The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-25

SVAIAV VI HIS party nus 0FcE Uceu COn stant and aggressive. Under hil leadership, and ever the most unrelent ing opposition of the administration the sentiment was crystalibed, the law enforced, and the disarmament confer ence called.
 It is true that during the more than three years this administration has con l-trolled the government the number oi civil employees in the government serv' ice and the annual appropriations have been reduced. Those reductions came however, not because of any republican forms. They were the natural reduc I tions that flow from readjustmeni of abnormal conditions occasioned by the war. If we did not have bigger things to discuss, greater achievements to proclaim, we might claim that in 'eighteen months of democratic admins. tration, immediately following the war not only did we reduce appropriations in larger amounts than ever did the repub. lican party, but we reduced the national debt by more than two and one-half bil. lions of dollars and the number of civil employees by 100000.
 Expend More
 Amid all this deceptive cry of economy let it be remembered that this republican party, during its less than four years of control, has expended $9, 9,592, ,O000O more than did the demo. cratic administration during the whole five years immediately preceding the war.
 The American people have taken the measure of this administration. It may have been able to free itself from sectional idolatry and to have looked beyond the sky lines of New England It might have heard the groans of the distressed farmers of the west and sympathetically responded. It might have sought markets and removed the tariff jams in the channels through which our surplus products move. It might have visualized world conditions and courageously assumed the part be- | fitting a great nation.
 It might have reduced living costs, redeemed pledges to the soldier, fol lowed a definite domestic program, and adopted a broad and statesmanlike l foreign policy, but, even then, it would have availed it nothing with its carnival 1 of corruption The least that the American people expect of their public servants is common honesty. They will forgive their passivity, overlook their indiscretions, and, too often, for get their impotency, but to them cor ruption is inexcusable, graft is inde- | fensible.
 Pizarro and his adventurous band, as they set their faces toward the golden west, were not more inspired in quest of treasure than this administration. They were looking for gold, heaps of gold, shimmering, gleaming gold. They ] did not wait to touch the nerves of mother earth nor drag the current s flow in their mad enthusiasm; in greedy haste they grasped the spark | ling sand, then cast it down with curses when they found the glittering grains were not gold.
 Disease Spread
 1 From cabinet head to republican rep resenta tives in Congress, like a plague the disease spread. It became epidemic, and while the world looked on the great physician of this administration in sul- len silence refused to prescribe a remedy or attempt a cure. Gallant soldiers, who never flinched in battle or cowed, in action, who, like madmen, threw themselves into the jaws of death for the glory of their country, were robbed; widows mites and orphans pittances were stolen; seats in the United States Senate placed upon the auction block and sold like merchan. disc; natural resources secretly squandered; courts of the land mocked congressional committees defied and the scales of justice tipped by the weight of gold. We'll do these subal- terms of the administration know that there is more blood in the body than what mantles in the cheek, more profit in the office than exhibited in the salary.
 It is the brazen effrontery of this administration that challenges our at. tention. They would halt these in. quiries by hysterical cries and fore. boding predictions. They say, You are hurting business" You are de. stroying confidence" Our answer is We are helping business. We are restoring confidence" We are say. ing\ the government by performing ar /, operation to preserve the life of the na. tion itself" Theirs is the Spartan morality. Not the corruption but the discovery constitutes the crime. In, stead of applauding the investigators they make war upon the investigation Instead of condemning the exposed and praising the exposure, they praise the exposed and condemn the exposure.
 Decry them as they will, the
 American people know that 1t was
 these tlgations-cOnducted by
 democrats, yes, but through repub-
 lican cOmmittees--that sent AL
 bert Fall to Three Rivers a dis
 graced man and proven criminal.
 It was these investigations that re-
 Vealed such Q gross indifference
 and utter incapacity of the navy
 department and compelled Edwin
 Denby's retirement from the cabi-
 net. It was these investigations
 that unfOlded a condition in the de-
 partment of justice that shocked
 sensibillties and drove Daugherty
 back to Washington Court House.
 It was these investigations that
 caused cOnspiratOrs against their
 government to take their own lives
 rather than tell the truth and un-
 bosom the criminating secrets
 against their own criminal allies.
 It was these investigations that
 pointed to the immoral orgies of
 Forbes and sickening scandals in
 the veterans bureau. It was these
 investigations that pLt a republican
 congressman behind bars and lashcd
 Newberry from the Senate. It was
 these investigatiOns that informed
 the American public that the first official act of Calvin Coolidge was
 the appointment of a private secre-
 tary who had traded and traffiek-
 cd in public patronage. It was these investigations that led 8 rS-