The New York herald., 1922-10-20

do what he properly can to secure
their approval by steadily increas-
. ing numbers of his fellow citizens.
(" But he is not entitled to do all this
under false pretenses and while
wearing a false uniform. So long
as present party conditions continue
destructive radicalism will gain in
creasing influence in this country
"and will do increasing damage. just
because it is in position shrewdly
to use one reluctant party organiza-
tion and then the other, and to play
!" them off against each other, to the
great entertainment, you may be
sure. of Beelzebub and all his
admirers"
clear than it is in respect of our pres
ent unsound political situation.
The conviction has long been in the
hearts of the American people that
something was wrong with us polit-
| ically. The sense that our two po-
litical parties were not playing
straight with us, that the issues be-
tween them were manufactured is
sues, that they were insincere issues,
that they were ephemeral issues with
out bottom and substance, gripped
the conscience of the nation.
And it is because Of this cropping in
the darkness that deadly apathy
has possessed the nation in respect OF
its politics. We say deadly apathy
because without keen, individual,
vital interest in the politics of de-
mocracy on the part Of it's citizens
no democracy can progress, along
right lines, no democracy can last.
No expression better fits conditions
o4 to-day than that wise expression
Of ABRAHAM LINCOLN, you can fool
some Of the people all of the time, and
all OF the people some of the time.
but you can not fool all of the people
all of the time"
And fooling the people, making
fools of the people, is what these two
old political parties are doing and
have been doing for quarter OF a
century-doing because there are no
longer any genuine, basic issues be-
tween them.
The fault isn't so much with the
men who dominate these parties to-
day, with the men who live of these
parties, with the men who make poll
tics their business, as it is with the
American people who have permitted
themselves to become the tools OF
crooked politics.
The men manning our political par
ties to-day are no worse than the
men who have manned our political
parties in other times. But in these
other times the citizens Of the coun-
try took vital interest in their Gov
ernment and the machinery that op-
Grated their Government.
There is no power among men
which, unchecked and uncontrolled
by a superior power that imposes on
it balance and poise, that will not
gradually become dishonest, overbear-
ing, autocratic, impossible.
The response of the public to Mr.
MUNsEY's address delivered at the
convention Of the American Bankers
Association recently held in this city
in which he set forth the dangers of
our present political situation and
pointed the remedy makes it clear
that he gave definite expression to
sentiment deep rooted in the hearts
of the American people but as yet
indefinite in phrase and name.
And now DR.. BUTLER, with his keen
intellect and power of position, comes
forward, eloquently urging the mem
ace of citizenship apathy and Of citi-
zenship drifting in our politics. He
urges what Mr.. MUNsEY urges. that
we must have a realignment In our
politics, a realignment true to the
sentiments of the American people,
true to the belief. the conviction Of
the American people.