The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-12
CHANGES FAvORTTISM
 Davis Takes Helm With Vigorous At
 tack On Republicans By THOMAS l.. STOKES, 1T aased Wire tO The Are.Herala

| HARRISBURG. W. Va, Aug. H. Charging the republican party with corruption in office, favoritism in leg islation, and division and discord that has left it "leaderless and incoherent mob," John w. Davis has taken in helm of the democratic party with the cam paign appeal that it is the supreme need of the hour to bring back to the people confidence in their government" !"
 "Ihe allied forces of greed and dis honesty, of self-seeking and partisan- ship, of prejudice and ignorance, threaten today as they have rarely done before the perpetuity of our national ideals, traditions and institutions" he declared Monday, night to his. townspeo- pie, who worked tirelessly for his nomination, and' leaders of his party, who gathered here to notify formally him of his choice as standard bearer.
 There is q feeling abroad in the land too general to be ignored, too deep-steated for any trifling, that men in office can no longer b~ trusted to keep faith with those who sent them there, and that the powers of. govern mens are being exercised in the pursuit of personal gain instead of the common service"
 Attack c. o. P. Leaders.
 Davis followed his broadside against corruption in office," as revealed by investigations in Congress, with another against President Coolidge and repnh. llcan leaders whose effort it has been to weaken the effect of these exposures by crying out not against the guilty but against those who exposed them. j"
 What shall we say when a states ment comes from one who of all men should have been most deeply stirred thnt the wonder is not that so many have fallen but that so few have been shown untrue?" he asked, referring to President Coolidges address in New York last February. With what pa- tience shall we greet the libelous sug- gestion. that, after all, these are but incidents provoked by the demoraliza- tiOn attendant upon the great war;"
 Declaring that mo taint of dishon- esty or corruption has ever attached to any man holding public office during that great struggle or to any man who continued to hold office under the fed eral government until March 4, 1921, !" Davis sad that "shell shock was late indeed in arriving if it is to be put forward now as the excuse for these gross misdeeds."
 Turning to the record of the ad- ministration, he as. a.led the Fordney- McCdmber tariff, the attempt to get through the Mellon tax bill, the failure to secure the world court and an association of nations as promised by President Harding, and the party's general division in council and impo- tence in action.p
 Outlines Program.
 On his behalf, he pledged the dem GcFatic party if placed in power to this domestic program: further reduction of taxation, economy in government, aid to the farmers, wiping out exorbi- tant rates and discriminatory provisions of the present tariff law, more pay for government workers, further aid to veterans, laws for protection of women and children, enforcement of the prohi- bitiOn law.
 As to foraign affairs, he pledged himself to the world court, announced his readiness for q further conference on disarmament, and declared that i've do not and we cannot accept the dietum unauthorized by any expressions of popular will that the League of Nations is a closed incident go far as we are concerned" expressing a lack of concern about the method of en- trance as far as reservations are con eerned and his approval of "a referen- dunn on the league by the people.
 Without mentioning the Ku Klux Klan, Davis approved at length the plank in the party platform for re- ligiOus freedom, Saying that mo dis aster that the mind can picture equals in its hideous possibilities the coming in this country of a separation of its citizenship into discordant groups along racial or religious lines"
 In another portion of his address, he linked up the rise of the klan without naming it "the prevalent distrust" into which he said the government had fallen.
 Out of this and because of it," he said in this connections, there has de- veloped an alarming tendency to take the administration of the law out of the hands of constituted officials and to execute it's processes through i'm diyiduaIs or through organized societies, by methods little different from those of private revenge"
 In his attack on the administration, Davis singled out for a vigorous on- slaught the disagreement between Presi- dent Coolidge and his leaders in Con gress. S<
 4'Whenever before did party in con- trol of the executive and of ma- jority in both houses of Congress pre- sent so pitiable a spectacle of discOrd and division? An executive who can not or will not lead, a Congress that cannot and will not follow-hOw can good government exist under such con ditiOns?"
 Foreign Policy
 Of the administration foreign policy, the nominee declared i've must face the humiliating fact that we have a government that does not dare to speak it's mind beyond the three mile limit" !"
 "The Washington, conference alone aside, and that of more than doubtful value, what single contribution has the United States of America, as an or ganized nation among nations, made to world peace in the last four years?' Davis asked.
 Mot only have the executive recom- mendations for adherence to the world court, sanctioned as they are by long American tradition and example, been flouted and ignored, but no evidence is in sight that the republican party as now constituted can frame and carry to its conclusion any definite and consis- tent foreign policy"
 Providence does not give the gifts of peace to those who will not labor to achieve theTn," Davis said, turning to his aims, if elected.
 'In the name of democratic party, Al. Al.