Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-11-02
GUERRILLA POLITICS
IRRESPONSIBLE guerrillas in bot

NOEHklIIA FOL,lIIS
IRRESPONSIBLE guerrillas in both po-
litical parties have for weeks been making
an altogether shameful use Of the subtler
agencies of propaganda. Yeggmen and bur-
glars are chivalrous gentlemen beside the
nameless thugs who, from a safe place in the
dark, fling poisoned rumors at defenseless
opponents. Your routine criminal faces a
known risk. Slanderers who work from a
safe ambush do greater damage and run no
risk at all.
Mr. Harding and the men who have had
charge of his campaign had no means of
dealing with the paid liars who functioned
with extraordinary energy during the clos
ing weeks of the fight. Vile ISLANDERS, aimed
at mans forebears, can not be debated in
public even to prove the cruel falsity of a
manufactured lie. Lincoln was dead and the
world at large was breathless with a sudden
sense Of his immeasurable greatness and the
bitterest among those who had been his enc
mics were overwhelmed and humbled and
sorrowful when wolves in an opposing fac
tion started rumors quite as groundless and
even more base than those that have been
circulated as anti Republican propaganda in
the last few weeks. Truth does not easily
overtake a lie. Generations of testimony
and research revealed the monstrous njus-
tice of the libel for which ignorant and brutal
antagonists of Lincoln's party were re-
sponsible. Yet even now that ancient false
hood shows its face for a moment in the
current Of historical discussion. Right
minded people who hope for government by
generous and enlightened opinion and for an
ultimate victory of reason over rant in
American affairs have been sickened by much
that they have had to listen to since the
campaign for the presidency began to take
form.
Mr.. Wilson has not been spared. Afro
cious ISLANDERS circulated by whispers or by
guarded innuendo have been aimed at the
White House and at a man who served his
country till he fell under the weight of un-
exampled burdens. Few Presidents escaped
the attacks Of malignant bigots who lurk
always in the background of every party
beyond the control of responsible managers
and leaders. The lunatic fringe that Roose-
velt spoke about has had to be reckoned with
in every campaign. Newspapers know this.
Yet many Of them went to extraordinary
pains to make it appear that the incredibly
bad taste of Colonel George Harvey, revealed
in a cartoon that outraged decent sentiment
everywhere in the United States, proved
Senator Harding and his associates to be
somehow irreligious, cynical and con-
temptuous of the cherished beliefs and ira
ditions of Christian people. Colonel Harvey
has ever been an embarrassment to his po-
litical friends. He must vent his hatreds or
perish. Why candidate who has nothing
in common with him should be pilloried for
one Of his characteristic performances is
more than fair minded men can understand.
The Republican partisans are by no means
free from blame. Often enough they have
offended as shamefully as their opponents.
We in this country have only to look toward
Europe to perceive the infinite folly and
peril of deliberately created religious hatreds
that divide nations and SOW devastating sus-
pcions and dislike among friends. Yet, not
| long ago, there was issued what purported to
be a reprint from a religious journal which
blandly described the ways in which
Democratic victory at the polls would mean
| the predominance Of Catholic influence in
Washington and pave the way for an effort
to establish the temporal power of the Pope
in the United States. Copies Of this as
tonishing bit Of campaign literature were
mailed in vast quantities to fraternal orders
everywhere in the United States. The re-
ligioys journal credited with the article is
| a myth. 1t does not exist. The article in
| question was written by some propagandist
II
country and gross misrepresentation Of a
vast class Of Americans. who have proved in
every emergency, in peace and in war, that
their religious convictions have never colored
their political beliefs or diminished by a
shadow their loyalty to the ideals and prin- =
ciples on which our government rests The
worst Of it is that such efforts to divide
| America, to create hatreds and suspicious
| out of the thin air can, like the lies crcu- :
lated to wreck the regulations of individual
candidates, be traced to the cheaper and
meaner Holsters who would 60 to any end
in the hunt for Offices for themselves or
their friends.
The difficulty of dealing with scoundrels
of this sort is apparent. Until they are
hustled out into the daylight and branded
and finally ignored by the great and fair
minded public many able men will shrink
from politics and successive Presidents will
have reason to know what Washington felt
when he said that he would rather be in his
grave than endure further the vilifcation
Il.