AUTUMNAL SHADOWS

The monumental calm which broods ever the White House in season and out has been broken by the official spokesman of the administration. The lesser of President Coolidge's twin personalities announced. Tuesday that the country should not credit the political minded critics of the administration.

As was to be expected, the statement did no more than assure the nation that the government was functioning efficiently. Save for a much swaddled World Court entry, President Coolidge has accomplished little more than an effective working-out of the Republican back-to-normalcy platform. And the anxious denial of any partiality toward the League of Nations attempts to hedge away from the stand on the World Court. Yet the fact that the silent man of the White House found it necessary to reply to his enemies is significant.

In spite of his soothing message, the President seems a bit perturbed over the turn events have taken in the past few months. He fears that blunt Democratic remarks concerning the aluminum trust, the tariff commission, and the Mitchell furbelow may operate against a Republican victory. To offset the pernicious effect of these unpleasant criticisms, the president makes a political parade of virtue. And the fanfare on either side is the result of a seasonal activity which breaks out in years of Congressional elections. Were it not for the autumnal threat, President Coolidge might have continued his policy of silent disregard of oratorical slings.

As long as the present prosperity continues, the President need have little fear of a Democratic victory, Booming business, enjoying the Republican blessing of tax reduction, is a powerful argument to offset criticism of administrative peccadilloes.

But in the unlikely event of a commercial slump, the majority party would be a handy scapegoat. Clever politicians could then marshal the general discontent into a demonstration against the shadowy ethics of the aluminum case. An even more vital grievance can be found in the presidential practice of packing the supposedly non-partisan Tariff Commission with advocates of protection. As a means of holding the present elephantine majority, Republican prayers for prosperity would be more effective than abstract assertions of party rectitude.