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Show THE CITIZEN 4 PLATFORM AND CANDIDATES It seems safe to say that, party politics aside, few Americans can read. the simple story of the life of Warren G. Harding without .feeling th.:t he is an ideal candidate for president of the United States. Viewing the whole political situation as it presents itself from one end of the country to the other few will have the hardihood to deny that' he is a national leader in a sense that could not be ascribed to any of his rivals at the Chicago convention. Now that the passions of the struggle have become somewhat tranquilized it is not difficult to see that the favorite candidates were not the logical candidates. The very fact that each of them was the favorite of a faction was evidence that he lacked something of the qualifications imperatively demanded of a national candidate. The annals of his life show that Warren G. Harding is of that type which has become familiar in the White House. Reading of and his early struggles and the slow, steady rise to achievement we are reminded of Lincoln, Grant, Garfield and McKinley. All of these men came from humble stations, were compelled to combat adversity and to make their way upward by hard work, conscientious devotion to duty and unremittnig industry. And it is a unique and notable characteristic of all of them that, to employ a phrase of President Wilsons, they came to themselves late in life. All of them possessed genius, some of them were capable of displaying great brilliancy, but it was rather their qualities of mind and heart their moral power that won for them the esteem of the American people. And who is there will say that moral power is not the quality most needed in a president who is to meet triumphantly the problems of our new time. The ready criticism of political opponents is that Senator Harding is reactionary in an age of radicalism. It is a point of view that would have made a stronger appeal a year ago than it does now. Then the people felt that we were on the threshold of a new era of radical changes and they had a vague idea that some strange character must arise to solve unprecedented problems. They have learned wisdom in the intervening period. The whole world has had its fling at. radicalism and has learned that most radicalism is mere disorder. An English statesman once said a radical was one who planted radishes in his back garden and pulled them up every few days to see if they would grow. That is the kind of radicalism which has afflicted us in the last year. We have been pulling up our radishes and they have not grown. This pursuit of the unknown in economics and politics has been due to a fundamental misconception. No good thing in government n is produced from some Jovian mind. New ages come and go, but the governments that fit into them are the result of a slow evolution. A characteristic criticism from the impatient radical was that relating to the profiteering plank of the Republican platform. Because the platform did not discuss all the economic turns and twists of this problem, in which the problem of high prices is somewhat involved, and because it did not promise some gilded panacea the critics, forgetting the failure of their own administration to deal effectively with either of these problems, at once raised a chorus of denunciation. It remains to be seen whether, under the inspiration of the San Francisco convention, they will be able to grasp the solution that was denied to their administration. The framers of the Republican platform were more interested in truth and accuracy of statement than in gaining advantage by pretentious and deceitful platitudes. To grasp fully the character of the platform one must recall the circumstances. n citizens Chairman Hays appointed a committee of to initiate and accept suggestions for platform planks and to discuss them thoroughly and make reports for the enlightenment of the convention. The work began under the direction of Ogden L. Mills, one of the younger Republican leaders of New York. He was aided from .the beginning by Dr. Samuel McCune Lindsay of Columbia university, as staff director. A little later, Dr. Jacob H. Hollander, of the Johns Hopkins university, became associated in the task. Both arc men of wide experience as well as scholarly training. On the self-realizati- on . full-bor- well-know- i i sub-committe- es were placed men of nation-wid- e fame as authorities as well as of note in political life. It is not to be supposed that a platfoyn based on scientific methods d would be filled with theories and the resounding i' com- -. i monplaces of popular appeal. It avoided the pitfalls of, prophecy anp clung to the facts. It did not pretend to solve problems which still are in process of evolution. The platform rests on the solid basis of the known, but its principles are adequate to take care of developing problems. Back of the platform is a fundamental theory. Republicans believe that order must precede progress. Unless we have law and order there can be no government and without a firm government it is impossible to progress. In an address at Wellesley college, Charles E. Hughes, former candidate for president, employed a sentence which might well become a shibboleth of this campaign. The common good rooted in the essential institutions of justice and individual liberty that is the national ideal. Justice and liberty go hand in hand and they are safeguarded, not by a wild desire for change, not by vague visions of new forms and institutions, but by adherence to principles. The essential institutions of justice and individual liberty were established by the constitution of the United States. We have not. in a day, found a substitute for the constitution and when we depart from the constitution we are taking chances of disaster. It is a sure guide in the new age. Those who have been attracted by the din and blaze of Socialism. Bolshevism and other wild isms that are offering remedies in the name of social justice, would do well to cast a conservative eye over the old constitution, to study its provisions and seek to trace by their light the gradual growth of the richest and most powerful nation the world has seen. If it be conservative to wish to preserve our wealth, our present prosperity, our individual liberty and the means by which we arc' to attain a still higher and better civilization then the Republican platform, the Republican candidate and the Republican party arc conservative. If it be reactionary to oppose Bolshevism and Socialism, to ward off the blows aimed at private property and at law and order, then the Republican platform, candidate and party arc reactionary. But, as Hiram Johnson has said, the radical of today is the conservative of tomorrow in our country. If Roosevelt was radical the Republican party is radical, for it stands upon the ciples of social justice to which he gave his allegiance. The selection of Harding as a logical candidate led truly to the selection of Governor Coolidge as a logical candidate for the vice presidency. His name has become a synonym for law and order and for the protection of the public against class domination. And only the most reckless of critics would charge this son of Massachusetts with trying to suppress the liberties of the individual. It was because he was loyal to the best traditions of liberty at the very shrine of American liberty that he set his hand instantly and irrevocably against class dictatorship and class intimidation of the public. And because he was such a firm champion of order, liberty, and justice he became the ideal of the reasonable men of all classes iii his own state and in the nation. In this day of autocratic administration, Democratic, are used as bludgeons for peacewhen the rigid laws of war-tim- e time, the Republican platform champions the cause of liberty in these words : We demand that every American citizen shall enjoy the ancient and constitutional right of free speech, free press and free assembly and the no less sacred right of the qualified voter to be represented by his duly chosen representatives; but no man may advocate resistance to the law, and no man may advocate violent overthrow of half-bake- well-establish- ed . -- mis-nam- ed the government. Such is the spirit of the Republican platform and of the Republican candidate. It is the spirit which enkindled the patriotism of the colonists, that destroyed slavery, that preserved the republic, that won the world war, for it is the spirit of the American people regardless of party. |