Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-03-07
CHAPTER XXXIV
(Continued)
An Unpublished Speech
iscussing this defeat, he said:

Discussing this defeat, he said:
PERSONALLY, I am not in the least
discouraged by the results of the last
congressional election. Any party
which carries out through a long
| series of years, a great progressive
| and constructive program is sure to
bring about a reaction, because
while in the main the reforms that
we have accomplished have been
sound reforms, they have necessari-
ly, in the process of being made,
touched a great many definite inter-
ests in way that distressed them,
in a way that was counter to what
they deemed their best and legiti-
mate interests. So that there has
been process of adaptation in the
process of change. There is nothing,
apparently, to which the human
mind is less hospitable than change,
and in the business world that. is par
ticularly true, because if you get
in the habit of doing your business
a particular way and are compelled
to do it in a different way, you think
that somebody in Washington does
not understand business, and, there
fore, there has been a perfectly nat.
ural reaction against the changes we
AONO 1IlcloS Iii I1lS pOlIClSS VI
the United States. In many in
stances, as in the banking and cur
rency reform, the country is entirely
satisfied with the wisdom and per-
manency of the change, but even
there great many interests have
been disappointed and many of their
plans have been prevented from be-
ing consummated. So that, there is
that natural explanation. And then
I do not think that we ought to con
ceal from ourselves the fact that
not the whole body of our partisans
are as cordial in the support of some
of the things that we have done as
they ought to be.
you knew that I heard a gentle
man from one of the southern states
say to his senator this gentleman
was himself member of the state
legislature)-he said to his senator:
We. have the advantage over you
because we have no publication cor
responding with the Congressional
Record, and all that is recorded in
our state is the vote, and while you
have always voted right we know
what happened in the meantime be-
cause we read the Congressional
Record Now, with regard to a
great many of our fellow partisans
in Washington, the Congressional
Record shows what happened be-
tween the beginning Of the discus
sion and the final vote, and our
opponents were very busy in adver-
Using what the Congressional Rec
ord disclosed. And to be perfectly
plain, there was not in the minds
Of %v.xy Ffiaiay1t iCFo or
evidence that we had supported some
of the great things that they were
interested in any better than the
other fellows The voting record was
all right and the balance in our
favor; but they can show a great
many things that discount the final
record of the vote.
Uncompromising Partisan
"Now, I am in one sense an I'M
compromising partisan. Either a
man must stand by his party or not.
Either he has got to play the game
or he has got to get out of the
game, and have no more sufferance
for such a man than the country
has. Not a bit. Some of them got
exactly what was coming to them,
and I haven't any bowels of COM
passion for them. They did not sup
port the things they pretended to
support. And the country knew they
didn't; the country knew that the
tone Of the cloakroom and the tone
of the voting were different tones.
Now, am perfectly willing to say
that 1 think it is wise to judge Of
party loyalty by the cloakroom, and
not by the vote, and the cloakroom
was not satisfactory.
"I am not meaning to imply that
there was any kind Of blameworthy
insincerity in this. am not assess
ing individuals. That is not
fair. But in assessing the
cause of our defeat we ought
to be perfectly frank and admit that
the country was not any more sure
of us than it ought to be. So that
we have got to convince it that the
ranks have closed up and that the
men who constitute those ranks are
all on the warpath and mean the
things they say and that the party
processes. That is the main thing.
'Now, I think that can be &C.
complished by many processes. I'm
fortunately, the members of con-
gress have to live in Washington,
ana washington is not part OF the
United States. It is the most
extraordinary thing I have ever
known. If you stay here long enough
you forget what the people Of your
own district are thinking about.
There is one reason on the face of
things. The wrong opinion is gen.
orally better organized than the
right opinion. If some special in
terest has an impression that it
wants to make on congress it can
get up thousands of letters with
which to lombard it's senators and
representatives, and they get the i'm
preston that that is the opinion at
home and they do not hear from the