The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-10-31
NO DILUTED DEMOCRACY.

NO OGNIOSNk1SAs
 The rules of the Democratic party in Alabama through the primary election law find no champion in MT. E. J. Lee Rust, a correspondent in the "Forum of the People" in The Age-Herald of yester- day, who says:
 I d0.not see why man cannot honestly | be d Democrat in state politics and Re publican i'll national politics.
 This view is but supplemental to the editorial opinion of the Birmingham Eve ming News, which embodied in its com ment the same political code when the exposure came that men identified with the Democratic party in Alabama were contributing to the Republican campaign fund. The Evening News asserted that those found contributing to the Republic an party to bring about the defeat of the Democratic party ''have been voting the Republican national ticket for years, though casting their ballots for Demo crats in state and local elections" pro- cceding to say, as measure of alibi for such condition, that, unless this was per mitted, "they would not have vote at all in state and local electic 7s."
 In full substance, this is declaration for a ''Diluted Democracy in Alabama. 1t is an assertion that men who obligate themselves to support the nominees of the Democratic party, so that they may participate in the choice of the party nominees, can do so with mental Iseser- vation that they will desert the party nominees, for the Democratic party IS not local, but national, and the strength of the party's position in the state runs with the strength of the party's position in the nation.
 It is a fatuous assertion, furthermore. Any man in Alabama desiring to align himself with the Republican party in the nation is not denied the privilege of par- ticipation in choosing Republican officials in the state, if they but nominate them. The Republican party is not denied en- trance into the general elections in Ala bama, but Republicans are properly de- nied entrance into the Democratic pri- maries, in which only those committed to and pledged to the Democratic party have any moral or legal right to participate. There is no right of citizenship denied. The freest opportunity is given any man or group of men to put Republican candl- dates in the field from governor down and support them in the general election.
 Not alone is this the opinion of The Age-Herald. It is the opinion of the rank and file of Alabama voters. There may be those who do not hold in zeal and af- lection the heritage of the Democratic party: there may be those who believe any man possesses a right to have voice Tn the councils of men in this state to preserve a white supremacy, but depart from that principle in national administration. To those who so believe, The Age-Herald would direct these questions: Does the memory of our people run to any time when a national Democratic administra- tion placed negroes in position of au- thority over white men in the South? And does the memory of our people run to any Republican administration in the past fifty years which has not done so?
 The right thinking and representative people of the South, in their assertion of political supremacy, earnestly lend their influence toward harmony among the races. The placing of negro in posi- ton of authority over white men, policy favored by the Republican party, can have no other effect than to imperil that harmony between the races and harmony between the races is the thoughtful effort of all thoughtful men. This reflects no hostility to the negro. That is not the basis of the objection of the Caucasian race to surrender to the negro positions ot political authority. The white men of the South earnestly desire that the negro have his full industrial, domestic and educational opportunity. and they con tribute of public revenues for that pur- pose. That policy makes for harmony, as the history of past decades proves, just as the history of the same decades proves that contrary policy, applied in certain cities of the North, has caused hostile outbreaks and racial conflict of an extent and ferocity unknown ir the South aThat is why Democracy is so strongly eptrenched in the South and why it should be guarded and jealously preserved.
 As Democratic newspaper in heri- tage, in belief and in environment, The Age-Herald repudiates any such principle