Vol. IV. No. 16

The Weekly News-Magazine

THE PRESIDENCY Mr. Coolidge's Week

C President Coolidge issued an executive order waiving the civil service examination necessary to give a position in the post office at St. Louis to one Michael B. Ellis. The reason: Ellis-formerly Sergeant Ellis-had received, after the War, a Congressional Medal of

Honor with this citation:

. . . for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy near Exermont, France, Oct. 5, 1918, while serving with Company C, 28th Infantry, First Division.

"During the entire day's engagement, he operated far in advance of the first wave of his Company, voluntarily undertaking most dangerous missions and, single-handed, attacking and reducing machine-gun nests. Flanking one emplacement, he killed two of the enemy with rifle fire and captured 17 others. Later, he, singlehanded, advanced under heavy fire and captured 27 prisoners including two officers and six machine guns, which had been holding up the advance of the Company."

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The President wrote to a vention of the American Electric Railway Association in Atlantic City: "It is gratifying to know that the executives of the urban and interurban transportation companies are grappling so vigorously with the entire set of problems . . ."; declared to the delegates of the Third National Radio conference: "It [radio] should bring to the fireside large contributions toward entertainment and education"; asserted to delegates attending a joint conference of the American Civic Association, American Institute of Park Executives, American Park Society: "The movement which you represent demonstrates again that our Government belongs to the people and functions for the people"; wrote to the Republican Voters' League (ex-service

October 20, 1924

men) in Los Angeles: "I feel perfectly confident that now, when the Constitution is in danger . . . the service men will resist all such proposals"; spoke by radio to 10,000 employes who were dining in 77 cities, celebrating the 55th anniversary of the H. J. Heinz (pickle) Co.; was quoted by the Hampton-Tuskegee Institute's Endowment Fund as saying, in a statement issued to it: "The principle represented by the two schools [for Negroes] is in its essence the American philisophy . . . ‘as a man works, so he is'."

¶ Mr. Coolidge received Prof. Timothy A. Smiddy, Minister Plenipotentiary to the U. S. of the Irish Free State, who exclaimed: "To my country, this occasion is of deep and historic interest"; Louis J. Taber, Master of the National Grange, who advised him not to appoint "a Dawes commission of agriculture" (TIME, Sept. 8), until after election, for fear it might become involved in political

brawls; Ezra Meeker, 93, pioneer, who went out on the Oregon trail in 1851 in an ox-wagon and came back in 1924 in an airplane; Senator Sheppard of Texas, introducing the Fort Worth baseball team, champions of the Texas League; A. G. Carter, Texas publisher, bringing the key of Fort Worth; Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Commissioner of baseball, paying his respects; John Hays of Hammond, Manhattan ; Silas Strawn, of Chicago, and other travelers bringing sanguine impressions. fresh from Europe.

Numerous letters and telegrams came to the White House, urging the President to invite the Washington baseball team to a banquet at the White House. Wired a man from Allentown, Pa.: "Feel it highly deserved and furthermore would be one of the finest political strokes in history."

The President and Mrs. Coolidge saw the sixth and seventh games of the World's Series (baseball) with the final triumph of the Senators. Afterwards the President, tinctured by the ecstasy of the Capital, issued a statement:

"Of course, I am not speaking as an expert or as a historian of baseball, but I do not recollect a more exciting World's Series than that which was finished this afternoon. The championship was not won until the twelfth inning of the last game. This shows how evenly the teams were matched. I have only the heartiest of praise to bestow upon the individual players of both teams. "Naturally, in Washington, were pleased to see Walter Johnson finish the game pitching for our home team and make a hit* in the last inning that helped win the series..."

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The President's description was inexact. Mr. Johnson made no "hit." It is true that he reached first base in the last inning after striking the ball with his bat. But Shortstop Jackson fumbled the ball; and the play was scored as an "error" for Shortstop Jacksonnot as a "hit" for Mr. Johnson. Base ball enthusiasts the country over had reason to agree with Mr. Coolidge that he is no student of the game.

THE CAMPAIGN Alarums and Excursions

The progress of another week's campaigning brought all candidates seven days nearer to the election.

Calvin Coolidge sat tight and held his peace.

Charles G. Dawes continued his tour from Duluth southward and westward through Minnesota, Iowa, Wyoming, Nebraska. He continued and the

to

hammer demagogery La Follette proposal that Congress should have the power to override the Supreme Court. He exclaimed: "If this is a man of straw, he has a pretty good punch. Don't tell me It is the that this is not an issue. whole issue. If it succeeds, it means chaos. Let even there be the first intimation of success and see what it does to that confidence upon which all prosperity is based."

