Vol. IV. No. 18

The Weekly News-Magazine

November 3, 1924

THE PRESIDENCY Mr. Coolidge's Week

A hat, a large hat such as Mexican "greasers" wear, such as cowboys wear in the cinema-in short, a sombrero, its rim a burning red, its crown a brilliant blue, was given into the hands of Mr. Coolidge. After a short moment of admiration for so engaging a specimen of the hatter's craft, Mr. Coolidge stuck his head under the hat's ample canopy and in no time became a member of the Smoki Tribesmen of Prescott, Ariz. With the President in the rear grounds of the White House were representatives of the Prescott Chamber of Commerce, who performed the initiative ceremony, explained that the object of the Smokis was to preserve to posterity Southwestern Indian rituals.

It was a talkative week for Mr. Coolidge (see THE CAMPAIGN). He addressed: A large delegation of Manhattan tradesmen, who came before him on the White House lawn bearing ancient guild banners and their own goodwill; the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, before whom Mr. Coolidge went where they sat assembled in their newly dedicated home in Washington; the "Golden Rule Dinner" of the Near East Relief, at which Mr. Coolidge was guest of honor; the $100-a-plate dinner of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies, the guests at which sat in Manhattan while Mr. Coolidge sat in his chair at Washington and let his voice be heard over a private telephone wire.

The fourth biennial convention of the United Lutheran Church in America, in Chicago assembled, had read to it a Coolidge greeting: "As I study the three great movements of humanity into the American Colonies-the Puritans into New England, the Lutherans and Quakers into Pennsylvania, and the Cavaliers into Virginia. .

Secretary Slemp, eternally vigilant, stepped between the busy chief executive and a sheaf of letters from Washington renters at odds with their landlords. The renters, threatened with raises, applied excitedly for pres

idential intervention, for army "pup" tents on the White House ellipse in case the landlords remained adamant. Vigilant Slemp passed word about rent raises to the District Attorney, about "pup" tents to the War Department. Realtors offered the President their services and Mr. Slemp thanked them. Thus was the Presidential desk kept free for national business.

The President and Mrs. Coolidge attended a wedding-that of Miss Beatrice Beck, daughter of the Solicitor General, and one S. Pinkney Tuck.

The President canceled all his engagements for Oct. 27, directed the State Department to issue a proclamation of official mourning for the late

Henry Cantwell Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture. With Mrs. Coolidge, the President called on Mrs. Wallace, later wrote her a letter: "His loss will be a grief to the entire nation, for his fine qualities and able, untiring services had endeared him to all the people."

Services at the White House were in the nature of a State funeral.

THE CAMPAIGN Alarums and Excursions

The progress of another week's campaigning brought all the candidates to the eve of the election.

Calvin Coolidge no longer kept his peace. He marched before the members of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington assembled, and with the aid of 23 broadcasting sta• tions addressed the country at large as well as the Chamber men. All other U. S. radio stations hushed their voices for 45 minutes while Mr. Coolidge enlarged on his favorite topics of economy, reduced taxation, efficient government. He repeated his party's oftcried warning against persons desiring Government ownership of railroads and subjugation of the Supreme Court. Said he "The intelligence, the courage, the faith of the people will support America."

Standing on the south portico of the White House, Mr. Coolidge also spoke, politico-officially, to a delegation of business men representing 47 trades. This time he said: "This is a business country.. it wants a business Government."

Another officio-political utterance was drawn from Candidate Coolidge by the "Golden Rule Dinner" of the Near East Relief. He reminisced about the Administration's foreign policies, saying: "In our country are many exceedingly modest souls. Constantly they depreciate their own as- · sumption that our country has done nothing for Europe, made no contribution to world welfare. . . . I do not think that our country needs to assume any attitude of apology. . America is ready today, as always, to

do its full share. It wants the peace of goodwill and of the Golden Rule."

Also, Mr. Coolidge mailed a long letter via Col. Hanford P. McNider, onetime head of the American Legion, "to the service men and women of America." Said he: "I appeal to you who in the past have proved worthy of all reliance."

Charles G. Dawes headed a general eastward migration of all the stumptouring candidates. Bundling together notes, pipes and baggage in Evanston, Ill., he boarded the Dawes Special. Across flat Indiana sped the train, through sleeping Ohio, over the Alleghenies as Pittsburghers were sitting down to breakfast.

In Harrisburg,

Pa., a Bishop went to the station to pay his respects, but was informed that the candidate was taking a siesta. Disappointed, the Bishop went away; but a few minutes later rail employes beheld General Dawes freshly arisen from his day-bed, smoking on a brassrailed rear platform. Cheers followed the train as it pulled out for Philadelphia.

There the echoes in the Academy of Music crackled and rang with the staccato Dawes voice. "Where do you stand?" the voice demanded, . . . "on the rock of the Constitution and under the flag with Coolidge or on the shifting sands of Socialism?"

Back aboard the Special, the candidate recrossed Pennsylvania, spoke in Pittsburgh, in Washington, Pa., swung down into Wheeling, W. Va., for a mass-meeting, complete with parade and red fire; circled north again through Lancaster, Pa., to Wilmington, Del., where he announced: "The pinheads on the political committees have been advising me to preach one thing in one section of the country and another thing in another section. . . Not so with the women in this campaign."

