Life — October 30, 1924 — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

OCTOBER 30, 1924 VOL. 84. 2191 “While ler. a Efe ne re's Hope” LIF. LA PUBLISHING” COMPANY Cuaatts Dana Giesox, Pre English Offices, HE Klan is very MT nterest- ing. What, if any- thing, it will do in the election is part of the problem of one of the most incalculable ctions ever held in this country. There are those who hold to the opinion that the Ku Kluxers wear those white nightgowns when they gather in order to make sure that they will not be run over by motor cars at night. That is an excellent precaution, proper to be imitated to some extent by every one who walks on the motor roads after dark, but. still, probably, that is not the reason why they do it. It is more likely the custom was adopted for its effect on the public mind. It would appear that the Catholics are disposed to take counter action of a like sort. One reads in the papers of October 13 of a parade of members of the Holy ¢ Society in Jersey City on October 12, and of a parade of 15,000 Knights of Columbus on the same day in Newburgh. These public exhibitions of zeal and numerical strength follow the notable parade of marching men in the Holy Name cele- brations at Washington a few days be- fore. This great parade in Washington was reviewed by the President, stand- ing with Cardinal O'Connell of Boston, who was named papal legate for this occasion. These parades, of course, are lawful, but anything better calculated to recruit members for the Ku Klux Klan cannot readily be imagined. Where the Catholics beat the Ku Klux is in coming out in the open. There are no hooded men in their processions; they all can be recognized and counted. Religious processions are a habit in the Roman Catholic Church. These that are now going on are: not necessarily attributable to the desire to make Le Roy Mutter, Sec’y end Treas, Madison Avenue, New York ‘Rolls House, Breams Bldgs., London, E. C. demonstrations counter to those of the Ku Klux, but observers will, of course, connect these two activities and will expect each of them to stimulate the As to the politics of them and their possible effect on the election now impending, that is a matter for seventh What effect there is will probably € other. sons. be local. reddeh! Setert! how! T this writing in mid-October, the campaign is striking a rather live- lier gait. Mr. Davis is speaking and speaking well, as he always does. Mr. Coolidge and his cohorts are active and vocal. Mr. Hughes has beén punching up Indiana, where Mr. Davis also has been casting a few timely spells. Mr. Dawes has been in Kentucl La Follette has exposed his mind so far as expedient in New York. The remarks of all these gentlemen are in- teresting, but the main interest is not so much in what the candidates and their advocates say as in how the vote is going. Registration appears to have been unusually heavy. People seem to be thinking about this election—think- ing, indeed, quite hard. But what are they going to do? Edward Lowry says in the New York Times, after such investigation as he could manage in In- diana and Ohio: “Registration is larger than has ever been known before. This is particularly true in the localities where there is a heavy vote; in Cleve- land, for example, and Marion County, Ind., where Indianapolis is located. This heavy registration appears to be gen- eral through the mid-Western States. Apparently the voters have a preference and are determined to express it at the polls, but they give no outward sign or indication of who their choice will be.” He quotes a Republican Senator who has been making speeches in the Mid- dle West as saying: “This is the strangest campaign I ever saw. It is so still on the surface and so lacking in sparkle and vitality and life, bur so full of strange eddies and currents ind movements underneath that no one an read or interpret. I don’t know w the people are going to vote for i places where | have been, I can't + them out.” So there you are. People are th ing, but what are they thinking al Expectation is general that La Fo! will get a big vote, but whom wi! take it from? From Democrats ! from Republicans there. Daniel halan, lately a Judge in New York in private practice but still as ca as ever, comes out with a public st ment urging Governor Smith to tl down Davis and his “foreign vagar and concentrate himself on his own By so doing, says Cohalan, Smith get three-fourths of the La Fy vote in New York and he will nec all if he is to win. So that is one m opinion of what the Third Party \ No only the immediate but the more remote results of this election are incalculable. As one looks ahead, thi seem rather messy. What Daniel ( halan calls oreign vagaries, great concerns of the human race, affect That the voters do not show more rescnt- ment at being plundered by the Ford ney tariff. Tariff is “old stuff.” TI cannot now be re-excited about “Foreign vagaries” interest them my Another reason for their listlessness is what Dr. Murray But cr defines as the tendency “to transier matters belonging in the field of { choice where self-control rules, to field of absolute law.” They like | ter to read about hold-ups and mara’ ing bootleggers than about the iss: the candidates discuss. Still another reason is that there is no real scare in this election, All six candidates are safe men. Even Mr Coolidge is safe. If there must be some one to sit on the safety valve. he is fit, and not too heavy. [ut cither of the other two candidates is safer. E, S. Martin everything. is one reason seeming comicbooks.com