The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-05-30
LAEoLLRTTE OFFERS HIMSELF

LAEOLLEIIE OFF EhS HIMSELF
 In setting forth his views respecting the two parties and their leadership, Senator LaFollette commits the fatal error of giving out the unmistakable in- ference that he is the impeccable Moses to lead the people out of the political wilderness. It is hard enough on a mans public standing for him to be lauded to an extreme by his friends. But when he criticizes others in such a man. ner as to leave the impression that he is recommending himself, the startled voter is apt to edge away from him. To be sure, Mir. LaFollette does not say that he expects to be candidate; but neither does a man need to say that he is going to drive when he cranks up his car. Mr. LaFollette is cranking up his car, that is to say, the third party.
 E. The senior senator from Wisconsin assails the Democratic record, but that is by way of laying the predicate for a general tocsin for all to rally about his standard, regardless of previous party affiliation. He must have the dissatis- fled in both parties if he is to have the ghost of a show, and if there is any way of making dissatisfied those who are not yet so, that also is part of his program. The real object of his criticism, how ever, is his own party. If he were loyal believer in his own party, he would rather welcome the thought that the other party had done wrong. It would give him all the more ammunition to shoot at the opposite party But MT. LaFOIlette has long been at loggerheads with the Republicans who brought him up. He says that it is the fault of the Republicans. There are some who may of Mir. LaFollette. It is quite easily pos sible that, by seeking to give his party the right kind of leadership, MT. LaFol- lette might have averted or corrected some of the evils of which he complains.
 The probability is that MT. LaFollette couldn't be regular if he tried. It is quite likely that, even in his new third party, if it succeeds in gaining any sort of public support, he will finally come to be an irregular. He makes a mistake when he seeks to tar the Republicans and the Democrats with the same stick. The facts are against him. There is public sympathy with his view that the Republicans have run things very badly and have let reprOach come upon the highest positions of public trust. But when he tries to make the Democrats equally responsible he finds himself so greatly at variance with the truth that even the least informed on politics know that he errs- For everybody knows that the recent exposures in Washington Of the official corruption of which MT. La- Toilette speaks were due to the unre- hitting and resolute determination of the Democratic members of investigating committees to get at the truth in spite of the most strenuous efforts of high officials to prevent the truth from com ing out
 And where was Senator LaFollette when all this was going on? Is there any record of effort on his part to aid in the inquiries or to demand that the guilty be detected and punished? The Democrats cOurageously went it alone until the facts become so notorious that the Republicans had to back up the in- Ez KhaS HoFa the people of the United States. Nor even then did the task receive the active support or encouragement of Senator LaFOllette- He was, on the contrary, planning his own political coup, in order to take advantage of the confusion and to run off with the credit for an achieve ment in which he has had no command ing or important part, It is a little late for clean-up when the Democrats have long ago anticipated his words with deeds
 Let the senator from Wisconsin at- tack the record of his own party, if he will, for that record is wide open to at- tack, but let him beware seeking to in- vOlve in that reprOach those Democratic senators and representatives through whose efforts the Republican chestnuts have been snatched from the fire and some little good saved out of the wreck of the last two sessions of congress. nnI CrEpINrC THE NrAUX