The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-12

DohuS OA mdnADhu. Euu81ly, bOO, HIS
 duty and the duty of Congress,
 burdensome as it may be, to main.
 tain the means of adequate national
 defense until reason isS permitted to
 talte the place of faReeE we cannot
 throw away the sword when other
 scabbards are not einpty. Nor can
 reconcile it with my ideas of the dig.
 nifty of great nation to be repro.
 scented at International gatherings
 only under the poor pretense of .'uH.
 official OhseryatiOn." If | become
 president of the United States, Amer.
 ica will sit as an equal whenever
 she sits at all.
 This brief outline of the views and purposes of the party as understand them might well serve all the demands of this occasion, but in the platform we have adopted find further declar- ation concerning which my own convic- ti6ns are too profound for silence. We have taken occasion to reaffirm our be- lief in the constitutional guarantees of religious freedom, and to deplore and condemn any effort from whatever source to arouse racial or religious dis- sension in this country. Such a declara- tion every right-thinking American must endorse. No disaster than the mind can picture equals in its hideous pOssibili- ties the coming in this country Of separation of it's citizens into discordant groups along racial or religious lines, Nothing would so utterly destroy our happiness and security at home and our dignity and influ- with reverence that those who builded fv.hn SA.s la fA question and settled it long ago. Let it be said to the immortal glory of those who founded the Province of Mary land that religious freedom of this side of the water began with the federation Act which they adopted in 1649. It broadened with the years until it was written into the Constitution in lam guage too plain to be mistaken that in this happy land of ours every man might, without loss or threat of loss, without Iessening dr threat of lessening, his civic, social or political rights, wor- ship in his own way and fashion the one God and Father of us all. This tol- eration runs not only to the creed pro- fessed by majority but to every creed, no matter how nuf6erOus or how few it's adherents. It was written, too, that church and state should be forever so, far separate that neither the right nor the duty of public service should be diminished or enlarged by the religious belief of any man. It is the solemn duty of every believer in American institu- tiOns to, oppose any challenge of this sacred doctrine, organized or u:iorgan. ized, under whatever name or in what ever character it may appear.
 From one who aspIres to the presi.
 dency, however, r declaration even
 more direct than this may be right.
 fully expected. I wish, therefore,
 not merely to den0unce bigOtry, iHat0l.
 ersnce and race prejudice as aIiaHa to
 tho spirit of America, wish also to
 state how and in what way the views
 entertain are to influence my ae.
 tiOns. Into my hands will fall, when am elected, the power to appoint
 thousands of persons to office under
 tn Federal government. When that
 time arrives \ shall set up no stand.
 ard Of religious faith or racial origin
 as qualification for any office. My \ only query concerning any appointee
 will be whether he is honest, whether
 ne IS competent, whether he is faith.
 tu to the Constitution. No selection
 to Dc made by me viii be dictated, i1s
 spired or influenced by the. race OP
 creed of the appointee.
 One word more and I am done. and this of a personal character. It is known of all men that the nomination which you tender me was not made of my seek. ing. It comes, am proud to believe. as the unanimous wish of one of the most deliberatiVe conventions in American history, which weighed in the balance with s0berness my too scanty yirtues and my manifold shortcomings, 1t is not for me to reject so clear call to duty. am happy, however, in the thought that it finds me free from pledge or promise t01 any living man. l shall hold it so to the end. Perhaps my sense of obligation iss all the greater be- cause of these things To those who saw mt to present my name to the eonven. tlon for its consideration, and to the delegates to that convention who ac- cepted me, am under duty to iustify thelr choice which fully realize: to the party which honors me with its leadership owe every effort which my faculties will allow; and to my fellow eountrymen whose support you bid me 10 solicit owe the duty, first, to sneak the truth as see it, without fear, favor or evasion, and then so to bear Inysef that every person in the land. no msfteT now high or how humble, may feel that he has in me q fried, and that every citizen may know that he can look to ms government for unflinching honesty m thought Rnd action. When it becomes necessary, as no doubt it will. to raise Iunds Tor the conduct of the campaign they VII! be contributed with this un- derstandlng and this only: that neither the democratic party nor as its leader nave any favors for sale. We can make Dut one promise to all men alike. fhat Of an honest, an impartial and. so far as human wisdom will permit. a inst government. . 'us'
 To these things, MT. Chairman piedge myself. In the struggle to secure them l invoke the support of all patri. ouc men and women to whom conntrv IS greater than party, honor mora sacred than expediency and the right dearer tnan personal gain or all things elsa bs. side. In this spirit accept your nomLi- natlon and, relying upon a strength That ls greater than my own, I am ressIv with Joyful confidence to assume tba leadership you offer me.
 
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