The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-12
Text Of John " Dis Speech Accepting Democratic Nomination.

employees, who are justly entitled to pay equal to that they would receive from private employers for similar work. Every business executive knows that underpaid service is the dearest of all.
 To the enforcement of the law, and all the law. we stand definitely >pledg- ed, We shall enforce it as fearlessly yagainst wealth that endeavors to re- strain trade and create monopoly, as against poverty that eounterfeits the currency; as vigorously against ambi- tion which seeks to climb to office through the corrupt use of money as against the. lesser greed that robs the mails.
 For no reason that is apparent
 to me the question has been asked,
 as perhaps it will continue to be
 asked until 1t has been definitely . answered, what views I hold con
 corning the Eighteenth amendmenE I and tho statutes passed to put it
 into effect. Why the question; is it not the law2. I would hold
 fin contempt amy public official
 who took with upIifted hand an
 oats to support the Constitution
 of the United States, making at
 the samo time . mental reservation
 whereby a single word of that
 great document Is excluded from
 his VOW. An administrative of-
 ficer Is no more entitled to choose
 what statutes he will OF will not
 enforce than Is 8 citizen to choose
 what laws he will or will not obey.
 As we'll might hc ask to strike
 from the Ten Commandments
 those he was not inclined to keep.
 Obedience to tho law is the first
 duty of every good citizen, wheth-
 CT he be rich or whether no Do
 poor; enforcement of the law
 against ovexy vioiatOr, rich or poor, is the solemn obligation of every | official.
 But all that we do will be undone ; all that we build will be torn down; all that we hope for will be denied, un- less in conjunction with the rest of mankind we can lift the burden of vast armaments which now weighs upon the world and silence the recurring threat of war. This we shall not do by pious wishes OF fervid rhetoric. We will not contribute to it as nation simply by offering to others, no more concerned than ourselves, our unsolicit- cd advice. Providence does not give the gifts of peace to those who will not labor to achieve them, In the name of the democratic party, therefore, l promise to the country that no enter prise sincerely directed to this end will lack our approval and cooperation. We favor the world court in sincerity and not merely for campaign purposes or as an avenue Of escape from the consideration of larger questions. We believe it a real advance toward the peaceful settlement of international disputes; an advance from which America cannot turn away without proving herself false to the teaching of century. We wish to see America as a nation play her part in that re- construction of the economic life of Europe which has proven itself so in- dispensable to our own well-being and prosperity. We are ready for any con- ference on disarmament, provided 1t is so general in it's membership and so wide in it's scope as to be able to deal broadly with so broad theme. We do not and cannot accept the dictum unauthorized by any expression of pop ulaT will that the League of Nations is closed incident So far as we are concerned. We deny the Eight of any man to thus shut the gates of the fu- ture against us and to write the fatal word Never" across the face of our foreign policy. 3.
 My own beliefs on tnis particular subject have been so frequently av0wed, and are, believe, SO well understood, as hardly to need repetition. yield to no man in my resolve to maintain America's independence, or in my un- willingness to involve her in the quar- rels of other nations.
 Yet, from the day when the pro- posal asSfirst put forward believed that American duty and American in terests alike demanded our joining, as a free and equal people, the other free peoples of the world in this enterprise. Nothingt that has since occurred has shaken he in that belief. On the con- trary, the march of events has shown not only that the league has within it the seed of sure survival but. that it is destined more and more to become the bulwark of peace and order to man kind. Fifty-four nations now sit around its council table. Ireland, l rejoice to say, has shaken off her long subjection, and once more a. lia- tion has made her entry into the league the sign and symbol of her glorious rebirth. The time cannot be far distant when Germany will take the seat to. which she is rightly en- titled. Russia, Mexico and Turkey will make the roll, with one exception, entire and complete. None of the na- tions in all this lengthening list have parted with their sovereignty or sac rificed their independence, or have .im- perilled by their presence their safety at home or their security abroad. l cannot reconcile their experience with the fears of those who dread a differ ent fate for the United States.
 There are in this country sincere minds who oppose both the world court and the League and, indeed, any organic contact with other nations, because they wish the United States to live purely Opportunist life. They wish no obliga- ton at any time to any other powers, even the slender obligation to consult and to confer. I respect such opinions even though I do not share them; for on sheerest grounds of national safety, I cannot think it prudent that the United States should be absent when ever all the other nations of the world assemble to discuss world problems. But I must be permitted to doubt the intel lectual honesty of those who profess to favor organized international cO-opera- tiOn for peace and who studiously turn away from the only agencies yet created to that end.
 In my own thought concerning the League two aspects of the question have been constantly before me. I have never found it possible greatly to con cArn uovself aa fo fhe tarmR of Our ad-