John W. Davis turned his attention to corralling the 45 electoral votes of New York. Following a speech at Albany, he went on to Syracuse and Buffalo. He attacked the "impotence" of the Administration's foreign policy, the "failure" of the Administration to wipe out corruption, the protective tariff and the Ku Klux Klan. Then he retired for a brief rest on his estate at Long Island, only to set forth once into the Middle West, first into Indiana, speaking at Richmond, Indianapolis, Lafayette, Terre Haute, Evansville. . . . He planned then to swing across Illinois to St. Louis, and return East by way of Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio.

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At Indianapolis, he expounded the difference between the Republican and Democratic Parties:

"I should like to point out the difference of $2,000,000 in the profits that Doheny and Sinclair hoped for from their oil leases, which they never would have gotten under Democratic rule; a difference of $30,000,000 in the condition of the American farmer and the value of his holdings, a difference of $750,000,000 in the proposed ship subsidy; a difference of not less than $2,000,000,000 in excessive prices to consumers imposed by a Republican tariff; and a difference between wholesale and widespread corruption and administrative honesty."

Charles W. Bryan left home on his first real speaking tour of the campaign. He made six speeches in Kansas. He vouched that:

"Every measure passed during the eight years of Democratic reign was

in favor of placing man above the dollar, while every measure passed since that time has had for its purpose the placing of the dollar before the man."

Then he swung into Oklahoma where, aside from getting stuck in the mud while driving in an automobile with Governor Trapp, he made speeches:

"You know what has happened at Washington. I don't have to out

line in detail what has taken place there, but it has done more harm than all the farmers and wage earners in the United States would ever create. The brains of the Republican Party have been spilled all over the West with the junior Senator of Iowa [Brookhart] throwing not only the monkey wrench but the whole machine shop into the machinery.

"Why have these Progressive Republicans refused to support the Administration?

Because the Republi

can Administration has almost destroyed agriculture and has refused to put into effect any measure for its relief."

Then he swept into Texas. "Hurrah for Ma!" he echoed a voice in the crowd. "Texas is the place where popular Democratic majorities are produced."

He traveled then into New Mexico and Colorado, warning the voters: "This is no time to sit down!"

Robert M. LaFollette plunged into the fray for the last and chief drive of his campaign. From Rochester, N. Y., where he set forth his program in detail, he swung south to Scranton where, on the basis of a report that the Republicans were trying to raise $600,000 for their campaign fund in Pennsylvania, he charged them with trying to raise a huge "corruption" or "slush" fund to buy the election.

Next he turned east to Newark, declaring that following the War: "The railroads, the banks, the Steel Trust, the Coal Trust, most of all, the Munition Trusts, laid their hands on the Government and the people and extorted from them such tribute as privilege for carrying forward the War. The Democratic Party lost its last vestige of democracy. The Republican Party lost its last semblance of freedom. Both the old parties became private things, palsied agencies of the popular will."

Once more stepping into his Seven League boots, he went overnight to Detroit. He reiterated his charges about the Republican corruption fund.

At Cincinnati, he attacked the Ad

ard

ministration's foreign policy promised if he was elected to inaugu rate a foreign policy based on: 1 open diplomacy; 2) no profiteering in case of war; 3) paying for war out of current revenues so that there will be no after debt; 4) no annexation of territory; 5) referendum oa declaring war; 6) coöperation of all nations to reduce all armaments to defensive proportions; 7) no dollar diplomacy.

At Chicago, scene of the LoebLeopold murder case, he challenged:

"You cannot convict a hundred million dollars in the United States

"You cannot punish a millionaire as a poor man would be punished, no matter how revolting or inhuman his crime may be.

"I offer this challenge to all those who regard judges as the sole defenders of our liberties. Show me one case in which the courts have protected human rights; and I will show you 20 in which they have disregarded human rights to protect property."

Burton K. Wheeler toured down the Pacific Coast from Seattle, "showing up" Calvin Coolidge and Charles G. Dawes. He accused Coolidge as Governor of Massachusetts with having favored a bank whose head had subscribed $6,000 to his campaign, and Dawes of impropriety in regard to the Lorimer bank case. He inveighed:

"Will not some of the good Republican brethren, in the interest of the Republican Party and in order that the Constitution may be preserved, call upon the silent man in the White House to explain his connection with Max Mitchell's crooked bank deal and Mitchell's campaign contribution to the Coolidge Campaign Fund in violation of the laws of the State of Massachusetts and, if he does not explain his part in this transaction, ask the Republican Party to withdraw his name from the race?

