Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 204, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1920 — HAYS APPEALS TO MAINE VOTERS [ARTICLE]

HAYS APPEALS TO MAINE VOTERS

ALLEGATIONS THAT G O. P. IS TRYING TO “BUY” PRESIDENCY STRONGY DENIED. Augusta, Me., Aug. 21.—A ringing appeal to the Republicans of Maine to point the way for the nation “by sending forth the message that Maine continues inflexibly American” was voiced by Will H. Hays, Republican national chairman in an address to a state meeting of Republican workers here, which opened the state campaign today. Mr. Hays, after taking Candidates Cox and Roosevelt to task for “uttering an- outrageous falsehood” in their charges concerning the Republican campaign fund, issued a warning to his opponents against mud slinging and declared that “neither the Republican candidates nor the Republican management will take false aspersions lying down.” Chairman Hays’ Address. Chairman Hays’ address follows in full: “The functions of the chairman of a national committee have never been precisely defined. My own limited experience, however, has convinced me that the tasks which devolve upon one are sufficiently numerous and onerous, without including that of speechmaking. The principles of our party are set forth in our platform, are elucidated by our candidates and are amplified by our public speakers and our public journals. It is an admirable arrangement and one that should suffice. \ “And yet I did make a speech at the Chicago convention. It was not long. Indeed, it was such a little one that you may not have noticed it. I uttered three sentences, possibly four. One I recall distinctly. It was to the effect that the Republican party was meeting to accept from the people a mandate for the government of the United States. That statement was made in anticipation of the election to come in November. If its accuracy I am more firmly convinced now on the eve of September than I was then at the beginning of June.

A United Party. “I declared further that the great party of the Union had become united and that there would be no bolt from that convention. That prediction has been fulfilled to a degree that seemed hardly imaginable. Not only was there no bolt from the convention then; there has been no bolt from the party or from its candidates’since. Probably never before in the history of our party has the natural strife over nominations been followed by so complete unanimity of acceptance and approval. It is a part of my business to detect and heed signs of disaffection and I tell you honestly that I have found none, either in factions or among individuals. The bringing of that splendidly encouraging message constitutes the chief reason for my being with you today. “I addressed those few heartening words to the delegates in Chicago as your party chairman merely to ‘open the convention.’ It is in the same capacity that I now speak to you, on behalf of our resolute and perfected organization

to open the campaign. “I shall say little of the issues involved. It is not necessary. They are being unfolded and made clear daily with incomparable lucidity, directness and frankness, by your candidates. It suffices for me to. invite your attention to one point of peculiar significance. We have shown full readiness to meet our adversaries upon any battle field they might choose. . . . Every Challenge Accepted. “When they concentrated upon the league covenant withonti the dotting of an i or the crossing of a t, we met them squarely. “When, through their national chairman fresh from a conference with their candidate, they pronounced the covenant only a secondary issue’ after all, we acquiesced. When the candidates reversed their national chairman and declared the Wilson league the sole issue, we accepted most readily. “Where next they will land is wholly conjectural. They may c°nelude to stake their all upon weighing of the relative merits of the

respective candidates. “They may prefer to contrast recent Republican Cabinets with that which now maintains a wayward and hardly recognizable existence. “They may wish to stand upon the actual results of their 8-year-old pledges to reduce the cost of living. . .... “They may choose to dilate upon their fresh promises to stop profiteering in face of the fact that all profiteering sprang into being and continues to flourish under their own auspices. . “They may like to contrast the types and characters of justices of the Supreme court to be appointed by one or the other of the two nominees. “They may again rest their case upon their slogans of four years ago: ‘He kept us out of war,. Peace, Preparedness and Prosperity and ‘War in Europe, Peace in America, 'Thank God for Wilson.’ I “They may seek popularity ~in । substituting for ‘First in war, first ‘

