II. Wyatt)

(by George H. Wyatt)
4 STORY, alleged to have been founded
1 Y on fact, but written with sufficient
amount of romance interviewer with the warp
to add the charms of fancy to its detail, ap.
peared in one of the popular magazines, run
ming through several issues, about the time
the poison squad" first began to unsheath
the pro-German claw in the American con-
gress.
This story purported to be the history OF
the political downfall of man who had been
honored by trusting and an admiring con-
stituency; who had been sent to represent
them, as an American representing an Amer
lean people, in the halls of the national leg
islature, but who, when the crucial moment
drew near showed the clOven foot and cast
his vote upon all measures appertaining to
the war with Germany, in such manner as
to embarrass the administration and create
the impression upon Wihelmstrasse that the
cause of the militaristic kaiser was dearer to
the hearts of Americans than was the cause
of humanity. that the double eagle Of the
Prussian should be honored above the Stars
and Stripes of Columbia.
The story, facts and fiction ntertwined
and interviewer, tells how the newspapers
the big papers, the small papers, all the
papers, bombarded him with vtuperative
editorials, telling the people of the United
States how he had proven false to his trust
how his innermost heart seemed to throb for
and sympathize with the murderers who sent
the innocent women and children and the
non-combatant men to watery graves, when
the crime of the Lusitania was mcontrovert-
IDLY battened to the doors Of German kultur;
how his votes upon all matters of interest to
America and to the American people, were
to be found recorded against the successful
prosecution of the war
The story further told of how the press
wires flashed from one confine of the nation
to the other, stories of this mans perfidy,
blazoning to the world these stories recorded
IN type as ndestructible as were the tables
of stone. upon which the great God of the
Universe inscribed the laws handed down to
Moses in the days when the world was young
Everything published was true, incontro'
vertibly true. The editorials, vtriolic though
they were, were true. The news items chron-
iclings of his votes upon all matters, votes
cast against America and Amercanism, were
true. Not an action of his was misrepre-
sented by the most iconoclastic editor, not a
news story sent over the wires was distorted
not, a truth was stretched, not a statement
perverted from fact.
But the man, thought sub rosa to have
been one of the original members of the
infamousy historic poison squad" was not
feazed by any of this He wanted publicity
he craved publicity as only professional
politician can crave it, he fattened upon il
like hungry kitten fattens on cream.
He reasoned that the editorial writers
and the newsmongers were keeping his name
before a news-thirsty public; that the public
could ever be found an erratic and suscept
ble animal; that constant telling Of his
faults and shortcomings would at least to 6
degree, react in boomerang manner: thai
when this reaction came he could do little
explaining, little lying, little spreading OF
the vaseline, and by telling the public that ht
had been traduced and malinged by rabit
editorial opponents, and by distorted and mis-
leading news stories, could depend upon thu
public's known vacillatons and turn all thu
publicity into good account in his own behalf
The very men, he reasoned, who were en-
deavoring to bring about his political dealt
were giving him exactly that which h
wanted, were keeping him in the limelight
were keeping his name before the people
1t mattered not to him that Patriotism
especially with true-hearted Americans, wa
law more binding and rigid and uncom
promising than were the laws of the Mede
and Persians; it mattered not to him tina
his actions were as criminal as Cain, tina
his heartbeats toward his country were a
false as hell; it mattered not that. the brav
American boys who were fighting and dyn
in the front line trenches, were looking t
this country for the aid which his vote wa
instrumental in denying them, nothing mat
tered so he could keep his name in the publ