Newark Leader

Davey Punctures Economy Balloon Of Bricker In Talk

If there were any who held the impression that former Governor Martin L. Davey, out of the political spotlight for now for almost a year, had retired to the calm serenity of his Kent home for good, they had that impression forcibly erased last Friday night when the colorful figure addressed a crowd of 1,000 at a Democratic mass meeting in the High school auditorium.

He was in fine form. His verbal arrows were shot in both jocular and serious moods, but in each event they were aimed at one target: Ohio's Governor John W. Bricker. He ridiculed the economy boasts of Mr. Bricker and cried "lie" to the Republican statements that he left office with a $40,000,000 cloud of indebtedness hanging over the heads of Ohioans. "The law," he said, "clearly prohibits the acquisition of debt on the part of a governor, and if Mr. Bricker will look at the figures honestly he will find my administration left him, six and one-half millions in the school fund and three millions as a cash reserve, or nine and one-half millions to begin housekeeping with."

"I do not speak as a candidate," he said, "not yet, but I do speak as one who knows something about state government. We bequeathed to Mr. Bricker the sum of $100,000,000 in the federal treasury for the payment of unemployment insurance to worthy people of Ohio. Yet, when Ohio miners were out of work pending wage contract negotiations, the economy-loving Bricker refused to pay to them the insurance that was rightfully theirs under the law. People starved in order that he could go to New York and point "with pride" to huge reserves.

In short Bricker, thinking himself of presidential caliber, has been running for the presidency when he should have been serving the people of this state as governor. It was a job he was being paid to do."

Davey ridiculed the Bricker economy claims saying he (Bricker) didn't know the first thing about economy.

"Five minutes before quitting time one day," he charged, "2,000 state highway laborers were discharged in a manner that would have been abhorred if it had happened in a private industry. The next day they were replaced with inexperienced Republicans and at that moment accidents on the highways began to mount." The present governor, he stated, has spent one and one-half millions more in salaries his first year than "my administration did in its last."

Regarding economies to the people of his state, Davey cited the saving of $40,000,000 in tax reductions over his four year period. He itemized these as follows: $12,000,000 in abolishing the sales tax on food, still more on bottled beer, in license fees for automobiles and farmers' trucks, in real estate taxes and his veto of numerous appropriations.

"Bricker," he charged, "has failed to use his power of veto on one appropriation to date. He might pinch pennies for the sake of appearing in news pictures as a frugal executive, but he spends it recklessly on political machine purposes. And while doing so he ignores the moral and humane responsibilities placed upon him by the state.

This "penny pinching," he accused would eventually lead to the collapse of the Ohio State Fair, an institution "we built to the finest of its kind in the world." "Church women who sponsor food concessions for the benefit of their parishes have been made to pay admission to the grounds every time they enter. Concessionaires are treated in the same manner, and agricultural exhibits have hit a new low," Davey told his audience.

He accused Bricker of attempting to foist on the people of Ohio a law that would legalize collection of campaign contributions from civil service employees, and complimented the voters of the state for repudiating it.

The meeting was opened by A. D. Lockwood, president of the Licking County Democratic Club, who turned it over to George J. McDonald. Speakers introduced by Mr. McDonald were, besides Mr. Davey, former Lieut. Governor William Pickrel, Mrs. Mildred Jaster, national committeewoman from Ohio, who extended greetings from Democratic national headquarters and its chairman, James J. Farley; William J. Kennedy, former Secretary of State and candidate for the gubernatorial nomination, Herbert J. Duffy, former Attorney General, R. M. Winegardner, candidate for Lieut. Governor; Kenneth Jones, candidate for Attorney General, Dennis Dunlavy, Ben Arneson, Delaware, Capt. Victor Hunt Harding, State Auditor Joseph Ferguson, and Byron B. Ashbrook.

Local candidates on the speaker's platform to be introduced to the audience included candidates for State Representative B. C. Quick, J. R. Tritschler, Paul Green and Wilfred Powell; Aurel Coffman, candidate for Treasurer, Edwin J. Haynes, for Clerk of Courts; L. W. Vermilion, for Recorder; Darwin Butt, for Sheriff; Jake Spillman, for Sheriff; Joseph Fitzgibbon, for Prosecuting Attorney; J. Dale McNamar, for Prosecuting Attorney; Fred Simross, for Sheriff; Clarence Johnson, State Senator and George L. Hershberger, for County Engineer.

Music was furnished by a band under the direction of J. Shan Loughman.