in peace, first in the hearts of his more' apt■ as to the moment, ‘Last in war, last in peace, gone from the hearts of his countrymen.’ Curing “WiLontti*.” “It is for their new leader, now zigzagging hack and forth from the sinister blighf“of the soloist of the Democratic party to the furtive presence of its quartet of bosses, to make his selection. “It matters not to us. Our sole requirement is that there shall be no restriction. This referendum is going to be more than solemn. It is going to be great, the most comprehensive ever known. Before ended, it will have comprised every phase of maladministration and every fleck of Wilsonitis that have brought untold miseries upon a people who have every right to be prosperous and contented. “The Democratic candidate appeals to both the Wilson and the anti-Wilson factions of his party. To the former he holds forth the President’s platform. To the latter he exhibits himself as an advocate of complete change in administration. Idealism for the sentimentalists, patronage for the machinists — that is his motto, and he offers to the country for foreign use the Wilson covenant and for domestic service Tammany hall—truly a marvelous combination of impotence and ill-repute. Cox: One Master, Four Bosses. “Upon the highest authority we are informed that no man can serve two masters, but what of one master and four bosses? Obviously with his recognized dexterity the Democratic candidate hopes to be able to hold to both, though seemingly despised by the one, yet loved by the others. What, pray, can be deduced' from the mental processes of one who solemnly defines the Monroe doctrine as the very essence of Art. 10, precisely as, with like accuracy, one might define vaccine as the very essence of smallpox? “But I have no wish to follow the tortuous road to Trail’s End —at least not yet. Thus far but one of the joint asservations of the Democratic candidates bears directly upon my department. Speaking in Chicago on Aug. 11, Secretary Roosevelt charged that the Republican campaign fund would exceed $30,000,000, and added that ‘such a sum could not be honestly expended.’ Three days later, in Wheeling, W. Vs., according to the New York Times report, Governor Cox caused a sensation and brought enthusiastic response when he charged that certain interests were banded together to buy the presidency and that millions had been contributed to the campaign fund of the Republican part with sinister intent “ ‘They want to be the sponsers of American government,* said Governor Cox. ‘I assure you that they will not, and that the government will be sponsor of their activities. Their checkbooks are ready and open, and hundreds of thousands — yea, millions—have gone into the Republican treasury to buy an underhold on the government.*

Facto Vs. Fancy. Mr. Roosevelt gave as the - authority for his accusation an item he had read in a newspaper. Mr. Cox submitted no evidence whatever. Both these men knew that the Republican national committee had adopted a plan, which I announced more than a year ago, for financing our campaign by a method of decentralized giving, securing small contributions from a great many, with a limit of SI,OOO as a maximum for arty contribution; that Mr. Harding had publicly approved the plan, and that the committee had readopted it after he was nominated. „ „ .. “Knowing all this, Mr. Roosevelt asserted that our campaign fund would reach the collossal sum of $30,000,000 and Mr. Cox declared, apparently of his own knowledge, that millions have already gone into the Republican treasury, from certain interests banded together to buy the presidency. They thus deliberately accused Mr. Harding, your national committee and myself of being engaged in a conspiracy to betray our country. “Tnat, I submit, is a serious charge. If it could foe substantiated no punishment of those found guilty coujd be too severe. It can not be, of course, for the quite simple reason that it is not true. Do you think Mr. Cox believed it was

true? Do you think Mr. Roosevelt believed it was true? I do not. And yet they had the audacity to utter this outrageous falsehood, denying the truthfulness and reflecting upon the honor of fellow citizens, for one of whom at least they have professed the fullest respect. __ “Their purpose is plain. They can hardly hope to, deceive the thoughtful, but they do- mean to impose upon the credulous. Frankly, I do not believe they can do either. My concern at any possible political effect of such defamatory allusions, therefore, even when put forth by authority of men deemed by their fellow partisans worthy of holding the highest of honors, is slight The personal aspects may be ignored. No Concealment.

