More Politics

(The CRIMSON invites all men in the University to submit signed communications of timely interest. It assumes no responsibility, however, for sentiments expressed under this head and reserves the right to exclude any whose publication would be palpably inappropriate.)

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

In answer to the communication of Mr. Keyes '26 in a recent issue of the CRIMSON relative to the statement of mine concerning the Teapot Dome scandal an explanation seems necessary.

It is quite inmaterial what Mr. Keyes or I think the real issue of the scandal is and what effect is will have on the November election. But what I hoped to make clear was that the people of the United States will regard the departure from a settled conservation policy as subversive to their interests. That this is true seems to be shown by the adherence to that policy by those two great spokesmen of the people. Roosevelt and Wilson as well as by the universal chorus of denunciation that was directed against the Taft administration when, the latter's Secretary of Interior, Ballinger, leased the Alaska coal fields to the Guggenheims. Of course, the guilt or innocence of the parties connected with the scandal is of great importance but, if these men are ultimately found innocent, the people, nevertheless, will not forget that the present administration has assumed to follow a course that would sacrifice their welfare to private interests. The Democratic Party is going to see to it that they remember what the administration has done. That is why the head of or anyone connected with the administration cannot be elected in November. President Coolidge might not deserve this fact but when we are discussing the future we must deal with facts and look to history for their interpretation.

Mr. Keyes does not see Mr. Johnson's special qualifications for the Presidency and that is quite natural. There seems to be a concerted effort on the part of the eastern newspapers to ridicule Senator Johnson and to brand him a hopeless incompetent. Yet a comparison of Mr. Johnson and Mr. Coolidge will always result in the former's favor. Elected by a powerful machine Mr. Coolidge as Governor of Massachusetts showed little more than that he was a conscientious executive. Mr. Johnson, elected Governor of California by his own efforts with the aid of only one newspaper, revested in the people the control of the state government from the Southern Pacific Railroad and forced a host of humanitarian laws through the legislature that lifted the state at once to a high place among our most progressive states. As a campaigner Mr. Johnson compared well with the late Mr. Roosevelt. Mr. Coolidge, on the other hand, was lost sight of even beside the late Mr. Harding.

All these and many other factors must be taken into account when one speaks of a party's chances of success. They together with the fact that Mr. Johnson has never been consulted by the present administration will make success with Johnson a certainty. His hands are clean of the Teapot Dome scandal. He can, therefore, without apology appeal to the American people. GEORGE E. BROWN.   President Hiram W. Johnson Club of Harvard University.