The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-30
0@ : By THOMAS R. MARSHALL,
 5orrnar Vice. president of the United State1

Former Vice-Pfesident or tno Onitcu csatos. Inasmuch as the best study of mankind is
 man, one possessed of sense of h'imor and not obsessed with his own supreme importance to any divine plan may, by participating in an
 American political campaign, obtain san un-
 expufgdted. text, book out of which he can read lessons old and new. But he Is apt to carry out of the campaign longing for some scientific metliod whereby q sort ot census lof political thought may be taken. The census lburean knows .to. nicsty how many persons there are in the United States and how many
 of them are voters. It can approximate ac-
 cufately the number of qualified voters who
 will cast their ballots. It has classified per sons and live stock, agricultural. and manu- factured articles. We can learn from the bureau almost anything we wish to know, but it has never attempted to ascertain wny voters are going to vots as they are or why
 they voted as they did. Yet, when an cleo tion is over and the votes are counted that IS just what most of us would like best to know.
 Alter the winner is known those who have have lost begin mournful period of ana!yza- tion, sitting in solemn contemplation and en-
 deayoting to determine the causes Of defeat.
 They recount all the steps of the cafnpa1gn, consider mistakes which were made ana chances which were overlooked. Almost any
 Democrat save myself, professes to- knoys as n
 result of his own study, why Mir, DavlA was
 defeated, albeit .post-mortem is idle, vain,
 useless, being without value four years hence; None of us know, however, just why the ihdi1
 vidual voter voted as he did. That is why propose division within the census bureau
 to obtain frank expression from each mefae
 Der of Sthe electorate. 4 The campaign orator, who sees in his audience no one at variance with his views, 1t,0 applause which follows his declarations touch- ing principles and party loyalty. By con lining himself entirely to these manifestations he can easily work himself into a condition of autointoxicatioh wherein he will drunkenly believe that every man and woman in Ameri- ca Is going to cast ballot to uphold the prin-
 ciples he espouses and to destroy all others. It is not at all difficult for him under these circumstances to become convinced that the
 political parties through their platforms pre- sented clean-cut distinctions of principle which
 every good citizen is bound to consider and de-
 eide for himself and that every good citizen,
 having done 80, will vote accordingly.
 As this orator cracks the Ku Klux Klan
 and thunderous applause comes back to him from his audience, he is quite sure that vot-
 CTS everywhere are going to cast their bal
 lots against religious intolerance. As he pleads for common honesty or for common sense in public affairs and arouses the un- qualified approval of his hearers, he becomes
 convinced that the average American voter is going to let the whole world know where he stands on that important question. As his in-
 toxication continues from day to day he comes to see the vast electorate of America clothed in white robes and bowed down in homage be- fore the Goddess of Liberey, each member of the throng willing to sacrifice his life, fortune and sacred honor in defense of the principles the multitude applauded. To him the ques- tions at issue cease to have anything to do with prosperity or diversity. The dinner pail, whether full or scant, disappears. Each voter becomes a ragged continental anxious to for get all material things in order to promote the cause in which he believes and make it triumph. -.
 But the campaign orator who does not get intoxicated on the applause of multitudes