"It probably is too late to do any good, for the people themselves will, on Nov. 4, permanently retire both of these candidates from active service in the Republican ranks and thereby help to purify the once Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln."

Isolated Grandeur

Senator Borah opened his campaign for reëlection. The Republicans had been praying him to give them strong support, La Follette had asked him to follow Brookhart

to the Progressive fold. The reaon both wanted Borah was because, with the possible exception of Laollette, politically he is the strongst man west of the Mississippi. And it is a good guess that the jeason for his strength is that he loes not do the kind of thing they asked him to do.

Borah has the strength of isolation. In ordinary men, isolation is a weakness. It is always a limitation. But coupled with a certain moral grandeur it is also a power. Senator Borah has that power. It is that rather than rhetoric which makes him the only orator of the Senate who can pack the galleries with people who come for the sheer glory of hearing him. Washington -cynical, politically overfed Capital -hangs, not on his words, but on the power of his convictions. In the Senate, Borah weighs, not because he is the leader of an insurgent group like La Follette, not because he is part of a powerful machine, not because he is witty, not because he is shrewd, but because he is Borah. He has neither followers nor leaders and he needs none.

The opening speech of his campaign at Idaho Falls was typical of his attitude-prepared to give everyone (devil, fool or solon) his due, and to take his constituents' votesfor Borah.

His Supporters. "I have been nominated by two parties. My nomination at the hands of the Progressive Party was generous, unanimous and free from pledges. I have no words adequate to express my appreciation, my deep sense of obligation, for their expression of commendation and confidence.

"The Progressive Party in this state is made up very largely of farmers and workingmen from whom, for 20 years, I have had the most constant and unselfish support ... I am greatly honored by their gracious approval. I offer no apology for their endorsement; on the other hand, I point to it with the utmost satisfaction."

His Policies. "I am not unmind

ful of the feeling upon the part of many of my political associates that I am indifferent to party ties.

"It is claimed by many that I am not a party man. This feeling arises, I presume, out of the fact that there are times when I vote and express views out of harmony with supposed,

Keystone

BORAH

"I do not take positions thoughtlessly or indifferently"

or

temporary, party policies. It would be insincere upon my part to apologize for the past. It would be sheer deception to lead you to expect anything different in the future.

"I claim the right as your Senator to oppose any measure by whomsoever proposed which I believe to be injurious to the public interest or unwise in Government. I claim the right to support any measure by whomsoever proposed which I believe to be in the public good and in the interest of sound government. This states the whole thing.

"This is the sum total of my offending, if I have offended. I wish my position understood, as I wish to leave no voter in doubt. I do not take positions thoughtlessly or indifferently."

Coolidge. "It was not long after Calvin Coolidge was made President of the United States until he an

nounced he must have economy and then more economy.

"It was not long until he announced that, so far as the building of bureaus was concerned, his opinion was that it ought to cease. To my mind it made one of the great issues of the 20th Century and it presented a problem of government that no other President and I do not wish to speak disparagingly of those who have gone before-had the courage to rise and stand upon. He vetoed bill after bill, popular bills, bills which might have drawn to him hundreds of thousands of votes, bills which, as a mere politician, he would have signed. He vetoed them because he proposed to stand between the people of the country and those who were attempting to make unjust and unnecessary demands upon the people.

"And whatever you may do in this campaign you cannot take that issue away from Calvin Coolidge."

LaFollette. "In 1912, one in whose leadership I had great confidence, one for whom I had almost unbounded admiration and whose friendship I enjoyed, left the party and sought to organize a third party. I declined to follow. I thought it would prove a mistake and that we could accomplish far more for liberal principles by remaining within the party.

"Now another man, whose friendship I have also enjoyed and for whose sincerity of purpose and ability I have great admiration, heads a third party. I entertain no doubt as to where I can be of the most service if I am to remain in public life. I propose to fight for clean economic government, for progressive principles inside the party. I believe I can be of vastly greater service to the people of the state-if I am to serve them at all-by remaining in the party. I would rather have you believe that I will stand by the Constitution against its hordes of wreckers (often in the name of party), that I will be loyal to the underlying principles of our Government, than to have you honor me again by your suffrage. If I can justly win that opinion from the people of my state, my years of public service will be gloriously compensated. If such were not true, I would have betrayed you and cheated myself."

