The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-06
PRESS ON THE PLATFORM


 The Democratic platform, like most platforms, is lauded by its friends and either condemned or ridiculed by it's ene- mics. The independent press have seen fit to call it platform of expediency." Still, that need not be taken too much to heart, for certainly no party would expect to win an election with plat form which is inexpedient. If expe- diency is the worst charge that can be brought against the document, 1t must be pretty good platform.
 The Republican press, however, finds it.possible to say some rather unfriendly things. For example, according to the Detroit Free Press: ''The day it convened the Democratic national convention hailed Woodrow Wilson as the great prophet and law-giver of the party. The body proclaimed it's undying admiration and championship for the things MT. Will son taught and fought for. And there after, every day throughout the week, speakers rose and reiterated the eulogies and professions of faithfulness. Whoever did this was sure to provoke wild ap- plause, particularly if he exalted the League of Nations. But when the con- vention found it necessary to do some thing besides cheering and high-soundlng
 
 specific League of Nations plank, then, to use the words of Newton D. Baker, it repudiated MT. Wilson and dumped the League of Nations into the streets. : For the plank the gathering actually adopted is a pussy-footing, issue-dodging affair that puts the whole league ques- ton on the shelf as far as the inpend- ing presidential campaign is concerned, by advocating an imbecilic scheme for a referendum which means absolutely nothing, and is, as MT. Baker contended, fanciful, illogical and illegal" Undoubt- edly this plank is the one most likely to arouse criticism.
 sIIn similar vein the St. Louis Post-Dis- patch remarks that "the Democratic na- tional convention took the path of cow ardice and evasion, and failed miserably oiYneet the tests of candor and courage on two vital issues. It adopted gold brick referendum, with an evasive intro duction, on the League of Nations, and what Edward M. Moore of Ohio aptly characterized as a John Doe indict- Hient' of the Ku Klux Klan." It is some what surprising, therefore, to find, that the. New York Herald Tribune, stout Re- publican exponent, approvingly says: "The Democratic plank on religious lib- 
 after to bitter a controversy, is an ade- quate expression of Americanism." How ever, the Herald-Tribune comforts itself with the reflection that 'the passionate struggle over the religious plank re-em- phasized the vitality of sectional antag- onisms within the Democratic party" and asks: "Can the Democratic party exist, half of it supporting policy such as is involved in an anti-Klan declara- tion and the other half opposing such a poEcy?" However, the Republican con- temporary is doubtless too solicitous over Democratic longevity. Lively dissension is preferable to party dry-rot and more indicative of life than the torpidity that marked the Republican convention.
 To be sure, the platform is not alto gether pleasing to all Democratic jour nals, but the difference is over issues rather than principles. For example, the Louisville Courier-Journal "does not deny that it is disappointed in this plat form, but it does not despair of the out come of the convention while there is the possibility of the nomination of. a ticket incomparably better than the plat form" Whence those Republicans who hopefully predict a Democratic rift may take warning that the party solidarity lies deeper than can be scratched by diff ferences that arise in the heat of con- vehtion debate. Undoubtedly there is more division of opinion over the so- called Klan plank than over any other Many papers frankly condemn the plank for not mentioning the Klan by name Others take the view that the general declaration is sufficient, and that in any respect in which the Klan may be found to depart from either the constitution or the statutes they may be held amen able to the law just as any other body of men.
 Naturally the New York World finds good in the result of the Klan debate and declares: "The country has not lost anything, nor, we believe, has the party by democratic debate on an issue which deeply concerns the American people The principle of open discussion was vim dicated as it has not been vindicated for a generation on any political platform And in the quality of that debate, in the courage of most of the speakers on both sides, there was proof to all who seek it that the vitality of American institutions is not impaired. The World takes off its hat to the men and women who stood up ' to denounce bigotry and to name the Klan. It takes off it's hat no less to those who faced a hostile crowd and fought, not for the Klan, but what they believed to be a wiser way of dealing with it. Those who trimmed out of fear, and those who accentuated the issue for purely factional and tactical purposes, the party can abandon to the derision and condemnation of their own bad con- sciences"
 The Philadelphia Public Ledger sneers at the platform as met to snare unwary voters,' but inasmuch as a platform is formulated partly for the purpose of making a legitimate popular appeal for votes, it seems that there is no good req son for condemning it when it does just that The Republican platform, more over is weak, not particularly because of the demerits of the policies it advo- cates, but because of the fact that it is but a recital in the main of the things the Republicans previously promised and