The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1920-02-12
HOOVER FOR PRESIDENT


I World, one Of the leading democratic
newspapers in this country. and a
staunch supporter of Woodrow Will
son came out editorially for Herbert
c. Hoover Cor the presidency. Th"
editorial in part says:
1--WE should be glad to support Mi.
/ Hoover as the Democratic candidate
for president on a platform that rep
resented the historical principles Of
the Democratic Party. We should be
glad to support him as an independ-
ent candidate on a platform of pro-
gressive liberalism. We should not
hesitate to support him as the repub-
lican candidate on a platform rep
resenting the kind of government
which Mr.. Hoover has exemplified in
his public career.
Among the Democratic politicians
the chief objection to Mr.. Hoover IS
that he has been successfully Re
publican and Progressive, but has
never affiliated with the Democratic
organization. although he was ap-
pointed to office by President Wilson
and was most distinguished of all the
Presidents ieutenantS during the
war
Among Republican politicians the
chief objection to Mr.. Hoover is that
he never was an organization Repub-
lican and that in the fall Of 1918 he
had the independence and courage to
urge the election of Congress that
would work harmoniously with Presl-
dent Wilson. If the country had fol-
lowed Mr.. Hoover's wise and practl-
cal advice it would not today be the
victim of a deadlocked Government
which is virtually unable to function.
"The partisan objections to Mr..
Hoover are arguments in his favor.
The American people are tired OF
professional politicians and disgusted
with party politics. The old party
lines have broken down so far as the
rank and file of voters are concerned,
and in respect to principles both par
ties are bankrupt. Although the spir-
it of partisanship has rarely been
more bitter or more brutal, and never
since Secession has it been more
inimical to the welfare of the coun-
try, the battle of these warning poll
ticians is a fictitious conflict.
"Mr. Taft was Mr.. Wilson's oppo-
nent for the Presidency in 1912; yet
in so far as fundamental questions
of government are concerned itwould
be difficult to detect any important
differences between Mr.. Taft and Mr.
Wilson. Mr.. Hughes was Mr.. Wilson's
opponent in 1916, and it would be
equally difficult to detect any lmpor'
tant differences between Mr.. Hughes
and Mr.. Wilson. They might disagree
about this policy or that policy; but
in so far as their public utteranceS
of the last three years are an index
to their political principles, these diff
ferences would be personal rather
than partisan in any true sense.
"And if one wished to carry the
parallel further he might we'll ask
what there is to distinguish Dem,
ocrat like Attorney General Palmer
from a Republican like Speaker Sweet
of the New York Assembly. Both
of them have set forth to establish a
new doctrine of Prussianism which is
a veritable crucifxion of the spirit OF
American institutions.
abraham Lincoln declared in his
First Inaugural that
"This country, with its institutions
belongs to the people who inhabit it
"The Talmers and the Sweets are
seeking 70 set up a wholly opposite
theory, which is that the Government
no longer belongs to the people. but
that the people belong to the Govern,
ment, and have acquired subject
status under which their most ele-
mentary rights and liberties can be
denied whenever the Government it
self undertakes to regard those rights
and liberties as seditious or inimical
at is needless to say that when
Democrats and Republicans can unite
in the advocacy of such construc-
ton of the powers of government un-
der free institutions and when Dem
ocrats and Republicans can unite in
resisting such an invasion of Ameri-
can traditions, party lines have be-
come artificial and party adherence
has degenerated into mere matter
of prejudice, habit, Self-intereSt and