What does sadden me is that calumnies such as this can be spread broadcast through the columns of great journals without evoking rebuke from the guides and leaders of public opinion who control those powerful agencies. There has been no secret about what we are trynig to do. I have discussed the matter personally with many of the foremost editors of independent and Democratic newspapers throughout the country. I have pointed out the difficulties necessarily involved ineffecting so marked an innovation. I have sought their advice and suggestions and invariably have revived assurances of sympathetic cooperation in what amounts to no more nor less than an earnest endeavor to eliminate money as a controlling factor from American countrymen,’ an appellation far politics. , . “Nothing has been and, of course, nothing will be concealed. By reason of the enlarged electorate and the greatly increased cost of an things, we figure that will be required a total of about 3,000,000, and average of about 10 cents per voter. Part of this has been received, in small contributions from individuals, 50 per cent of whom have never before subscribed to party funds. The larger part of the total amount we hope and have reason believe we shall bp able to raise under the plan of limited subscriptions, which thus far has proved successful. If this attempt should fail to produce the requisite sums, we shall so state publicly, increase the maximum, and seek additional contributions. But should achievement, if I may quote a prominent Democratic editor, would far transcend in ultimate benefit to the country the election of a dozen Presidents.’ _

Hays Gives Warning. “In any case, the endeavor surely can not be pronounced unworthy of commendation or even of encouragement. We have not tned to make political capital out <a the idea. We have not criticized and have no thought of criticizing our opponents for adhering to the old method of accepting the largest contributions obtainablk That is their right and privilege under the existing statutes. Nor shall we, m. resentful emulation of the positive charges of the Democratic candidates, so much as intimate that their responsible officers will use any part of their funds corruptly. Frankly and squarely, as between mutaal respecting citizens we don t believe they will or-would if they could. “But I give fair warning now that neither the Republican candidates nor the Republican management will take false aspersions lying down. It, at the instance of our adversaries this campaign shall finally resolve into a question of personal characters, we know of no reason, aside from natural distaste, why we should not meet that issue as readily as any other. “With Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge as our candidates, all we ask is a fair contest- and that we propose to have. “We fight for the faith of the fathers of the republic and for perpetual freedom of the sons and daughters of America. Sometimes a picture points a principle no less than a moral. Such a one recurs to my mind. It was a cartoon published on the day after Governor Cox delivered his speech, on the editorial page of his chief new ®‘ paper supporter in New York. i-P depicted the candidate hauling a flag to the top of a pole. The Un-American League. “The manner 'was unfamiliar to the eye, but unmistable in its meaning. It bore no heraldic device or other symbol. There was not a sign of a stripe, not a suggestion of a star. Emblazoned upon a plain

blackground in large letters were the words, “The League of Nations,’ and nothing more. It was the new motto of an old party. It symbolized surrender of American independence—a surrender, please God, that shall never be made so Jong as the spirit of patriotism continues to animate the hearts of American freemen. “But a more apt or more exact portrayal of the chief purpose of the Democratic party, dictated by its leader and declared by its candidate, could not be devised. “As I looked at that striking and significant sketch, I could not but wish that I ‘were capable of making a companion picture that should emphasize the vivid contrast between their aspirations and ours. There would be nothing novel in my illustration, nothing strange to the vision, nothing startling to the emotions. It would be a mere reproduction of that first Star-Span-gled Banner produced by the niihble fingers of Betsy Ross. Our Only Flag. “A companion picture, did I say? No, never. There can be no companion banner to the Stars and Stripes as a symbol of the great republic. There shall be but the one flag. But that flag I would paint and hold for a moment to the light of heaven that all might mark the difference between the old .and the new. There would be no need to hoist that banner. It was raised first on Dorchester Heights by George Washington. But a few days ago I saw it reraised in Marion, O.» by 'Warren G. Harding. For nearly a hundred and fifty years it has floated over this free land, and never once been lowered. And at the bash of the pole I would draw, facing all the world if need to defend ■ should come, the figure of a great

American —an American in every fiber of his being as faithful as Washington, as humble as Lmdoln and as unafraid as Roosevelt —your leader, your candidate and your friend. „ “ ‘Under which flag?’ I should never have to ask you Americans of Maine. My sole injunction would be: You hold the post of honor; you must point the way. So before you go to the polls let your eyes rest for a moment upon the twentythird star of the forty-eight which gleam from the background of blue. That is your star, the star of Maine, the north star of the Union, unblemished from the time, more than a century ago, when it was added to the galaxy on oiir national emblem. Let is not be tarnished now. Illumine it afresh by sending forth the message that Maine continues inflexibly American and rejoices in the privilege of being the first to voice to her sister states the spirit of complete victory whieh surely in November will crown Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, now leaders of the party, then leaders of the republic.”