New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-07-16

allowing him to hirt with both parties, keep
ing his choice Of party more or less in sus-
pense until his friends see which way the cat
is going to jump. That sounds reasonable
But it won't work. His friends will have no
trouble getting lot of popularity worked up
for Mr.. Ford. They will have no difficulty in
getting men to shout for him and to organize
ctubs for him and TO get up torchlight pro-
cesslons. But hurrahing does not nominate
Presidents. Roosevelt found that out. Hoover
learned it and Ford's friends should have
sense enough to know that Presidents are
nominated in conventions and that conven-
lions are controlled by temple pharisees These
temple pharisees have strict codes; they be-
lleve deeply in party regularity. 1t counts for
more than ability with them They are stick
lers tor party service, party loyalty, party
traditions And no man can win in any con-
ventlcn in normal times who ignores these
traditions and .oyalties.
The Democratic pharisees are lust as in
crusted in caste as the Republican pharisees
And Henry Ford's friends are merely con-
Quoting a ghost dance when they think that
they are running a candidate for the Pres-
Dental nomination in either party that puts
regularity ahead Of ability. But it Is work
ing rule, and whoever ignores it Is barred
fro mwork. You cannot nominate a Presi-
dent rsettle with good intentions
The games of and politics have definite
rules and whoever wins must play the game.
THE new skirts shown in the Fifth Avenue
shops are down to shoetop lengths. For
four long and happy years legs have been
staples rather than luxuries They came in
with the war. The war worker had to have
room according to her strength, so she shucked
her shins. And, being relieved, she took the
envelopes off her knees, and finally shed her
petticoat and reduced her corset to compro-
mise between liver pad and an electric belt
Then man, seeing society backed into the
Garden of Eden where Mamma would be
wearing the salad for apron, began to
hedge in his admiration. He was getting
a-plenty, which was more than enough of this
'for to behold and for to see" business about
which Kipling sings so well. And now down
comes the skirt length to the shoetops, And
in another three months there will not be a
leg worth seeing on Main Street from Harlem
to the Golden Gate. So line up, gentlemen;
get eyefull.
1t will be long, lean, hungry generation
before we can see grandma's knees and then
grandma will be under the daisies and the
shameless young things now just come from
college will be officiating where grandma now
deplores the wickedness of the rising gener-
alton. And the shameless young thing, thirty
years from now, will be yelling her crown and
bridge work loose ct some frivol of the girls
Of the day, forgetting those halcyon days
when she went to dances in an ignition sys-
tenn that had no extra parts to wear.
To-day, when she sees the shameless young
thing from college, switching the vestige of
her caudal apendage, she is greatly shocked
Grandma forgets the Grass indecencies of the
Grecian bend and the Saratoga dip. Grandma
forgets the unspeakable indecency of the
hustle. And SO in 1850 the grandma Of that
day will forget that she sometimes flashed
her knees upon grandpa and so lured him to
her lair.
But now these knees are to be turned to
weapons of peace: perhaps not exactly pillow
shares or pruning hooks, but something equally
domestic. And we mere men who have sailed
our eyes upon the beauties of nature will have
to go back to the billboards and the underwear
sales for release fer our suppressed complexes.
And SO we have the first faint recession of the
crime wave.
SCIENTISTS are fretting themselves sick
because they are about to discover a new
force released by decomposing the atom, a
force vastly more expansive than steam, a
force which will put power in every mans
hands, a vast physical power beyond the
dreams of any human being to-day SO long