Campaign Notes

"Uncle Charlie" Patton, 85, of Marion, Ohio, minus a piece of ear since the Civil War, and White House gardener since Warren G. Harding first took up his residence at the Executive Mansion, resigned his job. The LaFollette publicity department fairly bellowed the news: "Uncle Charle is going back to Marion to vote for La Follette."

Senator LaFollette has been accused of proposing to do many terrible things to the Constitution; already he has brought about a condition in his home state which its Constitution never foresaw.

The Constitution of Wisconsin provides that, in the absence of the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor shall act in his stead; and, in the absence of both these gentlemen the Secretary of State shall be Acting Gov

ernor.

Last week, Secretary of State Zimmerman had left Wisconsin, campaigning for La Follette. So had Lieutenant Governor Cummings. Then, suddenly, Governor Blaine deIcited to do the same. Result: Wisconsin, sans Governor, sans Acting Governor, sans everything.

Mrs. Douglas Robinson, sister of President Roosevelt and devoted brother-worshiper, exclaimed in a political speech (in favor of "my nephew," Teddy Jr.) in Manhattan: "My brother said of LaFollette in 1915 that he was a sinister influence working against Democracy and in 1912 he worked tooth and nail against the Progressive Party. He has not asked for the support of the Radicals today, but they are following him; and, for contrast, I wonder whether you think Theodore Roosevelt would have allowed any unsolicited followers to wave the red flag over his head?"

The La Follette publicity department told a good story to this effect: In the Capital, a Democratic rally was staged. A labor leader was invited to speak. He was expected, of course, to praise Davis. Instead he began: "I myself am a La Follette man and I don't care who knows it." Promptly the amplifiers on the rostrum were turned off, and of the large crowd only a few in the front row could hear.

Whether the story is true or pub-1 licity, it suggests great possibilities for the use of the invention. By it, the alert campaign manager can not

only shut off such unexpected attacks, but can silence any unpremeditated indiscretions of his own candidate.

Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes marched into Indianapolis on the heels of Candidate Davis, stepped to the lectern of Cadle Tabernacle, discoursed in part as follows:

Third Party. "When Senator La

Follette talks of what he will do when he is elected President, he may manage to keep a straight face, but he cherishes no such hope. . . . The campaign of Senator La Follette is not to elect himself but to control the election and elect Mr. Bryan. . . . Was there ever a more miserable pretense than this talk of restoring the government to the people? . . . It is Coolidge or Bryan. It is Coolidge or no election."

Davis and Bryan. "The first and most significant act of the Democratic candidate for President was to select Mr. Bryan as his running mate. It was an act which shook the confidence of the country in Mr. Davis as a political leader. . . . If, for the sake of political expediency, the Democratic candidate for President was willing to put this country at the risk of having Mr. Bryan as its President, where would he stop? ..."

Answering Mr. Davis' declaration that there had been more bank and business failures in the last three years than in the three years prior to 1921, said Mr. Hughes: "Extraordinary statements. . . . The serious conditions which arose in 1920 and 1921 were due to the unwise financing of the Democratic Administration. . . . They tried to hold us responsible for the deébris."

Secretary Hughes has been kept busy giving charges and conferring with his Ambassadors and Ministers, a great many of whom are now on leave in this country.

¶ Edgar A. Bancroft, newly appointed Ambassador to Japan, recently left Washington after having received his parting instructions.

James R. Sheffield, new Ambassador to Mexico, was in the Capital for the same purpose a day or two after Mr. Bancroft.

¶ Myron T. Herrick, Ambassador to France, went to Washington for final conferences before returning to his post in Paris.

¶ Alanson B. Houghton, Ambassador to Germany, dropped in at the State Department while on leave.

Henry P. Fletcher, Ambassador to Italy, recently arrived on two months' leave.

Albert H. Washburn, Minister to Austria, is also back.

Peter A. Jay, Minister to Roumania, has been holding conferences at the State Department.

John D. Prince, Minister to Denmark, has been at home on leave.

Arthur H. Geissler, Minister to Guatemala, is here and, incidentally, has been entertaining the Señoritas Concha and Leonor Orellana, daughters of the

*Term expires Mar. 4, 1927. The seat was made vacant by the death of Senator Nicholson. Senator Adams, who occupies the seat temporarily by appointment of the Governor, is contesting with Senator Phipps for the long term.

Farmer Labor Candidate, Magnus Johnson, holds the seat at present.

#Contest is for both the short term expiring Mar. 4 next (vacant by death of Senator Colt) and for the regular six-year term be ginning when the short term expires.