20,000 In Brooklyn Cheer For Sulzer.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 31, 1912:
Candidate Addresses Eight Meetings, All Packed to Overflowing.
IGNORES STRAUS IN TALK
Latter's Name Only Mentioned Once, and That by a Chairman in Introducing Speaker.
    More than 20,000 voters in Brooklyn heard Congressman William Sulzer last night. They gave him a royal welcome at eight meetings that were packed to the doors. All the gatherings were marked by the sincerest attention, while roars of applause welcomed him and sped his departure. The night was a hard one for Mr. Sulzer, but he was as strong and interesting in his midnight speech, as he was in the first one. which was made shortly after 8 o'clock.
    Mr. Sulzer came to the city on the Erie Railroad after a day's hard work in the dairy counties of the State. An automobile hurried him to Brooklyn, where he dined at the home of John Delaney. Among the other guests at dinner were Public Service Commissioner Williams and Mrs. Williams, Mr. and Mrs. John H. McCooey, and Thomas Torpey. Mrs. Sulzer was also of the party, and she was greatly pleased at the sturdy fashion in which her husband had withstood one of the hardest campaign trips any candidate had ever undertaken. One of the wonderful features of the night's work was that every one of the eight meetings was reached on schedule time. The crowds that met to hail the candidate had not to wait a minute. Speakers who had been put up to entertain the crowds often were cut off in the middle of their first sentence.
    Under the direction of George N. Young, the Executive Secretary of Kings County, the whirlwind tour of Brooklyn began at 7:30 o'clock. The first stop was at St. Anthony's Parish Hall, at Manhattan Avenue and Milton Street. A crowd that filled the hall and stairs and overflowed into the street was waiting. Mgr. O'Hare was busy in the hall directing the people to seats. When Mr. Sulzer appeared the big crowd burst into cheers, and it was several minutes before he could be heard. The cheers rose again and again throughout his brief speech.
    "There is no doubt in my mind." said Mr. Sulzer, "that the fight will be won by the Democrats next Tuesday. There is no doubt at all of the election of Gov. Wilson—"
    A voice cried out that also there was no doubt of the election of Mr. Sulzer, and this brought forth another outburst of cheering. When Mr. Sulzer said the Democratic Party deserved as much praise as the soldiers and sailors who saved the Union, because it always worked along patriotic lines, there were more cheers.

Stands by All His Acts.
    Then Mr. Sulzer talked about his independence, and declared that no man could control him against his conscience. He said everything he ever did he alone had been responsible for. He didn't want to put the blame for any wrongful action on the shoulders of any man.
    "If I am elected Governor," he said, "you may rest assured that only the people ever will boss me. If you don't believe that, just cast your eye over my record, and if you see any signs there that I ever permitted myself to be the puppet of any man you have sharper, eyes than even my enemies have, for they have been trying to find some such proof ever since I have been in politics."
    There were cries of "You're all right!" and "We know you."
    Mr. Sulzer said he was in favor of the merit system, and that he would do all he could to see that no backward step was ever taken in regard to the method of testing the ability of applicants for public office. This sentiment also was loudly cheered. This statement was made in the very heart of the bailiwick that was controlled for many years by Patrick H. McCarren.
    The next speech was made at Palace Hall, at Grand and Berry Streets. Here another big crowd was waiting, and there was a roar of welcome as Mr. Sulzer appeared. Henry W. Woods introduced Mr. Sulzer.
    "Only a few months ago," he said, "Oscar S. Straus, the Progressive Party's candidate for Governor, at a dinner given somewhere in Second Avenue in the Borough of Manhattan, called Mr. Sulzer 'the greatest humanitarian this country had ever produced,' and Mr. Straus promised to vote for Mr. Sulzer for any office he was ever nominated for."
    Mr. Straus has said since that he could not remember ever having made any such promise. The statement brought laughter and applause. This was the only time during the night that the name of Mr. Straus was mentioned. Mr. Hedges, the Republican candidate for Governor, also was left alone. Mr. Sulzer told a few of the misdeeds of the Republican Party, and often declared that it was a party of promises but of no performances, but mentioned no names.
    Mr. Sulzer hurried next to the meeting of the Seneca Club in South Ninth Street, and from that point his automobile flew to Liederkranz Hall in Manhattan Avenue, then to Palm Garden, at Greene and Hamburg Avenues, to Congress Hall at Atlantic and Vermont Avenues, to the New Palm Garden in Sackman Street. Brownsville, and then to Dobbins Hall at Fourth Avenue and Fifty-first Street. Every meeting place held an enthusiastic crowd, and in several of them were many women who waved flags and joined the men in cheering.
