Baltimore Evening Sun (6 November 1911): 6.

Only 1,293 days more! Ah, woe, how time is flying!

VOTE FOR CARR!

Strike a blow at newspaper domination! Down with tyranny! Down with slander! Up with the true, the good and the beautiful! Put on your rubber boots, wade through the tears, and–

VOTE FOR CARR!

From Mr. J. J. Prissman comes the following polite protest and exhortation:

I cannot understand the cause or reason for so continued an attack upon Mr. J. Albert Hughes. Do you know Mr. Hughes? If you do, tell your readers who he is, how he helped to build one of Baltimore’s largest mercantile houses, how on account of his special constructive ability he was sought by one of our largest banking institutions, and how, subsequently, due to his indefatigable efforts, sound judgment and counsel, this bank and two others were merged, one of the first steps in Baltimore’s attempted advance. Tell them how, whenever called upon, he has never failed to help Baltimore’s commercial and social interests, and how, as an individual, his loyalty to his friends, his honesty of purpose, his integrity in all things are recognized and acknowledged by the entire business community.

An ardent helper! An assiduous, insatiable rescuer! And yet, when a real opportunity to help Baltimore presented itself before him, when he faced a chance to do some rescuing at his personal cost instead of at his personal profit—did he help then or did he hinder? When the McNulty charges were first published, did he demand that they be investigated, or did he pooh-pooh them? And when evidence in support of them began to accumulate, did he accept that evidence like a man, or did he try to explain it away in a childish and ridiculous manner?

In brief, where have Mr. Hughes’ sympathies been in this whole campaign for decency–on the side of the political hyenas or on the side of Baltimore? As a candidate on the ticket as a professed representative of the “respectable” element of his party, he had a chance to strike an effective blow for good government. He had a chance to show that, whatever the crimes of the “practical” element, he, at least, was firmly against such things and determined not to profit by them, directly or indirectly. And how did he meet that chance? By denouncing McNulty. By emitting balderdash about “individual inattention.” By hanging on like grim death–until, at last, he hung grotesquely and insecurely, by the very skin of his teeth.

Now he goes before the people and asks them for their votes, speaking from the platform with Preston and Carr, those brave defiers of grand juries and newspapers. The costume he assumes is that of a reverend seigneur. He is a leading business man. He is a member of public committees, an arranger of banquets, a director of banks, an abyss of platitudes, a boomer, a Prominent Baltimorean. The costume fits him. It is valid. He is a Prominent Baltimorean—the very archetype of the Prominent Baltimorean. He is the sort of Prominent Baltimorean who lends his respectability to the ruling camorra, and enables it thereby to do business the more safely–the sort of Prominent Baltimarean who serves willingly as shield, stalking horse and perfume–the sort of Prominent Baltimorean whose insincerity and self-seeking make good government eternally difficult in this unlucky old town.

Mr. Hughes, let it be admitted freely, has served a good purpose in the present campaign. If he has done nothing else, he has at least enabled every intelligent voter to see clearly through the disguise of the Prominent Baltimorean. He has made obvious the important fact that we have far less to fear from such frank pirates as Mahon than from the “respectable” business man who is willing, the while he preserves his own chemical purity, to accept Mahon, to take favors from Mahon, to go on Mahon’s tickets, to help rouse the rabble for Mahon, to fortify and dignify Mahon. Until the true role of that “respectable” fellow is understood, until the intelligent people of Baltimore learn how he stands between them and good government, and until, with that knowledge in them, they knock him out—just that long Mahon and Mahonism will prosper.

Against Mr. Hughes’ personal character nothing can be said. He is an agreeable, a likeable man. He has engaged, with success, in various creditable commercial undertakings. He has had a hand, from time to time, in various absurd but harmless schemes of booming. After the fire he made no effort to dodge the common duties and responsibilities of a citizen. But he is before us now, not as a business man, a banker, a boomer, but as a politician. And as a politician we know exactly to what camp he belongs. We know that he is in the Mahon camp, that he is one of the heroes of that camp, that he is one of the principal decoys and glories of that camp.

His appearance before the voters thus gives them an excellent chance to strike an effective blow at the ancient alliance between big business and corrupt politics. In his person the Prominent Baltimorean is smoked out, stripped of disguise, caught with the goods. His course from the beginning of this campaign has shown plainly where his sympathies lie—where the sympathies of the Prominent Baltimorean lie. If you think after studying that course. that the Prominent Baltimorean is a good Baltimorean, then vote for this one. But if you know better, then vote against him.

A vote for Carr is a vote for pathos!

The new encyclopedia of horrible and incurable maladies:

Carrophobia—The fear that the public may be intelligent, after all.
Carneyitis–An irreistible impulse to prognosticate absurdly.

Once more the boomers have saved us. And once more we don’t know it.

The betting odds in the downtown kaifs, as my spies report them:

Even money that Gorman will carry the city. 2 to 1 that Carr will be elected. 1 to 12 that the Hon. J. Albert Hughes will be elected. 10 to 1 that the Legislature will be Democratic. 50 to 1 that the Leigslature will be “practical.” 20 to 1 that the Legislature will not ratify the new charter proposed by the Red Cross Committee. 6 to 1 that the Hon. James Harry Preston will serve out his full term.