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ion of the proposed treaty with Great Britain for the recognition of the right of earch of hovering vessels, and recognizes he need of co-operation between Fedral, State, and municipal governments, nd he urges upon citizens the duty, not nly of observing the law, but of openly iscountenancing its violation. He asks hat the field force for the enforcement -f prohibition be brought under the clasified Civil Service.

Congress to exercise all of its powrs, but he emphasizes more constructive measures as the real basis for right race elationship. He commends the proposal or a commission to promote understandng between whites and Negroes-apparntly a National commission, though he loes not hint that it should be Governnental in any sense. He recognizes, However, that race difficulties are largely ocal problems and must be worked out In each community as they occur. He sks Congress for the money to eduate Negro doctors at Howard Univerity.

source, and based either on a prior census or upon the record of naturalization.” He would have all aliens registered in order to provide for additional safety in the law. With these views of the President we believe that an overwhelming number of Americans are in hearty accord. This is a subject on which there must be legislation at the present session of Congress, because the law now in operation will expire next June.

IN

FOR the prevention of lynching he asks N agriculture the President sees at present for the most part prosperity, but notes in certain areas hardship and even distress. In particular he sees that distress where there is dependence on one crop, and for such distress he sees permanent remedy in methods to be adopted by the farmers themselves. President Coolidge speaks as one who knows the farmer at first hand, for he comes from a farming region. The remedies called for by the farmers' difficulties he announces as reduction of taxation, the rebuilding of the freight-rate structure, cheaper fertilizers, and, most of all, organization, organization, organization. In particular he urges co-operative marketing and the establishment of courses in agricultural schools on the theory of organization and co-operative marketing. Loans through a Governmental agency he regards as a temporary expedient. He does not favor

CONCE

ONCERNING immigration his attitude is expressed tersely: "America must De kept American." He would have imnigration restricted by a "selective" process, "with some inspection at the

the permanent interference of the Government in the exporting of wheat, because such interference would increase trouble by increasing production; but he would assist exports by giving to the War Finance Corporation authority "to grant, in its discretion, the most liberal terms of payments for fats and grains exported for the direct benefit of the farm."

IN

N conclusion President Coolidge points out that the responsibility of the United States is in proportion to its power. Since the Monroe Doctrine was proclaimed we have changed from a weak Nation to a great and strong one, and our duty is to see that our material power is used as it should be. Our virtues must not be cloistered. "The time has come," says the President, "for a more practical use of moral power, and more reliance upon the principle that right makes its own might. Our authority among the nations must be represented by justice and mercy. The spiritual forces of the world make all its final determinations. It is with these voices that America should speak. America has taken her place in the world as a republic-free, independent, powerful. The best service that can be rendered to humanity is the assurance that this place will be maintained."

...

lynching occurs to the family of the person lynched. This is an absolute liability without regard to the conduct of officers. This law has been tested and upheld by the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court. The county had to pay the amount provided by law to the family of the person lynched. Federal interference would chill the earnestness of local authorities in prosecuting offenders and would react on the strong and growing public sentiment against lynching in this State. Racial conditions in South Carolina are good and growing better, and this State for a number of years has had fewer lynchings than any other Southern State.

RICHARD I. MANNING, Former Governor of South Carolina.

THE American people of all groups

will be heartened by the patriotic and courageous words of President Coolidge in his Message to Congress. This

is particularly true of the Negroes, for whom he asks the fullest protection of their rights as citizens. When the President says, "These difficulties are to a large extent local problems which must be worked out by the mutual forbearance and human kindness of each community," I presume he had knowledge of the work of the Commission on Interracial Co-operation, with headquarters in Atlanta. This is the most significant single cffort for helpful co-operation between the raccs inaugurated since emancipation. The fact that this movement has been largely initiated by Southern men and women and prosecuted with courage and visdom gives it inestimable value in bringing about such results as the President so earnestly seeks.

PR

RESIDENT COOLIDGE said that no permanent relief could come from Government price-fixing and that the only real restoration of agriculture must come from simple and direct methods put into operation by the farmer himself. This, coupled with lower taxes, which can only be brought about by an economical programme of government expenditure, together with strong farmer organizations and a system of co-operative marketing associations, constitutes, I believe, the only logical and permanent method of working out the remedy for a very distressing condition.

R. W. SLOCUM,
President of the Dairymen's League

Co-operative Association.