On to Newark to say this: "I blush for my sex when I think of some of the advice I have received from members of the National Republican Committee of my own sex." Also to reiterate "the shifting sands" alarum. Then a sleep in Montclair, N. J., at the C. A. Hanna home, and the candidate entered Manhattan, crossed to Brooklyn and spoke, slept at the Waldorf, motored to Albany.

John W. Davis. put Tennessee behind him and rumbled into Kentucky. At Franklin, Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, he saluted throngs. In Louisville, the Horse Show pavilion at the State Fairgrounds was his forum. He was among friends and spoke genially, quietly, saving his fire for stormy Indiana, whither he repaired next day for

a third time since the campaign opened. Vincennes, Princeton and Evansville were the stumps selected.

In Vincennes, Mr. Davis was at pains to scotch a rumor that he was kin to Henry Gassaway Davis, Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1904, and that he was a member of a family that had employed non-union labor in its West Virginia coal mines.

In Evansville, he referred to Secretary of War Weeks as "one of the two unmuzzled members of the Cabinet." (The other member evidently being Secretary of State Hughes, who had, up to that time, delivered three formal campaign speeches. Secretary Weeks had just made a speech in Manhattan.) Mr. Davis talked of "a housecleaning at Washington" if he should be elected; of "creeping paralysis" in the Republican system.

Soon after this, Newton D. Baker introduced Mr. Davis to an audience in Cleveland. The introduction and Mr. Davis' speech had to be curtailed in order to be broadcasted, as it was the night of Candidate Coolidge's speech and the air was to be "cleared" earlier than usual. But Mr. Davis, speaking from the very rostrum from which Candidate Coolidge was nominated in June, found time to denounce the tariff and the Republican record and to squelch a heckler who bawled out "What is your stand on the Ku Klux Klan ?"

The second 6,000 mile tour was over. Journeying to Manhattan, Mr. Davis sank into the cushions of his motor car, was whisked off to his Locust Valley (L. I.) home. It was his intention to finish the campaign in and around Manhattan. Said he: "The Democratic Party will win the Presidential election."

No sooner had John W. Davis left Illinois than Charles W. Bryan entered it his first trans-Mississippi appearance. But whereas Mr. Davis had gone chiefly to large towns, centres of capital and industry, Mr. Bryan visited the smaller farming and laboring communities. With Candidate LaFollette harrying north of him, Mr. Bryan devoted two days to scouring the southern part of the state in flag-decked automobiles. He stopped in Christopher, Benton, Fairfield, Mount Vernon (near his birthplace, Salem, where he is still known as "Jack" Bryan, a boyhood nickname). Winding up with a speech at Robinson, he then jumped over into Ohio, working through Norwalk and Middletown (home of James M. Cox-onetime Presidential candidate), and thus back into Indiana, the while Mr. Davis worked the other way, from west to east.

The end of the week found Mr.

Bryan "tired but hopeful" after making seventeen speeches. He returned to Nebraska, nursing a cold, to swing around the home state once again.

The LaFollette whirlwind, out of which a loud voice spoke continually, swept into Illinois after wrenching at Republican and Democratic strongholds up and down the Mississippi Basin. "This campaign," said the candidate in Rock Island, "is between those who produce wealth and those who exploit wealth."

"These protected interests [sugar]," said the candidate at Peoria, "get five dollars for every dollar that

goes into the Federal Treasury. The President saves at the spigot and wastes at the bunghole . . . Cheeseparing policy."

Then the whirlwind gathered speed. It spun along the railroad tracks into Grand Rapids, Mich., and the voice said: "The issue in this election is between constructive men and destructive men."

It tore along the ties into Syracuse, N. Y., and the voice said: "We are determined that Wall Street shall not buy this election." Then it headed for Weehawken, N. J., Aiken, Md., Baltimore, Schenectady, Boston, Pittsburgh.

On the Kansas circuit, Burton K. Wheeler was rebuked. Leading Republicans* admonished him, brought it to his attention that politics was one thing while "merchandising half-baked scandal," "raking up unsupported allegations," "mudslinging," constituted quite another. "Very prettily said," retorted Mr. Wheeler; and continued his attacks on the Coolidge and Dawes pre-office records, through Caldwell, Wellington, Herington, McFarland, Topeka.

Factional strife among the Kansas Third Party leaders occupied his attention a moment then he was off for much-stumped Illinois, speaking in Chicago ("The Dawes' Plan means economic servitude for Germany!") and in Rockford ("Watch Washington for startling 'slush fund' disclosures!").

Meantime, La Follette headquarters. in Washington continued to issue "direct challenges," "defies," "prizes for evidence contradictory to this and that charge," all published under the direction of Candidate Wheeler.

Oct. 27), for certain large rats smelled in the Republican Campaign by Third Party Candidate La Follette. While in full cry, the rat-hunters nosed also at various non-Republican scents and holes.

