The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-11-04
ON SECOND THOUGHT
By JAY n. HOUSE.
(Erom Philadelphia Public Ledgss.D

Il NlEom E0u4oolpo43 EuOne L40Roksl l
1t were high time we paid a little
attention to the political situation. 1t
world and a guiding hand. We quote
the following paragraph from the
New York World: ''All his liberalism
is gone. All his leadership is gone.
An his moral fervor is gone. He is
merely q contract lawyer looking after
the interests of a dubious CLIENT
The gentleman thus characterized is
Mr. Charles< Evans Hughes, secretary
of state We presume nobody seri-
ously questions the truth, which is
that Mr.. Hughes is a high class Amer
lean gentleman, whose public career
has been notable and whose admins
tration of the department of state has
been sane and brilliant. He is no hero
of ours. We do not care for his whis-
kers and we chilled in the icy atfnos-
phere the only time we ever heard
him make a speech But doesn't the
World make a ring-tailed spectacle of
itself when it applies to a man of Mr..
Hughes'S character the language
quoted above?
more ridiculous than a bitterly parti-
san newspaper in the clutches of its
own propaganda.
There is we notice here and there,
some acerbetic talk about Mr.. Hard
ing. There would be. 1t is the per-
fectly natural reaction from the ac-
claim with which Mr.. Harding was
greeted when he reduced the throne
upon which Mr.. Wilson had been
seated to the form and dimensions of
a swivel chair. But we should be
glad, at the customary odds OF to 5,
to hypothecate the jolly old pay check
for the first week(in June, 1924, on
the proposition that Mr.. Harding will
be renominated by exclamation.
And, at the same odds, we should
deem 1t a favor to be permitted to
imperil the honorarium for the first
week in November, 1924, on the wager
that Mr.. Harding will be reelected.
That seems to dispose of the politi-
cal situation in so far as that feat may
be performed by column conductor.
What have we next? All, letter!
1t Isn't Guess; It's n Cinch.
Sir-Several people are outspoken in
their desire to see one woman acquit-
ted, notwithstanding the fact that she
many of them shout for the arrest OF
the woman who is only suspected of
exercising a like prerogative?
Is it that one was caught, the other
not? Is it that the one is young, the
other not so young? Is it the popular
desire to land a punch on prominence
and position? Is it that without an
arrest and trial there is no opportun-
ity for the exercise of the salivary
glands?
Perhaps the world is getting better.
Maybe we don't get maudlin until the
attorney for the defense. opens up.
What's your guess? c. T. r.
Probably all of the elements indi-
Gated enter into the situation. But
the peg is larger than the hole thus
n
pressed from mass formation is
nearly always wrong. Individually,
the average American citizen is a
kindly, decent, fair-minded gentle
man, In mass formation he becomes
a hooting, bowling fathead. The
emotional drunk is the most danger
Gus form of intoxication. When the
condition becomes epidemic in a COM
munity, common sense and logic have
no more chance than a snowbird in
the tropic zone.
After the victim has been drawn
and quartered, after his remnants
have been inferred in Potter'S Field
and his personal effects disposed of,
those who engaged in the debauch
realize that their action was precipi-
tate, and meet and adopt suitable
resolutions of sympathy and regret.
But they continue always to be sus-
ceptible to the intoxicating qualities
of credulity, distrust, suspicion, preju-
dice and maudlin emotion.
1t may interest the readers who re-
member our rash offer to swim the
Dardanelles for a basket of Rambo
apples to know that we are not i'm
mediately to be called upon to per-
form the feat. Luther Alger, of Mes
hoppen, Pa, has rendered the obliga-
ton gratuitous. The bushel basket of
Rambos which reached us yesterday
from his address had no qualifying
clause.
We need a lot of other things, of
course, but the on'y thing for which
we now feel in humor to swim the
Dardanelles is a new kit bag.