Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1920 — COX EXPOSE JARS HOOSIER LEADERS [ARTICLE]

COX EXPOSE JARS HOOSIER LEADERS

G. O. P. Workers Search in Vain for Satisfactory Explanation of Huge Blush Fund In Order to Face Outraged Public. OLD GUARD DENIALS FAIL TO CONVINCE PEOPLE Indianapolis, Ind. —Governor Cox’b charges that a 115,000,000 “slush fund” was being raised by the Republican national committee for the purpose of “buying an underhold on the presidency,” made in Pittsburg last Thursday night, has kept the G. O. P. leaders of Indiana busy since seeking an adequate explanation. Try as they might Republican workers who are not on the “inside councils” of their party find little of*comfort in the statements of their leaders and they are facing the growing storm of outraged public opinion with every feeling of apprehension. For instance Will H. Hays, the Republican national chairman on whom fellow party workers relied for an excuse for the Cox charges, could not see fit to issue any denial at all. Instead, the versatile chairman only remarked: Wants Subscribers Protected. “Governor Cox may not attack the integrity of those who have contributed toward the fund.” Senator Harry New, who is also well up in the councils of his party, did not deny that the “sky is the limit” in the Republican effort to land the presidency.

“Very poor stuff, very thin stuff from a man who thinks he Is & candidate for president,” was Mr. New’s comment on the expose. Even E. M. Wasmuth, Republican state chairman,, was not in a position to wholly deny the Cox charges, admitting that the “state committdS' is engaged in raising by popular subscription throughout the state, a sum necessary to take care of a budget for legitimate campaign expenses and at the same time a fund for the national committee.” Republicans admit privately that Governor Cox has given a nefr and unexpected turn to the campaign and that his revelation of a huge slush fund has left them unprepared for even a defensive attitude. The fact that their own leaders who are in possession of the Inside facts are unable to issue satisfactory denials has left them nonplussed and to quote one of them they “are considerably up in the air.” It is generally understood that the $125,000 quota assigned to Indianapolis, as disclosed by the governor’s figures, was to have been raised through the co-operation of Mayor Jewett’s political machine with the state organization. This is the same machine that knifed its own candidate for governor, J. W. Fesler, in preference for Warren T. McCray, since which both the Jewett and McCray organizations have found that they have much in common.