The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-15
MERITS POPULAR REBUKE


 closed and with the other soon to assem- ble, the presidential campaign is on the eve of getting under way in earnest. The Republicans have adopted passable platform and a strong ticket. The plat form it will be easy to improve on. The essential thing is for the Democrats to put their strongest men on the ticket, for nowadays personality counts more than party in winning votes. This is proved by the manner in which national majorities incline heavily, now to one party and now to the other.
 Aside from the party tickets, how ever, there aree certain things in the ad- ministrative record of the past three years which count heavily against the Republican party. In the first place, there is that congressional disunity in both house and senate which destroyed the Republican numerical advantage and turned it over to the unbroken solidarity of the Democratic minority. There is no guaranty that Republican unity would in the next four years be any more marked than it has been. On the con- trary, there are breaches between the president and party leaders in congress which it would seem impossible to heal. The repudiated leaders have their fol- lowing, so that even if the leadership were changed to other men there would still be dim hope of that unity without which the success of party measures could not be hoped for. The Repub- lican legislative failure sufficiently dem onstrates the lack of teamwork.
 And if the Republican majority in congress has been split by dissension, the executive department has been the subject of disclosures that amount to official ineptitude and even in some cases to betrayal of high official trust. These evidences of official incompetence and even dishonesty might not be held against the party if there had been prompt and resolute Republican deterni- nation to uncover the facts, restore the public domain and bring the guilty to justice. But instead of that, there have been strong Republican attempts in the first place to cover up and to prevent disclosures, and, failing that, to mini mize the proof of official misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance among Re- publican high executives. It is true that there have been from time to time ex- I1Aa ho rf of the president and others to correct the situation; but there has been painful lack of acts to back up such promises. It is all too apparent that the Republican would prefer that the public welfare rather than the party prestige should suffer. The result has been that the party prestige has not been protected and that the credit for the disclosures has gone largely to Demo- cratic members of the committees of in- quiry.
 As for the Republican. platform, little credit indeed can the party claim for whatever has been done towards redeem ing the pledges. The new platform is not essentially different from the old, and with the same men in authority what assurance could the people have that the future record would be any better? The assurance is all the other way. With party disunity in. congress, with a rift between the president and the majority party, and with an habitual disregard of party program, the Republican party offers to the country meager hope of that sort of government which the well fare of the nation demands. The neg ligence of the Republicans has not been confined to measures of major import, but has been displayed with respect to those indispensable but routine meas ures without which the ability of the government to function normally is inn paired. Congress, in other words, did not clear its desk before adjournment; did not dispose of the minor but essen- tial details that require little or no de- bate. The situation denotes a party slovenliness that has crept like a blight over the congressional majority. The people of the United States should re- buke that sort of misrule in no uncertain manner,