The sun. [volume], November 04, 1916, Page 6, Image 6

About The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920

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THE SUN, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1916.
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POLITICAL.
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POLITICAL
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POLITICAL,
Just Before You Vote
You are not a rock-ribbed parti
san. You are going to vote accord
ing to your conscience. And your
conscience demands Reasons.
Now let us have a square talk
about those reasons. Let us see
why, this year, so many Voters,
like yourself, will finally decide at
the last moment that a vote for
Mr. Hughes is the only safe vote.
A Very Big Issue
Now, all that Mr. Hughes has .said about
National honor, protection of our citizens, the
need of preparedness to prevent war, a sincere,
fair policy these ideals are mightily impor
tant to our country, and he is the right man
to carry them out.
But bread-and-butter that is, common,
ordinary prosperity for the common people
is another very big issue in this election. For
365 days in the year there is one all-important
guestion for all of us who are not rich that
is, How to Make Both Ends Meet.
Your Dollars Are Worth Less
If you are a working man, you may be
getting better wages than you aid. If you
are a salaried man in business, perhaps your
salary has been raised perhaps not. If you
are a teacher, a minister, an ordinary brain
worker, you probably have no more money. If
you are a merchant or have a small business,
you are probably making more money.
But, workingman or merchant, if you are
getting more money, does it buy as much as
it did jour years ago? Absolutely, NO.
. For Prices have gone up faster than in
comes, and those rising prices have been for
the necessities of life. They range from one
third to two-thirds higher today than when
Mr. Wilson and his Congress were elected
four years ago.
But your Income has not run up at that
rate, has it? No matter how much more
money you are now earning in this period' of
fictitious prosperity, due entirely to the Euro
pean War, your money doesn't buy as much as
it did four years ago. That is the real test of
"prosperity."
Wilson Promised Low Prices
Now, what have Mr. Wilson and his Con
gress had to do with that ?
When we elected Mr. Wilson and his Con
gress, they said they would ' 'revise the tariff, "
and that "would reduce the cost "of living."
They put through the Underwood Tariff bill
and declared this new Tariff would do two
things:-
1. "It will reduce the cost of living.".
2. ' 'It will not disturb business."
How about these bright, joyous promises?
As to the Cost of Living You all know that
living is from One-Third to Two-Thirds higher
than it was then.
As to Disturbing Business Have you for
gotten that dark, pitiful year just before the
war ? Thousands of factories closed down, or
ran at part time, and over 40,000 business con
cerns couldn't pay their bills and went into
bankruptcy. Over a MILLION working men
were out of a job. Every city had every night
that heart-break of poverty a BREAD LINE.
Charity had its hands full. Mayors called citi
zens' meetings to appoint relief committees.
Governors called special sessions of their legis
latures to see what could be done to make jobs
for workless men.
How Wilson Explained the Hard Times
And President Wilson ? He wrote and said,
"These hard times are only psychological."
But psychology didn't feed the daily bread
line. The bad times didn't begin to mend till
the War began, and Europe had to buy our
guns and powder and wheat and horses. That
frenzied War-demand set everybody working,
sent up the workmen's wages, helped the mer
chants sell their goods. and raised the prices
we had to pay faster than the money came in.
This simply means that Mr. Wilson and his
Congress figured that Free Trade was a fine
theoiy that would work. They tried it. It
knocked the very bottom out of business and the
dinner-pail. Then the war came along. It set
business going, but it sent Prices going faster.
After the War Is Over
The War will end, suddenly. Then, no
more demand for our guns, powder, wheat,
horses, and a hundred other things Europe
has to buy of us now. Then, unless we adopt
a different policy, we xuill again be just where
we were in 1913-1914. Only worse. For busi
ness will have to readjust itself again to that
Underwood Tariff. Men will lose their jobs
by the million. And it will take a long time
for Prices to get down.
Unless something very wise is done by
our government, the end of the War will see
more Unemployment and Business Ruin than
we had in 1913-1914.
Now, the big question is Who can be
trusted to do that Wise Thing?
"No Danger," Says Wilson
Can Mr. Wilson and a Democratic Con
gress be trusted to do the sure, right thing ?
