The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-14
PRESS ON COOLIDGE POLICIES

PRESS ON COOLIDGE POLICIES
 One of the remarkable after-election phenomena is the readiness with which sae national press, receding from the rigor of campaign partisanship, accepts MT. Coolidge as president and no longer merely a Republican aspirant for that honor. Accordingly, his policies, as out lined in his recent message to congress, receive the impartial scrutiny and con- slderation the public has learned to ex- rect from editorial writers. Indeed, it is tacitly assumed by most editors that the message is in reality directed not at the senescent congress but to the reading public. It is apparently quite generally assumed that the president is setting forth his opinions for the people to null ever, rather than for congress to enact st this short session. That would be ex- recting too much of congress.
 Perhaps no newspaper was more active n opposing the Republican ticket than thel New York World, yet of the pres ideAt's message the World says: Gen elaNy, the presidents message-the first ia his elected status-is sound for the ccchsion, comprehensive and vigilant, save in that one particular where he deals with the Geneva protocol as to international disarmament. Also with the single exception of this passage and tie purely political one dealing with the blessings of a protective tariff, the mes ssge is presidential and not partisan v With some humor the Atlanta Journal re- marks: Though the presidents message is not tale to draw old men from the chimney corner and children from their play, it is distinctly interesting as dis closure of personality. From it's every sentence, of which there are enough to satisfy all but the most voracious readers, speak the matter-of-factness, the self containment, the caution, the thrift and 1le acuteness which the country has come to know as Calvin Coolidge and to which, 1-'- month ago, it gave towering majority
 f the popular and electoral vote. What
 yer else history may say of the pres
 ent, it certainly will not fail to record
 nat he was always himself. Thus his message is notable for strict adherence D paths already trod, rather than for fresh or creative ideas"
 Among the newspapers that believe the president expects something more than routine out of the present session is the Atlanta Constitution: "The message on the whole is simply commonsense re- view of domestic problems and situations, with a restatement of his already ex- pressed views. He does not enter into the defensive in any particular, or par ticularly voice an offensive. He thinks ti4at congress is capable of doing much besides passing appropriation bills be- tween now and March 4, and expects .puch along paths already cut out, with out any incursIons into new fields" Ill almost direct contradiction to this uew the Philadelphia Public Ledger, however, Aolds: Between the lines of the pres ident's message there seems to run the realization that the final session of the Sixty-eighth Congress is neither fitted nor minded to carry out any of the ad- ninistration's legislative policies fer the mkt four years. It is a restrained mes Eage and one that clearly marks time until noon of next March A."
 This is also the view of the Houston Post-Dispatch: "As interesting as the en- tire message is, it is not such a document as the president might have prepared for submission to a congress from which he expected concrete results. We must in- fer that he will communicate in a diff ferent vein to the congress that was elected with him, and deal more in detail with the measures that are to establish 
 Baltimore Sun regards it as Ca business Ike document, not unlike the report of the president of'a business corporation to it's stockholders" Applying itself somewhat to the task of detecting lncon- sistencies in the presidents position, the Dallas News finds Taxes are a neces- sary evil, and the president underscores tAe second word in that popular char acteriZation of them Only, it is to be inferred tariff taxation is an exception. In tariff taxation there appears to the president to be some magic beneficence which urges that taxes be made heavy. For he tells labor that it IS heavy tariff taxation, aided somewhat by the immi- grafton law, which has made ours the best paid wage-earners in the world. There is no doubt that the president seriously fails to perceive the true status of high tariff as a tax, without any commensurate return in public benefit.
 In the opinion of the Springfield Re publican, the emphasis is placed on what may be called unfinished business. Whatever in the message is contentious 10 a high degree is unlikely at this session to be enacted into law" It is the belief of the Chicago News that "no other pres ident in recent times had the two-foid cause of economy and reason and equity in taxation so much at heart as has MT Coolidge" Many newspapers have taken exception to the outline of foreign policy and their expression of disapproval is we'll epitomized by the New York Times 'oThe message is sounder and clearer ir its domestic than in it's foreign part; but this was inevitable. Mr. Coolidge has 8 Republican tradition Republican sen ate tradition, more than five years old to maintain"