Vol. IV. No. 16

The Weekly News-Magazine

NATIONAL

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, Congressional Medal of Honor with this citation:

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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 Hammond, of 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, we 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..."

*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.

"If this is a man of straw, he has a pretty good punch. Don't tell me that this is not an issue. It is the 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 outline 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

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ministration's foreign policy promised if he was elected to inaug rate a foreign policy based on: i 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 ca declaring war; 6) cooperation of all nations to reduce all armaments to defensive proportions; 7) no dollar diplomacy.

At Chicago, scene of the Loeb Leopold 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 de fenders 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 disregard ed human rights to protect property."

Burton K. Wheeler toured dow: 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

o the Progressive fold. The rean both wanted Borah was because, th the possible exception of Lallette, politically he is the strongman west of the Mississippi. nd it is a good guess that the ason for his strength is that he es not do the kind of thing they ked him to do.

Borah has the strength of isolaon. In ordinary men, isolation is weakness. It is always a limitaon. But coupled with a certain oral grandeur it is also a power. enator Borah has that power. It that rather than rhetoric which nakes 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 Dower of his convictions. In the Senate, Borah weighs, not because he is the leader of an insurgent group ike 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"

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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."