Here is what Mr. Wilson just said in his
Cincinnati speech on October 26:
"It is predicted that after this War. Europe will
in some way overwhelm the United States by her
economic power. vo7idcr that any thinking wan
can entertain an opinion of that port. The whole
dexterity and thought of Europe has been concen
trated on destruction. The whole nervous and phy
sical enerpty of Europe will require a generation to
recover its tone."
He followed what his Secretary, of the
Treasury, Mr. Mc Adoo, had said on October 18 : -
"Our virile, rich, unmaimed and highly devel
oped people need fear nothing from the compe
tition of stricken and broken Europe."
The same old bland, blind Trust-to-Luck
as four years ago.
"I Don't Know," Says Wilson
But now listen to what an expert says. Not
a Republican but a Democratic Chairman of
the Federal Trade Commission, one of Mr.
Wilson's own appointees. On October 27, the
day after Mr. Wilson, in Chicago, said, "No
danger," this Expert said in New York.
"When we think of Europe as a continent en
gulfed in war, devastated and disordered. I want
to say to you that we nro not correct, in that con
ception. Under the stress of the struggle every
effort is being made, in the warring nations, to ob
tain the highest efficiency in the production, distri
bution and use of commodities of all kinds.
The War has compelled Great Britain to make 30
years of industrial progress in 30 months. The
Germany that emergen from the War will be years
ahead of the Germany we knew in 1914. With
in five years we shall find a now Europe competing
against us with war-sharpened brains, not only in
our foreign markets, but right here at home."
What did Mr. Wilson say after reading that
rousing alarm? On October 28, at Shadow
Lawn, he said to a Tammany delegation: "I
don't know what will happen after the War. "
Hughes Does Know
On the other hand, consider Mr. Hughes
and the Republican policy.
As to the terrible economic danger ahead
after the War, Mr. Hughes clearly pointed it
out in his very first speech last July.
t He showed how the warring nations were
building up a new system of co-operation
between labor and capital which beats any
efficiency the world has ever known.
He described how each of these nations
was eliminating industrial waste, and was
organizing a mutuality of interests which was
bound to make them more formidable in peace
than in war.
He made it clear that the stress of the
struggle was awakening the most sluggish
men, and was training them to do better
work than they had ever dreamed of.
And he not only sensed the situation, but
in speech after speech he indicated just how
he would meet it.
Contrast The Two Men
Now you are able to see the fundamental
differences between the two men. You can
see how the election of Mr. Wilson will leave
the country to flounder in the coming crisis,
while the election of Mr. Hughes will lead
business and labor in a straight road. This
is an election for thinking men, not for senti
. ment to decide.
Wilson, at every point, has shown an
inability to sense a situation till it reaches a
critical stage, when only hasty and inadequate
measures are possible.
But Hughes, because of his practical mind
and large training in affairs, sees the need
and the remedy while it is afar off. He says:
"We cannot afford to be running along without
any regard to business standards. We need a fair
understanding of costs, a testing out of methods,
an interchange of information, an endeavor to
ascertain where waste can be avoided, in order
to promote business."
That is the deep problem which Europe,
while still at war, is trying to master, ana
which America must learn if we are to meet
the new competition.
Hughes, awake to this, wants to give to
America, ORGANIZATION not interference,
but a friendly spur and aid to co-operation.
Contrast The Two Policies
Another remedy which Hughes says is
vital is a scientific PROTECTIVE tariff.
Wilson as a professional free-trader, and
standing on the Democratic platform, holds
that the Government has no right to make a
tariff except for revenue.
Hughes, backed by the Republican Party,
believes that a scientific PROTECTIVE tariff
is the only basis for American prosperity,
fair wages and fair prices.
All thinking men agree that America must
use the Tariff as a means of defense against
the invasion of cheaply-made European goods.
The question that YOU must decide is To
which man shall that Tariff be committed?
Shall we have a Democratic tariff that
only pretends to help the wage -earner, the
salaried man and the man of Dusiness or a
Republican tariff that does really protect him?
Be. Mighty Sure Before You Vote
You are picking out a man who for four
difficult years must safeguard your honor and
protect you and yours from danger and from
want. The vote you put in the ballot box can
not be changed or withdrawn.
Face squarely the facts and the reasons
printed here. Then, when you have gone to
the very bottom of things you will
Vote for Hughes
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL PUBLICITY COMMITTEE
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