Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1920 — “LET THE TAIL GO WITH THE HIDE” [ARTICLE]

“LET THE TAIL GO WITH THE HIDE”

Lafayette Times (Dem.) It is well that the expression of the voters of the country Tuesday was overwhelming. It is well that, from president down to commissioner in the third district. Republicans are elected. And it is equally as well, that there was no doubt as to the desire of the voters —that there was a unanimity of feeling, not restricted to race, to creed or' to nationality, that Spoke of a united desire. After Meh. 4, 1921, the governanent from top to bottom will be so strongly Republican that no matter what the party organization wishes to do it can ac■compllsh it,’ and its record will not 9m one where responsibility is di wided or where party credit or party msponslbDlty is left for debate. Mr. Harding will be president and at fe to be hoped that whatever Demoerats there are in this country will show him the reverential considera<lon which his office demands. For a president who has done so ranch for the people through legis-

latlve action, the passage of protective laws, such as the federal banking system and the federal farm loan act and ether laws designed to take control of money from the hands of Wall street and place it in the power of the people, to the end that panics might be averted and that labor, whether on the farm or in the shop, might enjoy the fair proceeds from its activity, a man who dedicated his life, his health and his whole being to the cause of the people and the country he loved, for such a president as Mr. Wilson has been, to fie so severely rebuked by the people* he has so faithfully served, shows the ingratitude of politics. The campaign against President Wilson has been a long one, starting at the close of election four years ago. It has been systematic and embraced, the assimilation of the newspapers from coast to coast and closing the avenues of news to the man in the White House. Press associations, papers and magazines, lecturers on Chautauqua platforms, bill boards and street cars were utilized in the campaign prop 2 aganda. In chorus ■ President Wilson was condemned as an autocrat, in one voice all yelled, “Mr. Wilson’s league of nations,” and from ocean to ocean the same line of campaign, carefully planned in every detail, was carried out. Originally it was laid with the

Idea that Mr. McAdoo would be the Democratic nominee and the “heir apparent,” and “royal succession” plan of campaign was adopted. When Cox was nominated the scenes shifted and a conference between Mr. Cox and President Wilson was made to appear as a royal decree from President Wilson and much ado was made over the “Wilson dictatorship." All this stuff was drilled in, day after day, by scores of paid writers of great ability. They controlled the newspapers and these means of information kept the public thinking all along one line. If a man or woman fe told one thing day after day they get to believe it and that was one of the first things that Chairman Will H. Hays instilled into his corps of newspaper writers and talkers. With the facts plainly against them they made the people believe that President Wilson wrote the league covenant alone and had a personal motive in its adoption. Chairman Hays was a small town lawyer—and is not rated as much of a lawyer, either —but he is a student of human nature and his school days are not so far away but he remembers that to commit anything to memory one must read it over frequently. He adopted this plan in national politics. It worked. Shy “Wilson’s league” often enough and you will believe it is Wilson’s leaghe. S So many people voted the way they were educated. , That was one great factor in Tuesday’s contest. The other great factor was “big business.” .Big business was opposed to income taxes, excess profit taxes, to luxury taxes, in general big business felt abused because, it was paying a portion of the burdens of government for the first time. It could hot control money or bring on panics which make money for big business. The moneylender was affected by the federal farm loan banks and he was opposed to “Wilson’s one-man rule.” Business had flourished under eight years of Democratic rule; farmers and laborers had prospered as never before, but there was a spirit of unrest. A Unrest, dissatisfaction and desire of change was preached by Mr. Hays’s papers and lecturers. r With every prosperity at their

command —with conditions so much better than they had ever dared dream of, the people wanted a change—and voted for it Tuesday. Ordinarily one would think that the high taxes throughout the state of Indiana; the failure of the Goodrich state administration and its unpopularity in his own party, would fiave cut some figure, but “the tail went with the hide." And it is well it did. All responsibility rests with the Republicans and their record will be what they make it. With a president, both branches of congress overwhelmingly Republican; with all state officers and a legislature of almost all Republicans, the things they do will be the record on which, they must face a people two and four years ffbnce —a people who expressed their confidence in them overwhelmingly on Tuesday. We shall wait and see.