Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-11-11
The Election S Chief Lesson
To the Democratic partu

THE Presidential election, with it's rout
Of La Toilette and his radicalism,
leaves the Democr c party the one
major means by which believers in things
progressive in national politics can cooper
ate for the achievement of their cherished
this truth and steer accordingly is of utmost
Importance Only thus will they win, or de-
serve to win, the confidence of the rank and
file; and only thus bring their party to that
service for human freedom which is its para
mount mission and it's sustaining hoe.
Those who fancied that Democracy had
anything to gain by playing apologist to the
interests of reaction have had their answer
once for all i'm the election returns. The
Northeast, with its rich favors from "pro-
tective" tariff and it's gainful alliance with
great monetary powers, went solidly and
overwhelmingly for Coolidge and Dawes.
New York, State and city, gave the Repub-
lican national ticket one of the large ma
jorities ever polled, Notwithstanding a re-
peated assurance in the convention of last
summer that sufficiently conservative Dem
ocrat could carry them. That John w Davis
made a manful fight for liberalism is not to
be denied, and none was prompte~ that he to
repudiate with entire sincerity eve H.ng
that might hint of bias for Wall street.
The meaningful fact is, )wever, that Mr..
Davis, despite his residence in X
and his great and merited prestige in the
eyes of the business East, came no nearer
carrying that State or that region than Will
liam G.. McAdoo would have done; nor did
he carry State in the West. Not by dane
ing to G. o. P. fiddle or seeking to placate
the utra-conservative will the Democratic
party go forward and come into its own.
That role is already played to perfection by
the Republican powers that be, and the
country has no need or place for another
such performance.
But there is manifest need for a party of
true progress and creative ideals. The ad-
venture of Mr.. La Toilette has shown how
little America cares for his kind Of theatre
calls His appeal to class prejudice and to
Bolshevist humors left the mass of the peo-
pie unmoyed. He did not succeed in cor
ralling the German vote on which he conf
IDENTIFY counted AS for Labor, to which he
laid a political monopolist's claim, it went
its usual way of individual thinking and in
dependence of would-be dictators Mr. La
Toilette evidently hoped to deal the Demo
cratic party death blow by diverting to
his own standard the majority of liberals
and leaving the standpatters to seek comfort
in the Republican camp. In this he has
failed most markedly. The utter fasco Of
his campaign the country over leaves the
Democratic party the one and only national
group with which practcal-minded progres-
sives can affiliate.
Let us as Democrats rise to. the cpportuni-
ties and the obligations thus presented We
owe it to the party, we owe it to the country
to face forward and prove our mettIe as in
terpreters of the common interests and low
alists to the common veal. Let us in no
wise be cast down by the errors Of yester-
day. but assuredly We should profit by them