The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-22
APPRAIsING MIR. LAFoLLETTE

not radical with real philosophy. He is fecalcitrant against established in stitutions rather than constructive ge- nius with a program of new achieve ment. He is radical in the sense that he desires to uproot; not radical in the sense that he is seeking to make new constructive ideas take root. He is not red in the sense that he is inspired with desire to destroy others; but only in the sense that the results of his policy will be inevitably destructive without his intending that they be so. He has no designs on other governments, and no wish to ally himself with the Third In- ternationals. He has specifically repu- diated any such alliance. Nevertheless, he suffers from having such groups flock to his banner. Doubtless these portions of his following hope that, while, in the event of his success, LaFollette is enjoy ing the sensations of victory, they shall be footing.
 Nor is LaFollette's following in the main of the red color. There are many who are deluded into believing him the same Sir Galahad he doubtless imagines himself to be. There are many who be- lieve that the way to get lighted things that are wrong is to tear into them tooth and toenail, destroy them and replace them. They are like man who angrily chops up tire because it has been punc- tured. They are not profound students the solid achievements of the race and of civilization have been of slow and steady growth. They do not strike a balance between the present and the era of twenty years ago in order to discover whether we have lost or gained ground. They are theorists who in many cases have based their theory on imaginary and not, on actual facts. They do not per ceive that politics is not fundamental, and that the nations progress, though it may at times and in some respects have been hindered, is an irresistible force. Yet, by overturning our rate structures, our social arrangements, our financial processes, our court processes and our kpatriotic attitude, harm irreparable can be inflicted by these unconscious van dals, like needless youths tipping over monuments searching for bait.
 Mr. LaFollette. is not so much red, as man of ambition yet of impractical ideas, who has failed to make any lasting impress on the record of his own party, and who in chagrin and baffled hope turns against it in blind desire to strike it down because of his own failure. If Mir. LaFollette is ofgthe caliber to found party, he would have been of the cali Der in more than forty years of public life to have won position of acknowl- edged leadership in the Republican party Because he has been unable to do this; because he has for years headed band of political guerillas, Senator LaFollette has proved himself politically inadequate and woefully lacking as statesman. He has held no firm course, and has reso- lutely for years sought rather to avoid the course of his party than to fix his own eye and helm on a given destina- ton.
 Robert M. LaFollette today stands for no outstanding purpose in the minds of the American people. He is the prophet of unrest and rebellion. His blows are strong, but they are neither concentrated nor purposeful. This blow may fall here and the next at fair distant point. He may be likened to a daft but energetic woodchopper who rushes madly through forest taking huge slice out of this trunk and of that, but pausing nowhere long enough to cut down a tree or to make a sawlog. If he were multiplied enough times, he and his crew would soon ruin the forest without ever a single beam being hewn out for human use. He is man who measures his days work by the number of chips and not by the num- Der of beams hewn out and prepared for building. The nation cannot entrust it's valuable concerns to such man. With the best intentions in the world, per haps, he would ruin everything he chanced upon.
 MT. LaFollette differs from the Bol- shevik in that he is an amiable destroyer who hopes that in some miraculous man. ner the institutions destroyed will be re- placed as from an 'Aladdin's lamp. His reasoning, if it may be called such, is priori, and he follows no thought to its logical conclusion, nor looks ahead to foresee consequences. If man in forty years of public life cannot develop fol himself definite place in the construc' tive statesmanship of his country; ii at the end of forty years he is little more than a political oddity, then it is hardly to be expected that in four years of the highest authority he could remake the nation in the marvellous man. ner predicted by his following and z..l-zz-a- Tbo Aooorica0 1aorIo s;vo