Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-08-19

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joices that we have resumed friendly inter-
course with Tur,-oy and Greece" but he
passes over the fact that with Germany and
Bolshevist Russia we share the reproach of
lurking beyond the pale Of the League of Ma
tons He advocates American membership
in the World Court OF international Justice;
but he has no suggestion for converting his
party in the Senate from its implacable OPP
position to this and every other form of lib
eral international coworking. Il propose to
use every possible effort to resist corruption
in office" he declares. Yes; but had 1t not
been for men like Senator w lsh, Of Mon
tana. the foulest corruption that Washington
has known for fifty years would, In all hken-
hood, have remained undecided and I'M
scourged. Certainly common sense govern
ment" was sadly unequal to the task of pro-
tecting the peoples oil lands against Its own
bribe-taking secretary of the interior, or of
protecting wounded soldiers against its own
corrupt chief Of the veterans bureau.
Toucb1ng these matters, Mr. Cooldge's
speech is peculiarly deficient; but fortunately
Mr.. Davis has supplied the lack. Said
the Democratic nominee, tracing the record
by truths pitiess light: THE disclosures
came only as the result Of the painstak1ng
effort of faithful public servants in the legis-
lative branch Of the government who could
not close their eyes even when others chose
to slumber When discovery was threatened,
instead Of aid and assistance from the exeeu-
tive branch there were hurried efforts to
suppress testimony, to discourage witnesses,
to spy upon Investigators and finally, by
trumped-up indictment, to brighten and deter
them from the pursuit. The spying on sena-
tors and congressman; the hasty interchange
of kilograms in department code; the refusal
of those accused to come forward, under
oath to purge themselves-au these things
serve to blacken page that was already dark
enough. Different perhaps in moral quality,
but hardly less painful to the country, has
been the attitude Of some of those in high
places whose effort 1t has been to weaken the
effect of these exposures by crying out not
against the guilty, but against those who
statement comes from one Who Of all men
should have been most deeply stirred that
the wonder is not that so many have fallen
but that so few have been shown untrue?
With what patience shall we greet the libel
Gus suggestion that, after all, these are but
Incidents provoked by the decentralization at
tendant upon the great war? Is memory
then so short that we no longer recall the
heroic days of 1917 and 1918, when America
rose to heights Of moral grandeur unsurpass-
ed when every meeting place was temple
and every house a shrine? Shall we forget
that no faint OF dishonesty or corruption has
ever attached to any man who held public
office during that great struggle or to any
man who continued to hold office under the
federal government until March 4, 1921?
Shell shock was late indeed in arriving IL 1t
is to be put forward now as the excuse for
these gross misdeeds"
March 4, 1921! Far happier for America
could she forget the days that have followed
Lusterless, fruitless, inglorious they have
been: in place of service, selhshness; in
place of high wisdom trivial expediencies, in
place Of forward marching for world peace
and good will, dawdling amongst the flesh
pots. And as the reckoning time for this
drab regime draws near, what says its most
eminent apologist? Does he summon to a
better way? Does he evince for human in
terests and human rights any such concern
and devotion as ring in the words of John
| W. Davis. "The civic unit in America is not
the dollar, but the individual man; all that
goes to make better and happier and freer
men and women is progress; all else is re-
action?" Or is he greatly troubled at what
! Mr. Davis denounces "the unpardonab BILE
| sin" of administrative conduct 80 corrupt
so partial and so feeble that 1t shakes the
! public confidence in government itself?" Not
at all. Instead, he turns to a complacent
offce-holding audience and murmurs, THE
people want a government of common
sense