Part 3 (1/2)
”In the fact of an efficient leadershi+p during the war, and of constructive, progressive, economic service in peace, the Republican leaders developed a sain their objective, the spoils of office For years the best thought and the humanitarian ih purpose of ue of Nations becaarchy meets it with the absurd plea that it increases the probability of armed conflict It not only reveals unworthy intent, but a very poor esti the issue to the people, and free from what he termed strait-jacket restrictions, the Governor said at Columbus, when he talked to the Ohio Democratic Convention:
”I carefully reviewed the platforo, and studied its principles, but I know as ave intensive thought also to the speech made by the Republican candidate, the purpose of which was to interpret the ilant labor I found two pronounceered the sensibilities of the civilization of the world, the unthinkable, monstrous proposal, that in the ht to be o back with me just a year and a half, to the time when victory was son; to the tiils on the banks of the Rhine, standing there in solid forned the peace document on the dotted line What has happened in the united States Senate to prevent its acceptance by the upper branch of the Aress? I need not recall, because every child knows about it But the soldiers came back home; they were demobilized; they entered into their several walks of life believing that their victory had been coht to terms And noith the arer holding together, it is proposed by the candidate of the Republican party that he will prove false to the boys who stood by when that peace was made He will destroy the pact and enter into a new covenant
”Six hundred thousand French died at Verdun defending the slogan, 'They shall not pass' More than atheir ranks, and hurling back the challenge, 'They shall not pass' They were possessed of the crusading spirit; they were preserving the Democracy of the world, the very Government of the earth And now anotherin behalf of two millions of soldiers and the one hundred million people of this Republic, shall perfor at the head of the hosts of the great ar at the head of the hosts of Deress; at the head of the hundreds of thousands of independents of this Country, I give to you this assurance: That this dishonorable deed will not be perpetrated--for two very i will not have a chance to do it; and second, I will not insult twoit e of these proceedings, the Republican candidate says that after he shall have made a separate peace with Germany, he will then assemble the conscience of the civilization of the world and forument only, we are to assume that a separate peace with Germany were made, I believe that the Government of the United States of America would be so unworthy in the eyes of the nations of the world that none of the to do with us at all
”This one question will remain in the public mind After all this is the crux of the whole situation The Republican candidate and the reactionaries now in control of the Republican party, pro whatsoever except a proposal which at is best will involve months and probably years of delay On the other hand, we promise you this, that after the 4th of March, 1921, with the least aue of Nations of the world Our Deives us full license and opportunity to enter the League upon ter; it is not captious We proclaim that ill accept any conditions that interpret, that call attention to the limitations of our Constitution; that serve full notice now upon the powers of the earth that we can go so far and no further
”In other words we have the opportunity of concluding this, the greatest hteousness in all the history of the world, and then the loose ends of civilization will be put together The opportunity for exchange will have been restored
America will proceed upon an era of prosperity and peace without precedent
”I shall address no audience in A the smoke screen of hypocrisy and insincerity which has been raised, in order that the reactionaries ht creep in behind it and claim their main objective, the spoils of office
That sue of Nations increases the probabilities of war It would have been just as absurd to have said to the boys at the time our fathers won their freedo to have war, because you will have to fight to retain it
Every school boy in Ohio understands there are three branches of Governislative and Executive, and ar has been brought to an end, the head of the Executive Department, the President of the United States, makes the treaty with the pohich we have been at war, and then we find that lio no further He submits it to the Senate for ratification The President of the United States has very definite power, and there are also very specific powers reserved to the Congress of the United States
The Congress can do nothing contrary to the Constitution; the President can do nothing contrary to the Constitution The Constitution provides that war can be declared by Congress, and Congress only In order to give point and truth to what the reactionary leaders are now contending for, it would be necessary to change the Constitution of the United States This would require a two-thirds' vote of the House and Senate, and then a three-fourths' vote of the states of the Union Our ht be the Executive Officer of this Republic, he did not possess the power to declare war The poas placed as near to the people as it was possible to place it It was placed with their Representatives in Congress
