Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1924-08-29


a crown" is evidently a true prop
hecy so far as regards the present in
cumbent Of the White House, whose
political henchmen are reading the
handwriting on the wall and becom-
ing wildly alarmed over the indica-
tions of a stampede in the direction
of the La Toilette camp.
All means looking towards the
checking of the ever increasing popu-
larity of the Wisconsin senator and
distracting attention from truly vital
issues will be resorted to, and with
this end in view oorders have been
issued to "Play up La Follette's war
record"
This means to make political capi-
tai from La Follette's St. Paul speech
in September, 1917, in which he was
wilfully, maliciously and falsely re-
ported by the American Press Asso-
citation as saying eve had NO griev-
ance against Germany"
This report was afterwards cGatss-
dicted by the A. P. A. and MY. La
Toilette was vindicated by the United
States Senate.
The following account of the true
inwardnes of the affair is taken from
Labor, published in Washington, D.
C.
President Coolidge's campaign
managers have passed out the word
"Play up the war record of La Fol-
lette, especially in the Middle West"
The Coolidge managers want the
farmers to forget that the value of
the farms of this county had decreas-
ed eighteen billion dollars during the
last four year, or since Harding and
Coolidge have been in charge of the
executive department of the govern
ment.
The research department of the
Sears-Roebuck great mail order house
has recently completed survey
which proves the truth of the above
statement, and Senator Brookhart
and others have made the same as
sertion, but the standpatters have
waved the figures aside as absurd.
Hence, the cry from Chairman But
Ter of the Coolidge campaign commit
tee "play up the war record of La
Follettew as a means of distracting
public attention from some of the
vital issues before the people.
The Progressives welcome the
issue. There is nothing in the war
record of Senator La Toilette of
which any American need feel asham-
ed.
The attack on Senator La Toilette
is based entirely on a speech which
he delivered before a convention call
ed to consider the appalling increase
in the cost of living which followed
the declaration of war. This meeting
was held in st. Paul on September 20,
1917, five months after this country
had entered the war.
During those five months, La Fol-
lette had submitted in the Senate his
famous report recommending that
large part of the cost of the war
should be raised through heavy taxes
on wealth instead Of by the issuance
of bonds.
La Toilette had always been un-
popular with the predatory inter
ests" but his war-tax report made
him more than ever a marked"
man.
The Associated Press report of La
Follette's st. Paul speech quoted the
Senator as having said:
eve had no grievances against
Germany"
This sentence was seized upon by
newspapers all over the country and
by so-called patriotic" societies. 1t
was denounced as seditious and the
Senate was flooded with petitions
asking for La Follette's removal.
Eight months after La Toilette
had made his st. Paul speech the
Associated Press in a communication
to the Senate committee which was
considering the entire subject ac-
knowledged it had lied.
Instead of saying "We had no
grievances against Germany" the
Associated Pre's admitted that the