PRESIDENT COOLIDGE advocated no

paternalistic plan for the relief of

Government in the Transportation Act. Moreover, the farmers do not ask continued assistance, as was given the railroads. A minimum price on wheat and on one or two other of the principal products of the farm would be to agriculture what the Esch-Cummins Law has been to transportation. The President's Message, I repeat, is without any merit. as far as agriculture is concerned.

MAGNUS JOHNSON,

United States Senator from Minnesota.

HE President's paragraph on immiTHE gration indicates his purpose to continue the quota as a sclcctive method of securing the most assimilable recruits to America's citizenship. In another paragraph President Coolidge expresses his recognition of the common bond of humanity, and consistency will doubtless direct his authority to radical changes in the often cruel execution of this policy until some method more scientific and truly selective will be established. With confidence in our President's desire to enhance good will in our relations to all the people of the world, one may register a protest against his suggestion of a registration of aliens. Registration was born in the soil of military needs and has little bearing on economic conditions. Its tendencies are inevitably reactionary and under our form of government would be practically unenforceable.

LILLIAN D. WALD,

Head of the Henry Street Settlement.

for this. The farmer wants only a square deal, not special privileges. But the farmer does need to be freed from having to support special privileges for other classes. The President should have seen

the great injustice which the present high Tariff Law means for agriculture and should have urged needed reforms. What he proposes is good, but he does not go far enough. CLARENCE POE,

Editor of the "Progressive Farmer."

tions on law enforcement are good as far as they go, but they do not go far tional efforts to prevent smuggling and enough. He is right in promising addihe is right in negotiating the treaty extending the three-mile limit to twelve, but why not protest against a friendly nation like Great Britain entering into financial partnership with those who conspire to violate our laws? Canada and the Bahama Islands make millions a year out of the tax levied on liquors smuggled into the United States. Why not protest against the giving of clearance papers to ships carrying liquor to bootleggers? If Great Britain cannot protect her own flag from being disgraced by those engaged in illicit traffic in a prohibited article, she should not object if our Government treats smuggler ships as outlaws. W. J. BRYAN, Former Secretary of State.

clearly his accord with the American policy for a court intended to include the whole world. He says the League's Court is different. Its protocol has been represented as an independent treaty. It is not. Read and print it, and you will s it is intended only for members of t League and original signers of t League's Covenant. Out of deference t his predecessor and the nations who ar members he could hardly do otherwise than commend for favorable consideration the idea of a court, but he insists on reservations which imply the existence of dangers, does not want anything to do with the League, and would evidently be pleased with a better plan that would meet every desire. Why not this?

DAVID JAYNE HILL, Former Ambassador to Germany.

Pr

ne

b

th

RESIDENT COOLIDGE proposes no change in the American policy of attending to our own affairs, conserving our own strength, and protecting the interests of our own citizens. He believes the majority of the American people to hold still to their refusal to accept the responsibilities which most of the peoples have assumed under the Covenant. He hopes the League will be helpful to the n suffering world, but thinks we should take no part in that helpfulness.

President Coolidge recommends the establishment of the World Court on the ground that the proposal presents the only practical plan on which many nations have ever agreed. He thinks that the establishment of the Permanent Court should not be a partisan question. These remarks seem equally applicable to America's entrance into the League of Nations. CHARLES W. ELIOT, President Emeritus of Harvard University.

On Tax Reduction

AM in hearty agreement with the President's emphatic pronouncement in favor of tax reduction, including specific indorsement of the plan proposed by Secretary Mellon. Its adoption by Congress will do more than any other single legislative act to increase business stability and industrial activity, thereby creating continued and additional prosperity for all our people. The only way to reduce taxes is to reduce expenditures. That must be done. Appropriating authority must adhere strictly to the budget system and the budget estimates; we must not cripple or impair this essential agency for the practice of economy. Specifically I favor elimination of special

o-called war taxes, as recommended by he President, and removal of the taxexemption privilege now enjoyed by onds issued by municipal and other governmental subdivisions. This last re quires a Constitutional amendment, but t is necessary to restore the proper balince between income from investments -n public projects and those in productive

N

one can read the outbursts from the editorial pens of the country without being impressed

by the feeling that the best politician is he most courageous politician. The country seems to feel that now it knows where the President stands, and the posiion is respected even by those who disigree with him. A characteristic com

nent which bears out this statement is to be found in the Chicago "Tribune:"

On the point of a bonus for ablebodied veterans he is equally definite and more concise. He disposes of the subject with the single line, "I do not favor the granting of a bonus."

