Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1950-06-30

Seeking TG-GlcCllOu AOA llAo
Alphonso Taft, 61-year-old son
of wealth, whose father was a
one-time president of the United
States.
Opposing him is Joseph Ter
renee Ferguson, sfor IA years
Auditor of State, the 58-year-old
son of poverty, whose father was
a Shawnee (Ohio) coal miner.
Their entire lives have been
as different as their back
grounds.
Taft was born with silver
spoon in his mouth, has never
known want. His only great de
sire, which has not been filled,
is to occupy the seat his father
used in the White House. To
achieve that end, Robert AL
phonso Taft has played politics
with one of the worst political
gangs in Ohio's history and,
after winning election to the
Senate, launched a campaign of
continuous sniping at the New
Deal and the governments war
program, to keep his nose before
the public.
Ferguson, on the other hand,
has known little but want in his
life. From the time when he was
nine, and went to work to sup
port his m o t h e r and three
brothers and sisters, because of
his fathers serious injury in the
mines, Joe Ferguson has known
a constant battle to achieve sue
cess.
But success to Joe Ferguson
has meant more than mere cleo
ton to public office, and so he
has resisted the temptations of
the most tempting job in Ohio's
offocialdom - that of state au-
ditor where the opportunities
for corruption and fraud are
tremendous.
In their political views, the
senatorial candidates are just as
definitely opposed.
Taft, who delights in the name
"Mr. Republican" is the self
styled leader of the most con-
servative, reactionary bloc in
Congress. He has fought on every
single issue, to protect the ma
tion's wealthy and powerful
minority, even at the expense of
tramping on the underprivileged
and the underfed.
To Ferguson, this kind of poll
teal philosophy is anathema.
Standing firmly on the Fair Deal
platform, Ferguson privately, as
well as on the record, abhors the
Taft school of thought.
To Taft's jibes at the "Tru-
man Welfare State" Ferguson
has a sweeping answer. He says,
81 believe in welfare. No notion
or no people has ever gone NOR
ally or economically bankrupt
taking care of human needs. In
deed, the danger of bankruptcy
comes from those who would
ignore and reject human need,
human welfare, human happi-
ness and the common dream of
mankind for better world"
When Taft forms his opinions
from textbooks and switches his
political stand overnight, if he
feels 1t will bring more votes,
Ferguson is blunt and forth
right. He speaks his mind, often
to the distress of his personal
political advisers, who some
times would prefer him TO tread
more easily.
He's fond Of honey examples,
from his own experience, to de-
scribe his position on the major
problems of the day. For exam
pie, when Ferguson discusses
national health insurance, one
of Tafts pet hates, he doesn't
talk OF the cost, which is Tafts
major point.
Ferguson speaks instead of
the value. He recalls the time
his father needed a major OPP
Grafton as the result of an in
jury sustained in the mines. To
a miners family, the doctors de-
mand for cash on the line was
major catastrophy and Fergu-
son recalls how, as a skinny kid
OF nine, he sold papers, cleaned
up . grocery store every night
and a coal company office over
the we ken d, TO accumulate
enough nickels and dimes to pay
for the operation, performed on
kitchen table in the miners
shack the Fergusons called home.
AS President Jack Kroll OF the
Ohio CIO Council has pointed
out, Ferguson and Taft "are not
merely opponents in a political
campaign. They are symbols of
two worlds.
"One is the world of poverty,
hunger and despair for the work
ing man and his family. The
other is the world of hope and
human dignity"
Continuing. Kroll who IL nj