The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-08-18

currents of the 1916 campaign have been
started afresh with respect to both pres
idential candidates.
The trouble is that people who have
lived for years in the same towns or
cities with the respective candidates and
whose minds are colored by grievances
or prejudices and sometimes by imagi-
native powers. not confined to politics
alone have given free rein to their
tongues. And what a person says who
claims to have known the one candidate
sor the ether, efor years. is apt to say
is frequently repeated as absolute truth.
IT. ID perhaps the most distasteful phase
of the presidential campaign and were
it not for the fact that it as playing so
prominent a part in the. word Of mouth
propaganda of the campaigh it could be
ignored. Many people who would other
wise Judge the candidates on what they
say in print or what is said about them
in newspapers may be swayed in their
Judgment hy these. poisonous tales and
not one Of them, either with respect to
Senator Harding or Governor Cox, has
ANYTHING more to do with the qualifica-
tons of these men to be president Of
the United States than the private lives
of the voters who will do the electing
next November.
1t is not necessary to describe even the
nature Of these stories for let it suffice
to say that everything that has ever been
| charged against persons in public life
il being said about Harding and Cox
Not satisfied to- inquire into the domes
tic relations Of each of the candidates
the tale mongers have even gone back a
generation or two and in one instance
nearly 100 years to resurrect skeletons OF
moral laxity.
| Anyone who listens carefully to the
stories told by both sides cannot but be
| impressed with the fact that the circum
stances in each case afford absolutely nc
| index to character. The trouble is that
party workers have an idea this is the
| thing that makes votes and while on
| the subject of party workers, the writer
has seen enough and heard enough to be
come convinced that the Democrats and
Republicans in the wards and precincts
where this propaganda is being peddlec
are equally culpable.
| Somehow it appears to a disinterestec
| observer as if the national and STATE
managers could put a stop to this sort o
thing which is as degrading as it is polit
ically popular. There are plenty o
| faults in the policies and promises o
| Harding and Cox for the voter to deter
mine which man is better able to man
age the public business of this countr,
| for four long and uninterrupted years.
| Some politicians in Ohio haven't givel
a very good example of political chivalr!
at least the party workers haven't. !
the newspapermen who are attached 70
| the time being with Senator Harding o
those who are with Governor Cox wer
to confess an the stories that preiudicet
Republicans and Democrats have endeay
ored to spIant" on them. It would be a
shocking as it is probably incredible t
| those who do not understand the ex
tremes to which some politicians win e
to accomplish their purpose. ANY ma
or woman who permits his or her vot
| to be influenced by these stories how
ever circumstantial they may appea
win be doing an injustice to Senate
Harding and Governor Cox for Will
both are human beings. they are honor
able and honest men with morality an
conscience far above the average an
al the stories about drinking. gambling
| business deals, domestic troubles, ance
tutl EEUealxr,esseso and the like can be di
missed as having absolutely no more r,
ationship 20 the true worth Of the tw
presidential candidates than the colo
of their hair or the shade of their eyes