Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-10-01
EDITORS AS CANDIDATES


to express opinions about subjects and questions
on which he is not very well informed, and in
the rush and hurry Of daily paper he has otter.
no time or opportunity to inform himself on the
subject which he is called upon to write about.
Moreover, the editor Of paper is subject to the
limitations Of all human kind. Sometimes he is
sick, or off on wedding trip, Or attending
political or business convention in another city.
He might even-at rare intervals-be taking
vacation. At such times some other writer must
take his place. but the editor must stand respon-
sible for all that his substitute may write, even
though he may disapprove Of its substance.
Under such circumstances it is rather risky
thing for great political party to choose an
editor as it's candidate for president of the Unit
ed States. His opinions, often hasty opinions,
on every sort of subject under the sun, lie re-
corded in unpershable black ink in the files Of
his paper. A search in those files is sure to
reveal opinions and sentiments that have been
changed by changing circumstances as we'll as
not few that he never held at all, being the
thought process of some substitute writer when
he was not on the job Both the Republican
and Democratic party chose editors for their
presidential candidates this year, and both Of
columns flung at them to their harm in this
campaign. 1t started early and with the Repub
licans who dug up some friendly utterances OF
Editor Cox about the German people and Ger
man-American citizens in this country. These
were written long before we went to war with
Germany but they were made the basis of
charges of pro-Germanism against Mr.. Cox. Of
course their date was carefully concealed. This
line Of campaigning however, was suddenly
dropped when it developed that Senator Hard
ing was going to get large section Of the ex-
treme pro-German vote. But they found an
other line of editorial criticism. A foolish edi-
torial appeared in one of Governor CoX's news
papers While he was absent at the state capital
which caused resentment among travelling men
and drummers. 1t is true that it is old stuff,
burned powder, for it was exploded in the cam
paign of Governor Cox for the governorship two
years ago. and fully explained. However, the
Republican committee has revived it and sent it
broadcast over the country. Here are the facts:
The offending editorial was published in the
Dayton News on August IA, 1914, at a time when
Mr.. Cox was serving as governor Of Ohio and
was giving no attention to the affairs Of his
newspaper, which was entirely in charge of the
managing eQlLOr, MI IL T.. AuulieI IHS eoltOi- :
ial. which was written BY Howard Bratton,
SO full Of exaggerations and SO entirely out of
line with the we'll known and proven sympathies
of Governor Cox that it was brought to the gov
ernOr's notice.
Immediately after he learned of the publica
tion of the editorial, Governor Cox telegraphed
the managing editor of the News, under date Of
August "a 1914 as follows:
'My attention has been called to an editorial
which appeared in the Daily News in criticism
Of commercial Travellers This is an insult 50
gratuitous and uncalled for, an affront to an or
ganization of men who have made the present
development of the American markets possible,
and 50 radically in conflict with the policy of the
newspapers which | own and control that re-
quest you to insist at once upon the editorial
writer responsible for it, publishing an apology
addressed to the commercial travellers over his
signature without unnecessary delay
few days later Howard Bratton who wrote
the editorial, printed the following apology:
Upon returning to the city my attention has
been directed to an editorial published during my
absence which has given offense to travelling
men The spirit of the editorial has been alto
gether misunderstood. The commercial trav
eler is wholly necessary factor in distribution
and works along perfectly honorable and on le-
gitimate lines. I sincerely regret the interpreta-
ton that has been placed upon this editorial and
to anv who have taken umbrage, gladly apologize
for having expressed myself clumsily. Nothing
was farther from my intention than saying any
thing which could be construed as an attack on