The Grand Prize

Labor Day was the time of a National speech-fest for the Grand Prize --the Presidency of the United States. The Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates of the Republican, Democratic and Progressive tickets, with the single exception of General Dawes, all spoke.

Calvin Coolidge addressed a delegation of Labor leaders in the East Room of the White House. He declared that American Labor is the most prosperous in the world and gave statistics to show that although hours of work have decreased 6% since 1913, the buying power of Labor's wages has increased and is several times that in other parts of the world. This he attributed to restriction of immigration and protective tariff. "We do not need to import any foreign government. We had better stick to the American brand of Government, the American brand of equality and the American brand of wages.

"I am for peace and against aggressive war. I am opposed to warlike preparations. But I am in favor of an adequate Army and Navy. . . .

"I want to have America cooperate in securing a speedy settlement of European differences. . . .

"I am in favor of continuing and extending the policy of covenants between nations for further disarmament. . . .

"I want to see our institutions more and more humane. But I do not want to see any of the people cringing suppliants for the favor of the Government, when they should all be independent masters of their own destiny. . . .

"I want to encourage business, that it may provide profitable employment.

"I want to see jobs hunting for men, rather than men hunting for jobs. I want the factory able to consume at a fair price the products of the farm. . . .

"The foundation for a new era is being steadily and surely laid. Whether we shall enter upon it depends upon the attitude of our fellow-countrymen.

"I have an abiding faith in the American people."

John W. Davis spoke to the Ohio Valley trades and Labor Council at Wheeling. He laid down a platform for labor: first, equality of opportunity so no castes may develop; second, equality of right--that is, legislation for no one group, but for all.

Said he: "Injunctions have been issued which by their terms went beyond any proper limit and sought to deprive men of a lawful exercise of indisputable rights. They have been framed with partisan zeal and their effect has been to cast upon the courts the performance of duties which properly belong to those executive officers of the State or nation who are primarily charged with the preservation of public peace and public order.

"It is not well for society, it is not well for the courts, it is not well for the parties themselves, that these things should be so. My views on this subject are not the result of any newly formed conviction."

Robert M. LaFolLette radiocast his speech from the Capital. He promised to purge the Government of special interests, to abolish the power of big business to fix prices, control natural resources and credit, and fill the Government with their representatives. This he believed could be accomplished in large part without special legislation.

He declared: "The people have found a great hope, and that hope is in the Progressive movement. We have enlisted in the campaign to restore this Government to the service of the public, to secure to the laborer and producer in all lines a greater share of the product of his toll, while protecting the consumer against the trust-fixed prices on all he buys, and to drive out of the Government influences now so dominant there."

Charles W. Bryan at Elk Point, S. Dak., declared that "the nation has been humiliated and the world has been shocked at the dishonesty, the incompetency, the greed, the graft, and the corruption that has been uncovered by Congress. . . .

"Agriculture is not asking for alms. The farmers are not seeking information as to how to farm, nor are they suffering on account of their own extravagance or lack of thrift. What they want is the handicaps and the hobbles which have been placed on them by the Republican Administration removed. They were seeking demands similar to those of labor-- sufficient price for their products to enable them to live at American standards with a margin for old age.

Burton K. Wheeler opened his big guns on Boston Common, declaring: "Instead of a government of the people, by the people, for the people, we have a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, for Wall Street. ..."

William Z. Foster, Presidential candidate of the Workers' (Communist) Party, asserted at Omaha: "Ramsay MacDonald is only carrying on capitalism. . . . LaFollette can only curtail the moneyed class rather than abolish it. Capitalism will remain in complete power until Labor assumes control."