The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-27
THE CONSTITUTION AT ISSUE.

ldge would have some important and burning message for the American peo- pie. From that point of view his speech Thursday is disappointing. The president confined himself mainly to stressing the importance of judicial safeguards and the dangers of standardization of indus try. It would seem to be carrying coals b Newcastle to tell an American audience that the courts should be upheld and that public ownership and operation of indus tries would be dangerous step. If Mr.. Coolidge has any real message for the American people, or if he has i. mind any reforms in the Republican program or any projects of great public impor- tance, he fails to mention them. It is hard to escape the conviction that, if the president contemplated any definite pro- gram, either domestic or foreign, he would contrive to let the people know about it. His neglect to do so warrants the conclusion that under d continuation of Republican rule, things would continue to rock along as they have been doing.
 In gratifying contrast to this attitude of snugness and reactionism the defi- mite, sane and aggressive addresses of John w. Davis stand out. MT. Davis himself strikes at the Republican cam paign inertia, saying: "The strategy is quite unique. It consists in the first place of silence. We are confronted this year for the first time in American poli- tics with the theory that the way to win a battle before the people is to keep quiet about it. Then when silence gets a little bit thin their predictions of demise appear And when that fails we have the bogey man again. The latest bogey man is that around every corner is stationed a red or a bolshevik with a bomb in his hand about to blow up the constitution of the United States unless General Dawes and his associates are called forth to defend it."
 If the constitution is ever destroyed it will be by no reds from Russia, and by no bolshevicks from any foreign land A nations worst foes are within it's own household, for they appe. in the guise, not of foes, but of frie1-ds. There are two threats to our constitution, both of them developed within our own citizen ship. One, and the least likely to amount to anything, is the LaFollette proposi- tion to destroy the authority of the fed eral courts to uphold the constitution as applied to legislative acts. LaFollette would urge the people to endorse an amendment empowering congress to re- pass any act over an adverse decision of the federal supreme court. This is noth- ing more nor less than proposal to de- stroy the constitutional division of our government in three eo-equal authorities, legislative, executive and judicial, and to make both the executive and the judicial subordinate to the legislative. Nobody knows to what extremes of evil such. a plan would lead, but that it would de- stroy our form of government is inevita- ble. Fortunately, such plan could not be put into effect without meeting pub lie approval, and therefore it may be dis missed.
 The worst threat to our constitution is already operative. It consists not in formal notification of any constitutional D. ,vision, but in practical nullification of the constitution by administrative poli- cies and practices which destroy the principles of equality. This threat to the constitution consists in the Republican policy of extending special privileges to the few and of putting the rank and file under involuntary and unjust tribute to those enjoying such privileges. It con- sists in the Republican administrative policy of turning over the public domain to private pillage, and of the Republican refusal to prosecute betrayers of high official trust or to restore to the public domain those properties of which it has been plundered, under Republican sane tion.
 On this point MT. Davis points out the distinction between the Republican idea and the Democratic idea: "One road is the road to privilege, and on that road the American people will find the doc Urine prevailing that it is right so to ad- minister the government that some may be rich, some may be made prosperous at the expense of their fellow-citizens, hop ing that their prosperity may filter down to the masses. The other is the road of equality, and on that road the doctrine prevails of the government for and by, not some of the people, but all of the people; of equal rights to all men and special privileges to none."
 Indeed, the choice of the American peo- pie in this election is not only question of parties or of candidates; it is far more question of whether the people will cling to the constitution or reject it.
 NJAKE DIDNTNTCIx KNOWN