Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1908 — AIDING AMIABILITY AND CHEERFULNESS. [ARTICLE]

AIDING AMIABILITY AND CHEERFULNESS.

By way of contributing its mite to the political amiability and cheerfulness which happily prevail at this stage in the campaign, the Tribune recently printed a quizzical little two-line paragraph asking if somebody wouldn’t give 30 cents to the Bryan war chest. Being apparently rather hard up for an editorial topic, the Indianapolis News takes this harmless pleasantry as the text for a solemn and laborious disquisition on the insolence of w’ealth.—New York Tribune. So? Now, why did not it occur to the Tribune in the interests of political amiability, cheerfulness, etc., to ask if somebody would not contribute 23 cents to the Taft way chest? That would not have been at all amiable or even cheerful, .would it? The unwhitewashable fact is just what the News called it—a sneer of wealth. It was intended to belittle the appeal of the Democrats to the common people for small contributions; to hold up for ridicule by the use of 30 cents the supposedly desperate state of a party that was relying on “passing the hat” to finance the campaign—so ridiculous compared with the Republican way of “frying the fat,” mulcting the insurance companies, and squeezing a Harriman at the eleventh hour. The Tribune is entitled to all that belongs to it, but it can not get away from the fact that in a moment of unconsciousness the underlying contempt of the wealthy for the poor spoke here.

But for ebunter-statement the Tribune says that Mr. Sheldon was appointed treasurer of the Republican committee two days before the Denver declaration (not afterward as the News said) and being of New York he was subject to New York’s publicity laws (such as they are). By this selection the Tribune insists Mr. Taft supplied the omission of the Republican platform; and beat the Democrats on the publicity program—though at the time it was perfectly known waat the Democrats were going to do! We are glad that the Tribune admits that, at least, it was an omission. It was the kind of “omission” that a man makes when one begs him to do something and he replies by choking' the person Into silence. That was what happened at the Republican convention. And something of the same kind happened to Mr. Taft. He had announced that Congressman McKinley, of Illinois, would be treasurer. But after a visit from Mr. Cromwell, of New York (Republican politico-financial promoter and general trust handy man), Mr. Sheldon was chosen, and the Republican party, after peremptorily refusing to adopt a publicity plank, crawled to cover by choosing a treasurer agreeable to the “interests,” and then announced with a great flourish of virtue that it, too, was' going to have publicity (not because It wanted Jt, but because the law would compel it). We ere quite willing that Mr. Taft and the Republican party shall hive all that they ean get out of this record. Further says the Tribune: As for their (the Democrats’) virtuous refdsal to accept gifts from corporations, it is sufficient to say that a Republican law explicitly forbids them to do so. We should like to ask the Tribune, honor bright, how much a law of this kind would stand in the

way of a Republican campaign committee milking the corporations, as it formerly milked the insurance companies and Mr. rfarrlman, if it had been merely a question of law, and had not become a question of feeling and insistent outcry, popularized by the Democrats into a demand that the Republicans could not dodge? They would have paid no more attention to it than the Republican convention paid to the demand. Finally, says the amiable and cheerful Tribune: The truth is that in this matter., of campaign fund publicity Mr. Taft has been ahead of Mr. all the time, as Mr. Bryan has had the pain of discovering as often as he has tried to make the contrary appear. He has been ahead of him as the man was ahead of the bear, who, straying from camp one morning, returned soon with bruin rolling along a few feet behind and gaining at every step. But the man wishing to be as little ridiculous as possible in the eyes of his comrades shouted “G-get out of the way. I’m b-brlngin’ him in alive!” The.simple facts are as the whole country knows, that the Republicans were beaten to a finish in the first round the Democrats on the question of publicity for campaign funds. No amount of sophistry nor any vehemence of claim about bringing the bear in alive will disturb the fact or blind it to popular apprehension. The record is made up. It is equally futile for our esteemed contemporary to try to do the light and airy amiability and cheerfulness act as to its unfortunate 30-cent remark. It was just what the News called it, “the sneer of wealth” (made in a moment of unconsciousness). The News editorial was so quickly recognized and so widely copied is the reason that we have the nonchalant cheerfulness, the insouciant amiability of the Tribune. Won’t somebody contribute 23 cents to Mr. Taft's campaign? Tribune please copy without credit. — Indianapolis News. (Rep.),