Evening star., 1924-11-05
PERSONAL VICTORY
FOR COOLIDGE SEEN
Faith of People in His Integ-
rity ObIiterated Corruption
Issue in Fight.
RY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

so easy to diagnose as tn" landslide
which has swept Calvin Coolidge to
victory. II is personal triumph-
pure and simple, almost unparalleled
In our modern political history. The
result is immeaSurabIy less a vindi-
cation Of the Republican party. or
even of Republican principles. than
1t Is a stunend0us vote of confidence
in Calvin Coolidge. That is the long
and short of the presidential election
of 1924
There will be arguments in plenty
to prove why the victors conquered
and why the conquered were van
uuished. There will be talk of the
wave of prosperity on the farms
which sent the rural West to the
polls in an avala nche for Coolidge.
There will be explanations that Davis
was hopelesSly handicapped from tn"
start by Democratic strife and by the
Bryan milestone. But when all is
said and done, when the credits and
debts have been balanced, it Will be
discovered that it was oVerWheim-
ingly the country's deep-Seated. I'M
pregnable confidence in the President
that elected him.
Prosperity Was Considered.
Nothing else seriously counted
Hardly anything else was in the
concentrated on what Senator Moses
of New Hampshire called the calm
and cautious Christian character OF
Calvin Coolidge" That is what the
country voted for on Tuesday, East
and West, North and Southwest. Ihat
is why, with the exception OF the
invincibly Democratic South ana a
couple of Southwoster border states
and La Follette's Wisconsin, the Ma
do he election
Coolidge unanimous.
There are of course, correlated
reasons for the Presidents smashing
victory. Prosperity is the foremost
of them, but even that reason Is di-
rectly associated with the paramount
cause of confidence in Coolidge
Prosperity having arrived, the people
determined to risk no loss OF 1t by
a midstream change of administra-
tions in Washington. They convinced
themselves that there would be an
intellectually stronger prospect OF
keeping the times good by perpetu-
ating Coolidge in the White House
than by displacing him.
The Nation directly links up the
Presidents calm" and caution" with
prosperity Indeed. the Coolidge
landslide plainly indicates that with
out those qualities in the leadership
of the United States at this juncture
the people felt their welfare might
be in jeopardy. They decided not TO
make a change. They voted to let
well enough alone"
Court Issue n Factor.
Against that stone wall of reason
ing, the attacks of the Democratic
and Progressive parties were launch
ed in vain. 1t was almost as if the
country had shut it's collective ear
ha Al Fl md
the invectives of the opposition. As
for La Toilette, his introduction of
the Supreme Court issue, with its
frontal attack on the fundamentals
of the Constitution, presented the
Republicans with defensive material
that probably would, of itself, almost
have been sufficient to win the coun-
try. When La Toilette added gov
crnment ownership of railroads to
his platform, he simply made IL cas-
1er for the Conservatives to rally
around their regular standard, the
Republican party, and for Democratic
Conservatives, who are numerous. to
rally with them as the surest way of
warding off the peril of radicalism
The ingloriouS showing of the third
party. amounting to a rout, is one of
the glaring results of the election.
MIR. Davis concentrated his fire on
Mr.. Coolidge with regard to three
major issues. He stressed "corrup-
ton" in the Republican administra-
tfon, assailed the latter's "isolationist"
foreign policy and attacked the
ordney-McCumber tariff. 1t is an
amazing fact that the country failed
to react appreciably to a single one
of these issues. Teapot Dome, Fall.
Daugherty. Forbes and the other
names under which Davis and the
democrats catalogued Republican
misgovernment" proved entirely in
capable Of arousing the Nations emo
tions.
Fnith In Coolidge Honesty.
Perhaps they savored too strongly
OF ancient history. Perhaps if Fall.
Daugherty and Forbes could have
been Investigated in the closing
weeks of the campaign, instead of
eight or ten months ago, deficiencies
in the Interior and Justice depart
ments and the Veterans Bureau
might have proved the undoing of the
Republican party. But there is now
reason to doubt II even this would
have happened; for people throughout
the campaign, every time Democratic
or Progressive spokesmen brought up
Teapot Dome or Forbes, would say:
We'll, Coolidge didn't have anything
to do with them He's honest. Moth
ing like thatI ever happen while he's
President"
80 the electorate refused to visit
upon the present head of the admins
nation the shortcomings of a prior
regime. 1t gave Coolidge a clean bin
or health. 1t gave no heed to the
opposltlonS argument that ours is a
system of party government. and that
the head of a party even if not di-
recty Implicated, must be held to
strict accountability for party deeds
and party misdeeds.
The foreign policy and tariff argu-
ments of his antagonists also failed to
damage Coolidge. On the contrary, they
neiped him. In any other foreign policy
than the one Mr.. Coolidge has pursued.
and in any other tariff policy than the
one now in force. the people saw a
menace to prosperity. SO they voted to
change neither of them They saw no
virtue either in larger American COM
mttments abroad or in any tinkering
with the tariff.
Davis Given Bad start.
It would be idle to deny that arart
from his stranglehold on public con-
fidence. the sun shone on Calvin Cool
idge from "A variety of other directions
He was peculiarly fortunate in the cir
cumstances under which his chief op-
ponent John w. Davis. was pitted
against him. No candidacy, Democratic
or otherwise, was ever born under less
fortuitous stars. 1t was conceived in
party strife and begotten in incurable
rancor.
Madison Square Garden with its gap
ing wounds, branded John W. Davis
with the scar of defeat in November as
long ago as the middle of July. That
was disaster No. /. Then came Davis
own choice Of Charles W. Bryan for his
vice presidential running mate. That