Though we disagree with him, we must respect him for expressing his opinion without equivocation. His stand is courageous, whether mistaken or not.

One of the most outstanding exceptions to the general course of praise for the President's clearness and exactness of utterance which we have seen is to be found in the Dayton "News," owned by James M. Cox, the Democratic nominee for President in 1920. Mr. Cox's paper says:

The Message is the most colorless document that has issued from the White House in a generation.

Apparently his chief purpose was to disclose as little conviction as possible.

The Rochester "Herald" is equally severe on the President's Message. The "Herald" editorial is a little over a column long. Perhaps if President Coolidge had written this editorial he would have contented himself with the opening phrase, "filled with rhetoric and politics," for that phrase gives the heart of the "Herald's" opinion.

Democratic editors in the South are more generous to the Republican President than either the "News" or the "Herald." The Atlanta "Constitution" says:

In this remarkable Message there is not a line of demagogy, jingoism, or political clap-trap. It is businesslike, statesmanlike. The Democrats of Congress could do no better work than in hearty co-operation in the enactment of a programme so soundly and forci

bly and resolutely laid down. It will redound to party advantage far more to do this, putting selfish political feeling aside, than either to attempt to obstruct or to criticise and minimize.

The "Times Picayune" of New Orleans is also able to recognize virtue in a political opponent:

Three matters the Mellon tax programme, bonus, and the World Court-supplied the acid test of Mr. Coolidge's quality and courage. His political-minded advisers probably would have preferred that he straddle all three for his own and his party's political advantage. By unequivocal statements for the Treasury tax plan, the World Court, and against the bonus he compels the respect even of those who disagree with him about these issues. These definite utterances class him as a positive rather than a negative President. Most Americans irrespective of their political affiliations will rejoice in this evidence of his backbone, mental sturdiness, and moral courage.

The Louisville "Courier-Journal" says: "No one who can understand the English language need longer remain in doubt as to Mr. Coolidge's views on most of the questions of the day," but finds that there is at least one question still left for the country to determine:

The next doubt to be resolved is whether he will now relapse into the dignity of inactivity, or earnestly and aggressively seek to induce Congress to follow his advice. The answer to that question will answer the question whether President Coolidge is what the country badly needs a leader not only with the intelligence to mark out a wise programme of legislation but with the will and the power to get it done.

The Richmond "Times-Dispatch" says that the President's Message "possesses the outstanding merit of being, on the whole, a sound deliverance, particularly suited to the times and the occasion."

From the Memphis "Commercial Appeal" the country learns that "Mr. Coolidge shows that the New England mind is still capable of National leadership."

Perhaps the general tenor of the Nation's editorials may be briefly and fairly shown by a group of single sentences:

Indianapolis "News"-"There is no shrinking from what many look on as 'dangerous issues.""

Kansas City "Times"-"He has used no weasel words."

Cleveland "Plain Dealer"-"It is a Message that invites confidence."

Washington "Post"-"Its combined simplicity and comprehensiveness, in small compass, are admirable, and may be described as Lincolnian.”

The Boston "Herald"-"The Message is the revelation of a mind as accurate and exact as an adding machine."

Detroit "Free Press"-"The document ought to give Mr. Coolidge's stock a very decided boom.”

St. Paul "Dispatch"-"The President's first Message to Congress more than conveys . . . 'information of the state of the Union;' it conveys the President himself to the Nation."

The Philadelphia "Ledger"-"It is written as a man might write who cared not two whoops whether or not he came back to the White House."

The San Francisco "Chronicle"-"The Message of President Coolidge is a model for all who have occasion to prepare State documents."

The Portland "Oregonian"-"One must recognize it as the work of a man devoted with a single mind to a sacred trust."

The St. Louis "Globe-Democrat"-"It is plain that he is not to be deterred by possible political consequences from stating his conclusions in unequivocal terms.'

These are sentences chosen almost at random.

Surely when the President surveys the reaction of the country to his address he can feel that the Nation has rewarded his effort with a generous "well said." The President's nomination and election rest largely upon what power he may possess to change the country's "well said" to an equally hearty "well done."