”Now--the Republican leaders in contending that four or five potentates, four or five distinguished statesue of Nations, can order our soldiers anywhere, are speaking a deliberate and a willful untruth Presidential proprieties require that I do not characterize it in stronger language You know it is very hard to please the opposition, although we are under great debt to then The proposition to disgrace A a separate peace with Ger their front lines I have already entered that opening with the hosts of Deo a well-h Clark county His soldier boy was at the wheel, and he looked over into a field and saw a hundred trucks lying there; and he seized upon the circuton The son had heard enough of it, and he stopped the car and said: 'Father, you have got to stop talking that way When ere in the front trench we had warm food, no matter whether ere in the midst of hell's fire or not We had all the ammunition we needed It was ten times better to have more trucks than we needed than to have fewer trucks than we needed' And then there is another reason for it all Need we be reminded that the opposition said that it would require Secretary Baker and President Wilson eighteenthat it would require in all probability more than 2,000,000 soldiers to win the war, that the ould then last, under this Dehteen months Any child in this country can have the facts presented to hi circumstances: President Wilson and Secretary Baker, at the head of the military forces of the nation did not send 600,000 soldiers over in eighteen hteen le troop shi+p”
CHAPTER V
HOW HE HAS DEALT WITH LABOR TROUBLES
No subject furnishes so good an index to the entire record of an executive as theout of industrial disputes Touching, as they often do, a zone of disputed claihts of workers no less than the rights of property, and entailing, as they frequently have, the duty ofpublic order, the conflicts between capital and labor test to the utreat industrial state like Ohio Within its borders are toilers from every land and every clime In her cities dwell as laborers men and women from every known country and representative of every race--a reater variety, were it possible, than those upon whoone
And the period during which Governor cox has held away has been one of profound upheavals There have been strikes brought forth by ”hard tianization of workers, and strikes whose distant origin lay in the economic overturn incident to war inflation with its topsy-turvy of values and its jumble of the normal status These conditions, then, supply a complete and ample test of the effectiveness of the policy which has been followed The results of this policy are told in a brief statement by Mr Oscar W Newman, associate Justice of the Ohio Supreht to the scene of a single strike (although they were in readiness for eency); person and property were preserved; and above all, the dignity of the laas maintained”
Nor has capital been offended by the methods pursued This fact is attested by statements of those who speak for invested industrial wealth Thus, W S Thofield, says that the policies pursued have made ”Ohio an oasis in the widespread area of industrial turreat war”
There are cited, too, the conclusions reached by Thomas J
Donnelly, Secretary of the Ohio Federation of labor, who has written:
”Labor has confidence in Ja people feel that he understands their needs and is in hearty syressive aspirations of those who earn their bread by the sweat of their brows As governor, he acco people of Ohio and is held in higher esteeovernor in the state's history
”He has done much to avoid and to settle labor troubles He believes that h reason and coh force and intimidation; and whenever called upon to send theworkmen, he always found a way to prevent violence and preserve order without using soldiers for that purpose During the big steel strike when violence and disorder were raht peaceably to asse workers, in Ohio, where there were equally as n of violence, and the right of workers peaceably to assembled was not interfered with If his policy had been followed by other public officials throughout the nation, there would be less unrest and the people would have overnet a comprehensive view of Governor cox's record with respect to labor troubles to tell the plain story of what he has done He had scarce taken hold as Governor in 1913 when a strike broke out in the great rubber plants of Akron It seemed to have been fomented by members of the Industrial Workers of the World, but it drew in its train thousands upon thousands of other workers until the great plants were practically idle In Akron, where a heterogenous collection of industrial workers dwell, idleness was a potent factor in fo disorder The normal course of affairs would have been an atteuard, provocative acts upon both sides, and finally, recourse to an armed militia to quell the disorder after the inevitable bloodshed had ensued Although new in executive experience, Governor cox took another course He sent trained and trusted investigators to Akron who learned the facts and reported to hirievances of the toilers At the sa to the local authorities that they preserve a strict neutrality in their dealing with the contending forces, and he uttered a sole those of both contending factions that public opinion within the city would speedily ascertain the right and wrong of the controversy And so it proved to be But learning there were abuses in the plants that needed correction the Governor gave his assent to an investigation by a legislative coh the helpful publicity of which all interests were induced to redress certain grievances It gave an object lesson not only to Akron but to all the state It taught even the turbulent eleh infraction of the law and through disrespect for rights of person and property The remainder of the story is that I W W disturbers have more sterile soil in Ohio to cultivate than in any of the states about it