The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-30
4. Q. P. PAPERS
 GETTING BITTER
 OVER CRITICISM
Demand Housecleaning As Only Means Of Saw
 ing Themselves
By oN-LOOKER
By ON-LOOKER WASHINGTON. March 29.-Hav the republicans thrown up the sponge

fsf w WASHlNGION,. March Z9.-Have the republicans thrown up the sponge?
 A few days ago the New York Trib- une--we presume we ought to be pre- else and speak about it as the New ' York Herald, New York Tribune, which has all the vices of both and some of the virtues of neither-had cartoon by the much-admired Ding which made us wonder whether overnight there had not been another amalgamation and absorption. The cartoonist represented Mir. Coolidge in the guise of carpenter < waving away a workingman carrying an armful of secondhand lumber la beled, 'Old Political Timber while Mr. Coolidge says: Thank you, No From now on nothing goes but No. 1, clear and kiln dried.' In one corner of Mir. Coolidge's workshop is a delapi- dated piece of furniture marked, "The Cabinet" The top drawer, with the babel Navy" on it, sags' badly; on the floor is drawer in even worse condi- tion, with 4Attorney General on it's front. NearE it is all that is left of another drawer; the front only, with the inscrfption, Anterior" Mir. Cool idge has 1efel and straight-edge on a beam; this IS branded New Cabinet < Aaterlai.
 The meanipg is clear enough. but } Ding evidedtlF knows his constituency :: or does he fear that among the readers of what was the Herald in it's own right and is now only half of Siamese twin until another capital operation has been performed, there are some who gre not up to the intellectual standard of the Tribune? At any rate, so as to drive home his moral i've shall adorn the tale) he has this legend Had all the trouble with secondhand lumber ne cafes for" So it has come to this The names that once were mentioned only m awed and reverential tong, %f, now flippantly described as second. hand. Indeed, the republic has fallen on evil days. These best minds that once were 100 per cent best" with A premium attached, are now on the sec ond-hand counter, with no customers. On. days of sorrow and remorse: Oh. waved superlatives and efforts of the ingenious press agent! Once they were fhe bestest ever and the greatest states men not only of their time. but of all times; today they are not good enough even to be mentioned as candidates for republican nomination. And that is somewhat of fall from their former nigh estate. '-''-
 The Herald having been adopted by tne opulent and benevolent Tribune, see what comes out of it. Every loyal re publican is cast into gloom and every republican is always loyal until the last postmaster has been appointed. And if the Tribune's little alterations were not bad enough, here comes MT. McLeans Washington Post, a journal not unknown to fame and the Depart ment ot Justice, openly and boldly to declare there is a crisis in the republi- can party and everything has gone to the devil. When good republican Da- pers talk this way we can detect the signs of the times Better to throw un the sponge in March than to get flat tened out by the steam-roller in No vember.
 Mir. McLean's journal of sweetness and light wants to know what has ham pened to the republican leaders. As the old recipe tells us, you must first catch your hare before you can cook it. MT. Mclean will produce his repub- iican leaders, we shall be able, we think. 70 tell him what ails them, but up to the present time, although we have made diligent investigation, we have not been able to find any republican lead CTS. They are not in the White House or the Senate or the House of Repre- sentatives. We find several exalted gen tlemen who ask each other what they think somebody ought to tell them what they ought to do, and they don't do it. It has it's merits, this system; it en- ables the so-called leaders to take life easy and to vote as the democrats in struct them.
 Mir. Mclean and the Washington Post, we fear, are becoming hysterical, and good republicans keep their heads and remain safe and sound even while the heather doth rage. What are the republican leaders, ''scoundrels or mo- ral cowards?s asks the Post. You can take your choice. This is clearly fami-