Democratic Testimony. The week previous, the Committee had taken Republican and Third Party testimony. To round out its survey, the Committee, last week, heard the testimony of Clem L. Shaver, Chairman, and James W. Gerard, Treasurer, of the Democratic National Committee. These gentlemen averred that their total budget added into the neighborhood of $750,000 of which $549,000 had been contributed by some 4,000 persons.

Said Chairman Borah of the Senate Committee: "I saw a statement . . . that you contemplated an expediture of $1,500,000."

Replied Mr. Gerard: "I suppose if they gave us $1,500,000, we would accept it."

Forthwith the Committee adjourned for the day.

Witnesses. Came four subpoenaed Pennsylvanians before the Committee to bear witness to Republican finance in their state. Came also one T. V. O'Connor, Chairman of the U. S. Shipping Board, subpoenaed by the Committee out of curiosity aroused by a statement of his that Soviet Russian money had filtered into the U. S. via Mexico to bolster the La Follette candidacy.

Mr. O'Connor was heard first. He had to admit that he was indebted to Dame Rumor for his information. Said he: "I believe it in my own heart, though I have no way to prove it." He begged "a few days" to find proof.

Then the Pennsylvanians. One Joseph R. Grundy of Bristol, Pa., manufacturer of woolens, told how he and one W. L. Mellon of Pittsburgh had canvassed Pennsylvania's 81 counties by letters "to everybody, irrespective of race, creed, color and previous condition of servitude."

"That," said Senator Caraway, "would include practically everybody in Pennsylvania."

These letters had urged upon their recipients a duty to contribute funds in token of their "gratitude." Another term used was "enlightened self-interest." These terms had puzzled the Committee, drawn fire from Democrats and Progressives.

Mr. Grundy explained: "Gratitude for wonderful opportunities this country has enjoyed through the beneficent legislation of the Republican Party." The rat-hunters had been asked to sniff about for two Republican funds in addition to the regular Party budget -one fund the care of bankers, the other of manufacturers and business men. Mr. Grundy vowed ignorance of

such funds. So did the other three Pennsylvanians, one Nathan T. Folwell (dress goods), Samuel M. Vauclain (Baldwin locomotives), Edward T. Stotesbury (banks); but Mr. Vauclain became involved in an explanation of a

Paul Thompson

SAMUEL VAUCLAIN "Money doesn't talk."

$10,000 contribution which his company had made to an organization (The American Economic Institute) whose frankly admitted aim was "to protect the railroads against improper legislation."

Asked Senator Caraway: "Then capital has got a perfect right to hire people to go out and manufacture sentiment; is that your view?"

Mr. Vauclain: "Yes, Sir!"

Sitting with the Committee were Lawyers Frank P. Walsh and Samuel Untermyer, representatives of Senator La Follette.

Lawyer Walsh cut in: "If you knew this money was to be used to defeat Senator LaFollette in doubtful s ates, would you object?"

Mr. Vauclain: "I would object." Further interrogated, Mr. Vauclain made it clear that he was a millionaire, that he had lent his name to Mr. Grundy's fund-raising committee for its potent influence.

Lawyer Walsh: "You always winmoney talks!"

Mr. Vauclain: "Money doesn't talk, Righteousness talks."

More Witnesses. Another fine rathunting day dawned. The Committee received a financial bulletin from Republican National Treasurer William V. Hodges ($500,000 collected in five

days since Oct. 10; grand total, $2,200,000; $800,000 to go in order to reach the $3,000,000 budget); received also a request from thorough-going Lawyer Untermyer that additional Republicans be subpenaed. Lawyer Untermyer had reasoned thus: The names of such men as Elbert H. Gary, J. P. Morgan, the Rockefellers and other "recognized Republicans" do not appear on the list of donors to date. From this, we may readily deduce that there is a hidden fund. Go to! Let us quiz the Republican State Chairmen of New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois.

The Committee granted Lawyer Untermyer's request.

Next, Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana, Teapot Dome inquisitor, telegraphed to say that he feared $100,000 was going to Montana to be used against him in his fight for reëlection and that this money would not pass through the hands of the National or State Republican Committees. Another scent! Off put the patient hunters once more, Senator Caraway barking long and loudly at Charles D. Hilles, New York representative on the National Committee who was occupying the witness seat that day.

Mr. Hilles guarded his answers, infuriated Senator Caraway, swore he knew of no grounds for Senator Walsh's fear.

After issuing numerous other subpœnaes at the request of Lawyers Walsh and Untermyer, the committee splitSenators Borah and Shipstead returning to Chicago to take additional testimony, Senators Caraway and Bayard remaining in Washington for a like purpose.

Scare

"The American nation tonight faces the greatest crisis in its history since the Union was saved from disruption half a century ago.

"With the deadlock of the last three weeks still prevailing in Congress-the House deadlocked on the election of a President and the Senate still unable to choose a Vice President-the prospect is that the country will be without a regularly elected chief executive when President Coolidge's term expires at noon tomorrow.

"Coming on top of the business depression and winter of unemployment Government chaos has, wrought

a general consternation. .

"President Coolidge, at this hour, is meeting with members of his Cabinet and Republican, Democratic and Third Party leaders in a last effort to obtain a tri-partisan agreement on the unusual steps that it now seems necessary to