The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-17
DAVIS ON PARTY LOYALTY

guage that all can understand, there Is no doubt that also he appeals to the most thoughtful His ideas gain and not lose because of the simplicity of his style. Nor is he afraid of discussing such ques- tions as a cautious candidate might avoid. This is not rashness on his part, but courage. It is not that he fails to perceive the delicate nature of some questions, but that he has confidence in his own good intentions and ability to defend his position.
 In his rear platform speech at Onaga, Kansas, the Democratic leader stepped out upon such thin ice as the subject of party loyalty has always been conceded to be. Most candidates have been afraid to mention it lest their arguments prove boomerang. But MT. Davis boldly de- clares: "No free-born American citizen ought to say to himself, my party, right or-wrong, but nevertheless my party. My party when it is light, and some other party when it is wrong;' that is the motto that Americans ought to follow" " Party loyalty is fine thing, necessary thing under our system of government. But there is {. higher loyalty. It is a loyalty to principle, a loyalty to one's firm convictions of right and. wrong, a loyalty to ones country that demands party is in order when that loyalty does not conflict with loyalty to the welfare of the country nor with loyalty to prin- ciple.
 Blind partisanship is evidence that the individual has ceased to think and that he has therefore laid himself open to political machinations of the selfishly ambitious. It is not healthy situation when candidate can count heavily upon a majority vote, regardless of his own fitness, simply because of partisanship. The adherence to one party is not con- fined to the. South, nor does Southern Democracy mean blindness to principle. There are many sections of the country that have always gone Republican, for
 
 always gone Republican. To such com- munities MT. Davis is speaking when he says:
 | There is the idea of those who think
 in the language of Alexander Hamilton,
 that government is the province of the
 rich and the we'll born and the able;
 and that they have some sort of provi- | dential mission to govern the country for the benefit of themselves and their fel- | low-citizens as we'll.
 There is the other doctrine that gov ernment is not the prerogative of any
 class or section, no matter how rich, no | matter how well born or how able, but l is the prerogative of all citizens from the highest to the lowest, the greatest to the humblest; that is the Democratic theory. There is an excellent reason, therefore, for loyalty to the Democratic party, for it offers to the rank and file that con- sideration and that impartiality of ad- ministration and equality of opportunity which are fundamental in our constitu- tion and our form of government. Loy- alty to the Democratic party does not conflict with loyalty to our country or our form of government. Loyalty to the Democratic party does not conflict with our principles of justice and fairness to all. Loyalty to the. Democratic party does not mean adherence to a party ticket which is unworthy. Loyalty ito the Democratic party is not blind ,parti- sanship, but is defensible to the last ditch of argument and common sense. Above all, loyalty to the Democratic party is evidence of popular disapproval of the policy of giving unearned priv ileges to the few at the unjustified ex- pense of the many. It means conserva- tion to the public use of resources of national necessity. It means denial of special favors to monopolies which are predatory in their purposes and pro- grams.
 On this election occasion, if ever, the American people should vote for those men whose record is clean. They should retire from office those men whose rec ord is not clean. They should withhold their endorsement of those officials high in the public trust who have sought to compromise with trust betrayals and to temporfze when principles were at stake. Nor should the people be led astray by those who would upturn the existing or der and jeopardize all our national achievements to date in order to try a most doubtful political experiment. Loy- atty to their country, to their principles and to themselves counsels them to cast their votes for the only party whose plat form and whose leaders would restore our institutions, purge our bureaus, de- fend our laws and administer our affairs with an impartial justice that has been 4La ~uaaaa& aJ~ %ioV1