The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-13
SOME EFFECTS OF PROTEST

SeUdLOT DTOOkHdTI udS UeeI SOuHu- ing some more warnings. He seems to have constituted himself the gen. eral superintendent of the clarion-call and danger-signal departments. Not long ago he told the people of Min neapolis that "civilization has reached turning point" Which may be true in a sense. Civilization reaches a turning point every now and then but manages to locate sign-post and work it's way out of the muddle. One is reminded of the national populist platform of 1892. It said, among other things: "We meet in the midst of nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin" More than three decades have rolled by since then, and all kinds of nos trums, isms and ties have been sprung with accompanying enthusiasm and precipitation by political descendants of the Populists. Yet the nation mud dies along and steers clear of the oft repeated chaos.
 Brookhart belongs to political school that feeds on grouch and grievance. There have been many like him ever since the Populists advocated unlimited distribution of money and doctrines of that sort. The Pop ulist party died natural death for obvious reasons; but various move ments founded on fight against the multiplication table followed. It mat ters not whether these movements masquerade behind such catchy names as 'Non-Partisan League" Farmer Labor party" or any other. They seem to be founded on the idea of getting something for nothing, shirk- ing the responsibility of self-reliapce or forcing their demands through threats and predictions of national ruin. The systems have never flour ished east of the Mississippi, and there is no reason to fear that they will Capitalizing discontent for the benefit of ambitious politicians never has got ten much of foothold in the East It seems to be largely Western product where radicalism somehow finds more sympathetic support. Dis satisfaction and protest sometimes carry weight preceding national campaign; but movements growing out of such a condition usually prove ephemeral for the reason that when the protest is honest, and carries some merit, it usually meets with consider ation from the majority.
 The voice of protest cannot always be easily thrust aside and ignored in these piping times of competitive eff fort when there are so many interests and philosophies to pacify. Only re- gently the people of state which does some thinking of its own elected a United States senator as protest against what it considered unjust treatment. That is one way the peo- pie of state have of manifesting their attitude towards real or imagi- nary neglect. The country has not reached a turning point" as Brook hart and other disciples of the grouch- and-grievance school would make it ap- pear. Nor is it on the "verge of moral, political and material ruin," as the Populists undertook to show more than thirty years ago. Yet there is cause to conclude that some helpful results may come out of all this agitation which might serve as a check, while creating additional effort along lines that will hold it within reasonable bounds. Even the Populist party, with all its vagaries, is largely responsible for direct election of senators, direct nominations, the initiative and refer endum, postal savings banks and some other things that help thinking people to forget free and unlimited," gov- ernment ownership of railroads, tele- graphs and lighting plants, and other "pater familias" theories run mad.
 
 A POLITICAL BLUNDER
 A Chicago dispatch carries the news