Evening star., 1950-10-28
The Political Min
Smear Tuft' Campaign
Put On by Labor Bosses
Ferguson Confident in Ohio
Roce for Senute Seat
Bx Gould Lincoln

By Gould Lincoln
CLEVELAND, Oct 28.-To find an
equal of the smear Taft" campaign put
on by the labor opponents Of Ohio's
senior Senator in the present campaign
it is necessary to go back to the "smears"
of AL Smith in 1928 and Of Herbert Hoo
yer in the early 1930s. In hundreds OF
thousands of pamphlets-one Of them a
so-called comic strip booklet-Senator
Taft has been depicted first as son Of
the rich who never did lick OF work
until after he left college. and second as
legislator whose only thought has
been to make the rich richer. He is
pictured as the foe of the farmer, Of the
war veteran and, Of course, Of the work
ing man.
Obviously, the campaign is strictly one
against Senator Taft-rather than
campaign for his Democratic opponent
in the Senate race, State Auditor Joseph
("Jumping Joe') r. Ferguson. True, the
facts that Mr.. Ferguson went to work. as
q boy, selling newspapers, in butchers
shop, and in coal mine, are all brought
out, and his four terms as State auditor
in which he is pictured as a saver OF
the peoples money.
But the labor bosses who are running
Mr.. Fergusons campaign did not want
him for a cadnidate. They wanted flrst
Governor Lausche because they believed
he was the strongest Democrat IN the
State and would win in a walk against
Senator Taft. They would have settled
for Mayor Tom Burke of Cleveland or
for Murray Lincoln, president OF the
Farm Bureau Insurance Companies. But
I,<bk rvof fEny~ IN
had to take Mr.. Ferguson.
Called Hate Campaign.
So it's a campaign totally against Sen
ator Taft, hate campaign by the labor
bosses who want to convince every mem
ber Of Congress that they must jump
through the hoop when labor bosses
speak or else. 1t is a campaign waged
desperately to convince members OF the
incoming Congress they must vote repeal
of the Taft-Hartley Labor Act.
Take for example the oft-repeated as
sertion in the anti-Taft speakers hand
book that Senator Taft is against the
veterans. The book says: Robert TAFT
is against the service man-in or out OF
uniform" 1t goes on to say that Sena-
tor Taft voted against free postage foI
the soldiers-while he himself has the
frank privilege for his own mail. The
record shows that Senator Taft voteo
for free postage for the soldiers. The
book says. too. that Senator TAFT was
against allowing soldiers to vote in 1914.
That also is untrue, for Senator TAFT
voted for having absentee ballots sent
to the servicemen with full list OF
candidates, instead of the bob-tall bal
lot containing only the names OF the
candidates for President and Vice Presi-
dent, as demanded by the CIO.
Senator Taft's proposals for Federal
aid to housing Federal aid for educa-
tion, and for health aids are all turned
by the labor bosses into efforts to de-
feat the interests Of the people. The
money and work put into the distortions,
half truths and lies to defeat Senator
Taft runs into big figures. Literally, mil
lions of documents have been printed
and distributed.
How this campaign has reacted on the
voting public remains to be seen. The
labor leaders believe it has been effective.
Indeed they claim Senator Taft's de-
feat by anything from 100, 900 to 250.000
votes.
Ferguson Confident.
Mr.. Ferguson, the direct antithesis to
and stocky and bouncy when he is on the
platform-in background. learning and
experience in dealing with national is
sues, is a good scrapper but not good
speaker. He mumbles and misses words
at times. He waves his arms and jumps
about, but he is sure-fire for applause
when he rakes Senator Taft with CIO-
prepared epithet. He is good mixer.
too and in his many campaigns for
State auditor and his tenure of Office. he
has built up a personal organization Of
kind.
More than q year ago Mr.. Ferguson
made up his mind he was going after
the Democratic senatorial nomination.
He saw Gov Lausche backing away from
it and he figured that in a Democratic
primary he would have as good chance
as and perhaps better than any one else.
He declined to step aside to permit the
labor crowd to hand the nomination
either to Mr. Burke or to Murray Lin
coin. So he is the candidate. and just
now has had the satisfaction Of hearing
Vice President Barkley, speaking for him
in Akron, call him a man of the peo-
pie" and say: II heard before I ar
rived in Ohio that this man did not have
a college education. Well, neither did
Abraham Lincoln"
Before Mr.. Ferguson was nominated.
he confidently told Democratic State
leader: IT can beat Taft; I'll go into
alleys and drag out votes where Taft
would never CO."
Not even Mr.. Ferguson, however, has
covered Ohio in this campaign as has
the indefatigable Taft, more mellow
and friendly Taft than the voters have
ever seen before.
Senator Taft has tried in vain to get
Mr. Ferguson to appear in debate against
him, or even to appear on the same
stage.
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