The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-27
REPUBLICANS EARN DEFEAT

sufficient reason for Republican defeat, yet even that record might in part have been offset, if there had been prompt, clearcut and open Republican effort to uncover the official misdeeds of their . own leaders and to bring the guilty to account. If President Coolidge had had the vision to declare himself unequiv- ocally determined to expose those male- factors in high places and had decisively rid his,cabinet at once of those who had Nforfeited their right to be there, then there would have been created in his favor a great wave of popular enthus- iasm which it would have been difficult indeed to counteract. MT. Coolidge's hesitation, however, was not popularly interpreted as springing from desire to cast no discredit upon possibly un- justly accused men, but rather as will ingness to permit the whole ugly situa- tion to be hushed up in order that Re- publican prestige might not suffer. But that prestige did suffer, and far more seriously, than if the Republicans had frankly faced the situation and CO., operated in its correction.
 It was therefore with an intimate knowledge of the Republican obstructive tactics that Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana, permanent Democratic conven- ton chairman and senate prosecutor of the Teapot Dome inquiry, censured the administration in his address to the del egates. It was Senator Walsh whose courageous effort alone at one time thwarted the Republican party's attempt to cover its official tracks and to keep from public knowledge the malefactions of some of its high administrative off cials. Senator Walsh speaks with au- thority when he declares that the Re- publicans are unfit longer to rule until the party has purged itself. It may be true that the Democrats are turning the record to their political advantage, but when did political party ever have a better right to do so, or higher public call to emblazon that shameful record where the people may behold it and know the truth?
 Senator Walsh is fair enough, how ever, to give credit to those within the Republican ranks in congress who had the honesty and the courage to rebel against the party leadership which sought to condone official betrayal in positions of high public trust, and who joined with the Democrats in making the con tinued inquiries possible. But the Re publican leadership is that portion of the party which asks endorsement at the polls, and it is Republican leadership which winked at and showed every dis position to protect wrongdoers. Says Senator Walsh: "Instead of excoriating the unfaithfnl public servants of whose misdeeds the uttermost parts of the earth are not uninformed, to the dis grace of the nation as we'll as of them selves, palliation was attempted in the absurd observation emanating from the White House that men are involved who belong to both political parties,' charge characterized by one of the few leading Republican newspapers that have de- clined to condone the offenses revealed as "a paltry-bit of political misrepresenta- tion.' It is in this easy tolerance of turpitude in public office that the real peril of free government lies, rather than in it's casual occurrence"
 This Republican effort to obstruct the cause of justice in high places is not confined to mere politicians, for, con- tinues the permanent chairman: "The president of the United States himself has not hesitated to endeavor to shield the delinquents from the public odium to which their derelictions have subjected them, by joining in the hue and cry against the investigations that have been conducted under the authority of the sen ate and against that body for author izing them. His message on the subject had for it's direct purpose the suppress sion of an inquiry into the official con duct of a member of his cabinet"
 But the politicians have personal in- 1 CeTGSCS dL SGdkSJ SOHlS OL LHSSS AHICA SSCo dependent upon the very official mis- conduct it is sought to detect and pun ish. It is to the people therefore that Senator Walsh would refer the question. And on this referendum the chairman de- clares: q repeat that I cannot admit the accusation that the people of Amer ica are indifferent to the corroding in- fluence of corruption in office, high or low. But we shall see. They are on trial. If, notwithstanding what has transpired, ,Athe party now in power is continued in control by the choice of the people, what judgment must be passed upon them by the world? They enjoy the distinction of having erected and maintained a government whose of fices are as free from suspicion of venal- ity as those of any nation on earth, and