The star-progress. (Opelousas, La.) 1917-1921, 1920-02-07
are not.

are not.
Although the two parties are des-
titute of principle, they still retain
some of their former characteristics,
and Mr.. Hoover combines the best OF
these characteristics in both parties.
The republicans boast, and notw It'll
out reason, (if the record of the six
ty-sixth congress can be ignored for
the time being), that they represent
efficiency in the administration OF
government. Mr.. Hoover has proved
himself one of the greatest admins
traitors of all time. His achievements
are among the miracles of the war,
and when Europe speaks of efficien-
CIV it no longer speaks of it in terms
of Germany but in terms of Hoover.
If the democrats can not success
fully challenge the republican claim
to superior administrative ability, they
can honestly claim that except for
the brief period when the party or
ganization had become a chattel OF
the slave-holding oligarchy the demo-
cratic party has been the great cham
pion of individual rights and of the
liberties of the people. 1t is essen
TALLY the party of the Bill of Rights
and of the constitutional guarantees
of freedom, the incorporating as
sertion of which was never more need
ed than it is today.
In spite of the Southern prohibi-
tionists and the reactionary practices
of Attorney General Palmer and Post
master General Burleson, the indi-
vidual democrat, who is a democrat
on principle, has not lost these char
acteristics. The instincts of the
great mass of democracy still tend to
keep it a party of the common people,
not in the sense of the demagogue
but in the sense of Thomas Jefferson.
They are still struggling whenever the
opportunity offers and free play of
democratic sentiment is permitted by
party organization, against those CEN
TRAILING tendencies that are turning
the government of the United States
into an autocracy of bureaucrats.
If Mr.. Hoover is a republican in
respect to administrative capacity, he
is democrat in respect to decentral-
1910. o.d L,,rooy v;nrh4S
The argument for his nomination
does not stop there. One of the
great organs of British liberalism, the
London Nation, recently declared that
} Mr.. Hoover was the ablest man that
the war has produced. Of the men
who were without high reputation
when the conflict began, there can be
no question that he is the most COM
handing figure that emerged out Of
this welter Of the nations. Such
, ability is not to be held lightly at a
: time like this. The American people
J are going to need it, and need it
badly.
Most of the. candidates who have
thus far announced themselves, dem
ocrats and republicans, estimable
gentlemen though they may be- are
so inadequate, in view of the issues
that the next president must meet
that their aspirations are little shori
of ridiculous. Men who have no con
ception whatever of what is going ii
in the world and no understanding Of
the problems that must be met are
boldly offering themselves for an of
flee for which even the best minC
and the strongest talents are hardly
adequate.
OF all the men whose names have
been mentioned. The World believes
that Mr.. Hoover alone measures VI
to the presidency in the fullest sense
1t is not happy state Of affairs il
J which the American people find them
selves, but it is an inevitable state o
: affairs in view of the political prac
] tees which they have tolerated dur
: ing the last twenty years. They al
lowed Mr.. Bryan to club every demo
!, fcrat into submission who was not a
heart a populist, and they Above
/. Mr.. Roosevelt to put the Wall stree
! brand on every republican who woul
!, not meekly indorse "My Policies.
= The result of it is that the blood 0
, both political parties has been i'm
r, poverished, and in the course of tn
u contests between the right wings an
7 left wings of both organizations, me
Of ability who might well have aspire