The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-08-18
GOSS|PS ARE AT
WORK SLANDER|NG
COX AND HARDING
QuadrenniaI Propaganda of
Lies About Private Lives of
Nominees Getting Under
Way, Says David Lawrence
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

Nopeclal Correspondent of The News
pIe hhStalnGT9N, hsva ~ Aug. 1S.-Most peo-
men men are the worst offenders, but anyone
VINO spends several days studying the
p;esluentlal campaign must be con :
,,,nna r,nueo l that the male of the species is
more deadly than the female.
for campaign whispers and lies have
oegun their insidious journey to the
.s lliIlus OF the voters outside Of Ohio. The
PilVlate lives of Senator Harding and
Mov, S,o COX have been thoroughly can
,in nassed and the trails of slander which
played so prominent a part in the mn :
dercurrents of the 1916 campaign have
D!een started with respect to both nres-
idential candidates. -
;, me trouble is that people would have
nved Tor years in the same towns or
cities with the respective candidates
ana whose minds are colored by grfey-
ainces or, prejudices and sometimes by
imaginative powers not confined to poi-
tongues. ~ ''i''i
- And nd what person says who claims
70 nave known the one candidate or
the other for years is apt to saw
frequently as absolute truth II n per-
maps the most distastefui phase Of the
presidential campaign, and were it NOT
30 sor me tact that It is playing already
SO prominent part in the word Of
mouth. propaganda of the Campaign IL
could be ignored.
Many people who would otherwise
Judge the candidates on what they
say IN print or what Is said about them
IN newspapers, may be swayed in their
Judgment by the poisonous tales, and
not one of them, either with respect
to Senator Harding or Gov. Cox, has
anything more to do with the qualifi-
cations 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 IL
suffice to say that everything that has
ever been charged against persons in
PUBIC life Is being said about Hardin 6
and Cox. Not satisfied to inquire into
the domestic relations of each of the
candidates, the talemongers have even
gone back geenration or two and in
one instance nearly hundred years, to
resurrect skeletons of moral laxity,
Anyone who listens carefully to the
stories told by both sides cannot but
be impressed with the facts that the
circumstances in each case afford abb
soGtely no 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 work
ers, the writer has seen enough and
heard enough to become convinced that
the Democrats and Republicans In the
wards and precincts where this propa-
ganda Is being peddled are equally cul-
pabe.
Somehow it appears to a disinterested
observer as If the national and state
managers could put stop to this sort
of thing, which Is as degrading as 1t Is
politically popular. There are plenty of
faults in the policies and promises of
Harding and Cox for the voter to de-
termine which man is better able to
manage the public business of this coun-
try for four long and uninterrupted
years.
Some politicians in Ohio haven't given
a very good example of political chiv-
alry-at least, the party workers
haven't. If the newspaper men who
are attached for the time being with
Senator Harding or those who are with
that prejudiced Republicans and DEM
ocrats have endeavored to plant on
them, it would be as shocking as it Is
probably incredible to those who do not
understand the extremes to which some
politicians will go to accomplish their
purpose.
Any man or woman who permits his
or her vote to be influenced by these
stories, however cireumstantial they
may apear, will be doing an injustice
to Senator Harding and Gov. Cox, for,
while both are human beings, they are
honorable and honest men, with NOR
ality and conscience far above the av-
erage, and all the stories about drink
ing, gambling, business deals, domes-
tic troubles, ancestral weaknesses and
the like can be dismissed as having
absolutely no more relationship to the
true worth Of the two presidential can
didates than the color of their hair
or the shade of their eyes.
Copyright, 1920, by David Lawrence)