Sunday, October 11, 2015

J.S. Coleman Refutes Attack Against Congressman Zebulon Weaver, 1918

What were political advertisements like in 1918? They appeared in newspapers and they looked like news articles, but these articles were labeled as “Advertisement.” The following article, labeled “Advertisement,” appeared in the French Broad Hustler, Hendersonville, Thursday, Oct. 24, 1918.

False Charges
In a printed circular letter signed by B. Jackson, Chairman of Mr. Britt’s campaign committee, an attempt is being made to create the impression that Congressman Zebulon Weaver voted against a bill to increase our soldiers’ pay. Such charges or intimations are false and should be condemned by all honest men. Mr. Jackson is either grossly ignorant of Mr. Weaver’s record on this subject, or he has intentionally misrepresented it.

The True Facts
War was declared against Germany by our Government April 6, 1917. Congress at once began to raise and equip our army. The Selective Service Act for this purpose was introduced. Until this time our soldiers were receiving only $15 per month. An amendment to this bill was offered, increasing their pay to $30. Mr. Weaver voted for this increase, page 1549 of the Permanent Congressional Record. The whole bill that is, the Selective Service Act, containing the amendment to increase our soldiers’ pay to $30 was then voted upon, and upon an Aye or Nay vote, Congressman Weaver again voted for the $30 increase of soldiers’ pay. See Permanent Congressional Record May 16, 1917, page 2396. Thus the record shows that Congressman Weaver voted twice, and at every opportunity offered for increasing our soldiers’ pay to $30. The bill being now completed in the House it went over to the Senate for passage there.

The Senate amended the whole bill in many particulars and sent it back to the House for agreement upon these amendments. Congressman Weaver voted to disagree to these amendments adopted in the Senate. The House, having refused to accept the amendments added in the Senate, made it necessary to refer the bill to a conference committee of both houses on which committee were both Democrats and Republicans, Hon. Julius Kahn being the ranking Republican on the part of the House of Representatives. It is the duty of a conference committee to adjust and reconcile differences between the House and Senate so that the bill may finally pass and become law. Unless these differences are so settled the whole Bill fails to become a law. The conference committee on this Selective Service Act finally after much deliberation, agreed upon the bill and reported it to both houses. Under this report and existing law, the private soldier called into foreign service would have received $25 per month plus 20 per cent additional, or $30 per month. A motion was made by Mr. Goode of Iowa to re-commit the bill to the conference committee, and Mr. Weaver is now being criticized for voting NOT to re-commit. This Mr. Goode is one of the bitterest Republicans in Congress and has repeatedly criticized the President.

It is a matter of supreme importance that the conference report should be promptly adopted. We had been at war a month and a half and this bill to raise and equip our army had not yet passed. Every hour of delay was fraught with danger to our country. To recommit the bill merely meant to send it back to conference for further consideration. In regard to this very conference report for which Mr. Weaver voted, the President himself asked the patriotic members to adopt it, having written the following letter to Congressman Dent, Chairman of the House Committee on Military Affairs, Congressional Record, p. 2215.

President Wilson’s Letter
The White House, Washington, May 11, 1917

Hon. S. Hubert Dent Jr., House of Representatives

My Dear Mr. Dent:
Now that the Army Bill has been successfully brought out of Conference, I want to express to you my sincere appreciation of the service you and your colleagues have rendered in helping to bring the bill to a final consideration free from any feature that would embarrass the system of draft upon which it is based. I trust that the Conference report may be very promptly adopted. Every hour counts in these critical times, and delay might have very serious consequences.
                                Sincerely yours, Woodrow Wilson

Hon. Julius Kahn, the ranking Republican member of the House Committee on Military affairs voted as Mr. Weaver voted. He made a speech against Mr. Goode’s motion to re-commit. See Permanent Congressional Record, May 16, 1917, pages 2395 and 2396. Mr. Kahn, in opposing said motion, said:

“What are the facts about this matter? The bill of the soldier under this bill will be $25 a month on his first enlistment. If he has subsequent enlistments, he gets additional pay. If he is a private of the first class he gets $3 a month extra. For expert marksmanship he gets $5 additional. So that the private of the First Class who has a number of enlistments under this bill will get about $37 a month and over, and 20 per cent additional if they get foreign service. The American who gets $25 a month under this bill when he goes into the foreign service will get an increase of 20 per cent, or $30 a month, and that is all the gentleman of Iowa (Mr. Goode) is contending for. The moment our private soldier puts his foot on the deck of a ship to go across the Atlantic, under the bill proposed by the conferees his pay will jump to $30 a month.

“I submit to the House this proposition: when a bill goes to Conference it is necessary for the Conferees to give and take. The House Conferees could not get everything that we wanted in the bill. We have to yield some things to the Senate. They wanted some things in the Legislation just as earnestly as we did. This is a conference report, agreed to after mature deliberation, after lengthy discussion on the part of the Conferees of the two Houses, and I submit that under the circumstances the House should stand by the Conferees. This bill has remained unacted upon for a long time. The country is growing impatient. Let us enact this into a law. I feel confident that the pay of the soldier, as proposed in this bill, will be satisfactory to the American people and the American soldier.”

Do you believe President Wilson was opposed to an increase of the pay of the American soldier? He asked to have this conference report promptly adopted. Mr. Weaver voted for its adoption as requested by the President—and is condemned for his vote by Mr. Britt.

Do you believe that Mr. Kahn, the Republican leader, wished to discriminate against the soldier? He states the facts.

Whom will you believe, President Woodrow Wilson and Hon. Julius Kahn, or will you believe Brownlow Jackson, Mr. Britt’s campaign manager, who seeks to deceive the voters of this district into casting their ballots for Mr. Britt? No honest man who knows Zebulon Weaver will for an instant be deceived by any such false and unfair methods. Zeb Weaver has stood at all times for every measure providing increased pay for our soldier boys, and for those measures for the protection and support of their folks at home and safe-guarding their health and protecting them while at the front.

He voted for the bill to provide Soldiers’ Insurance, under which our Government is today carrying $31 billion of insurance on the lives of our boys in the army.

One of his first votes cast in Congress was to raise the soldiers’ pay from $15, where it had remained under all Republican Administrations.

What Did Britt Do for the Soldier?
Mr. Britt was in Congress two years. During part of this time our boys were fighting on the Mexican Border at $15 per month. He made no effort to increase their pay. The Spanish American War was fought under all Republican Administrations which did nothing to increase the soldiers’ pay.

Mr. Weaver has been consistently on all legislation the soldiers’ friend. In the present election he offered to Mr. B. Jackson to permit every soldier to vote unchallenged, regardless of the payment of poll tax. To Mr. Weaver the uniform of an American soldier was as good as a $2.00 poll tax receipt. This proposition was refused by Mr. Brownlow Jackson, manager for Mr. Britt, who has now become so anxious about the welfare of the soldier. Let no soldier, or soldier’s father or friend be deceived by the cunning, trickery and deception contained in Mr. B. Jackson’s letter.

                                --J.S. Coleman, Chairman for Zebulon Weaver

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