    Sixty-one per cent. of the vote in two of the districts where the biggest meetings were held were Jewish, and these audiences were more noisy in their welcome, if possible, than any of the others. Among the things Mr. Sulzer said at the various meetings were these:
    "Some of the brightest minds in the State have been at work during the last few weeks trying to discover something in my record that would show me to be an enemy of the people, but the search has failed. Now, if this is true, why need any man be afraid to vote for me for Governor? Is it likely that I would begin now to belie and to destroy a record that I have been twenty-three years building up?
    "If the people send me to Albany, one of the first things I shall do will be to urge the speedy ratification by the Legislature of the amendment to the Federal Constitution to elect Senators in Congress by the people. I am the author of this reform and have been fighting for it ever since I went to Congress — eighteen years ago.
    "What I did for the oppressed Jews in Russia is known. I want no credit for it, because I only did my duty. My sympathies are world-wide. When justice is on trial I know no race and no creed; I am for the cause — the cause that lacks assistance, and against the wrongs, that need resistance.
    "The Jews are my friends here and everywhere, because they know I have always stood by them loyally for justice and equality and the square deal at home and abroad, in many hard-fought political battles they have shown me that they can rise above race and vote for the man who has stood by them, and in the face of fierce opposition, in Congress and out of Congress, demonstrated that he could rise superior to race and do justice in the cause of humanity."
    "I have no race or religious prejudices. I am charitable in my views. I am an optimist. I have sympathy for all, and know that good works constitute the most enduring monument. I believe in my fellow-man, in the good of society generally, and I know the world is growing better. I believe in the old integrities, in the new humanities, and declare with Bobby Burns, 'A man's a man for a' that.'
    "My sympathies are with the poor, and they ought to be, because I came from the poor. I have come up from poverty and obscurity. My life illustrates anew the hope of the Republic, and demonstrates again that the door of opportunity in America is not closed; that the poorest boy in all our land, if he is honest, if he is true, if he is loyal to principle, if he is grateful to friends, can rise step by step through his own exertions to the highest round in the ladder of fame.
    "I stand for the open door of opportunity, and declare with Lincoln that so long as I live I shall do all in my power to keep open the door for all. When the pessimist in America tells you that the door of opportunity is closed deny it — you deny it — and point to the rise of William Sulzer. The door of opportunity in the Republic will never be closed until it is closed by the young men of the Republic."
    Mr. Sulzer said he was sure the working men were for him because he always had espoused their cause. He asked labor to support him and said:
    "You will find I will stand for every honest man and for every honest cause. No man with any honest errand ever need fear to come to me if I can help him. But all those who are in any crooked business had better arrange to go out of business on Jan. 1 next."

STRAUS TALKS ON EAST SIDE.
Leaves Madison Square Garden Without Hearing Roosevelt.
    Immediately after his Madison Square Garden speech, Oscar S. Straus left in his motor for the east side, where he delivered two fifteen-minute speeches to enthusiastic gatherings, addressing nearly a thousand persons.
    In front of the great Central Palace in Clinton Street, where the first meeting was held, two or three hundred people gave the candidate a noisy welcome, and so pressed around his machine that it was unable to draw up to the entrance. Mr. Straus finally crowded his way into the hall, but two other automobiles, which had accompanied him, were stuck far behind in the press.
    Several moments elapsed before he was able to quiet the shouting crowd inside the hall. His speech related mainly to the labor question.
    "What has Mr. Sulzer done for labor," he asked. "that he should lay so much stress upon that point? I have done something for labor also, for I have had under my charge the arbitration of some of this country's largest labor disputes.
    "Louis Marshall, a lawyer of this district, has written a letter in which he says he is opposed to me and in favor of Mr. Sulzer. I ask you if that is not an insult to the intelligence of the entire Jewish community, to try to influence them in that way? You don't have to ask any one how to vote. You don't seek the advice of the silk stockings."
    Concluding, he said that he made his appeal for the votes of that community solely on his political record.
    At Pacific Hall, 209 East Broadway, Mr. Straus was led to an elaborate marriage canopy, under which he was to make his speech, and won the crowd by a humorous allusion to it.
    "How's Teddy?" some one called out.
    "He's fine," was the reply. "And I'm sure that, if he had known I was coming down here, he would have sent you his love, for he loves plain people."
    The second speech was devoted largely to a discussion of immigration problems.
    "The uptown Jews," he said, "have asked you to vote for Sulzer because of his activity in the Russian treaty abrogation. He did not do that for you. He did it for all American citizens, and no American citizen is a Jew, but an American citizen."
    On the way uptown at the conclusion of his tour Mr. Straus passed Madison Square Garden while Col. Roosevelt was speaking. He did not stop but continued to his home in Seventy-sixth Street.