The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-23

spirit unsubdued. They called him an idealist, they pronounced him ahead of his times. They forget that they were but echoing what the world has said through all the centuries of tose who through all the centuries of those who malice can touch him now no more for ever, but the thoughts to which he gave utterance and the ideals he proclaimed will live long after those who opposed them have passed and been forgotten.
 Stands On Threshold
 "We stand at the threshold of an- other presidential campaign and the American people are called on once more to decide whether they will leave their destinies in charge of those who are now in power or give them over into other hands. Do they want a change or do they not? That is the question upon which all popular elections turn. Un- der a parliamentary system like that which obtains in Great Britain or in France, the government of the day put to the House of Commons or the Cham Der of Deputies the question of confi- dence or no confidence. We do the same thing, except that with us the question is put to the people as whole. Re publicans must not be pained or sur prised, therefore, if we ask them to give account of what they have done or left undone. They must not blame us if we jog the public memory concerning things that might otherwise be forgotten.
 "TO all such complaints we can
 but reply in the language of the
 Scriptures, beware ye of the leaVen
 of the PhafiseeS which is hypOcricy.
 But there is nothing covered up
 that shall not be revealed, nOth.
 ing said, that shall. not become
 known. Therefore, whatever ye
 have spoken in darkness shall be
 heard in the light and that which ye
 have spoken in the ear in clOseth
 shall be proclaimed upon the
 hOusetOps.'
 When we paint against the vivid background of the eight years under Wilson, the history that has been un- rolled since March 4, 1921, there are, to say the least, some startling contrasts. In 1913 the lobby was scourged from Washington, in 1921, like a flock of unclean birds hastening to the feast, it gathered from the four winds winds and descended upon the. city. The little green house in K street was set up for sinister purposes but partly disclosed. Its accounts and their friends soon proved that they lacked neither zeal nor appetite.
 First Came Oil
 First of all came oil. at the head of the buccaneers as they marched along, rode the Secretary of the Interior. Within 90 days after he took office the naval oil reserves had been transferred to his gentle guardianship and the deal ing began. The policy of conservation, for which Presidents Roosevelt and Will son had fought so valiantly, was thrown to the winds and within less than 12 in secret and without public of any sort, all the oil reserves upon which the navy depended passed into private Lands. Thus of 26,000,000 barrels of oil which the Teapot Dome was estimated to contain, only about l ,6O0,000 barrels will become the prop erty of the government. In case of or threatened danger the will have only the doubtful privilege of buying back from the in- terested parties, at their own prices, the oil which once it owned.
 And after oil, the veterans, for whose care in one form or another the enormous toll of $450,OO0,O0O was pro- vlded to be spent, a sum half as much again as the budget of either the war department or the navy and thirty times the carrying cost of the department of state. Here was |. rare field for en- tcrprise. A year and half after Con gress had appropriated $33, 3,000,000 for building purposes only POO hospital beds had been added to the bureaus equip. ment and those in hospital purchased ready-made; but a friend of Director Forbes meantime had paid $17,0OO for a hospital site and sold it to the gov ernment on the same day for S105,000; and S100,000 had been paid to an archi- tect who designed q building so poor that it was never built. We may be pardoned for asking whether it was com mon sense to sell at 20 cents on the dol lar more than S4,000 sheets for which wounded men were waiting, while at the very time others were being bought to take their places at five times that price.
 Little Green House.
 "The enforcement of the prohibition law gave an opportunity for action of which the denizens of the little Green House were quick to avail themselves. Trade was broke and profits were easy in this particular line, if but one-half the stories told by George Remus, king of the bootleggers, and others are to be believed
 What is the answer when we talk of these things! It consists in the first place, of bemoaning the fact that such unpleasant topics should be forced oD polite ears. Why not forget about them? Why not say as little about them as possible? Why not pretend that they were simple indiscretions which should be overlooked when there is signs of repentance? Those who speak in this fashion assume a degree of indifference or a lack of interest on the part of the people which would be itself a reflection upon popular govern ment. If it be true that public interest in these things has waned. is it not public duty to see that it is revived be- fore the day of judgment comes?
 "Then we are told with some
 cOmplacency that there is no fur
 ther need for public concern be-
 cause those under suspicion have
 been indicted and there is nothing
 left to do but wait for the day,
 still far in the future. when they
 will be tried. We are invited to
 believe that there is no difference
 between these men and a janitor
 who has been caught at night talk
 ing change from the cash drawer.
 These at whose door these charges
 were laid were not mere underlings.
 They were responsible officers of
 great political party, put by it in
 places of high power.
 They were but one removed from the head of that party himself. What they did or failed to do cannot justly be omitted when. the record of that party is reviewed. Diligence in enforcing the