The Combat

Republican. The event of the week's campaign from the Republican standpoint was a speech by President Coolidge at Baltimore. It was not strictly a political speech. The occasion was the unveiling of a statue of Lafayette; but Mr. Coolidge digressed on the subject of American Liberty and presently came around to the Constitution. Mr. LaFollette's name was not mentioned; but the President thoroughly denounced the LaFollette proposal to allow Congress to override a Supreme Court decision that any law is unconstitutional. Said he: "No President, however powerful, and no majority of Congress, however large, can take from any individual, no matter how humble, that free dom and those rights which are guaranteed to him by the Constitution. The Supreme Court has final authority to determine all questions arising under the Constitution and the laws of the United States. . . .

"The question is whether America will allow itself to be degraded into a communistic or socialistic State or whether it will remain American. Those who want to continue to enjoy the high state of American citizenship will resist all attempts to encroach upon the power of the courts." In closing, he praised the disarmament treaties and the Experts' (Dawes) Plan. In Chicago, Mr. Dawes maintained a continued silence which has endured since his speech on agriculture at Lincoln (TIME, Sept. 8). One of his chief occupations was the preparation of a speech for delivery in Milwaukee--pointblank at Mr. LaFollette. It was reported that Mr. Dawes, who had previously informed the Republican Speakers' Bureau that he would not speak more than three times a week, sent a second word--that he would not speak more than once a week. The campaign managers threw up their hands; Chairman Butler of the National Committee rushed west to Chicago to confer with the candidate about a tour on the Pacific Coast. Democratic. John W. Davis roamed westward. In his special train, he reached Chicago from Wheeling, spent four days in the Congress Hotel. He made no public speeches, attended no public gatherings, but did business with his political lieutenants, heard reports about the West. Through Frank R. Kent, famed Democratic correspondent, word leaked out that the Democrats had practically lost hope of the region west of the Mississippi except for a few states--Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Nebraska, Missouri; and Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, which rank as part of the South. This, of course, Mr. Davis denied; but to it was attributed the fact that his trip was planned to carry him no farther west than Denver. It was said that he regarded visiting the Pacific Coast as a waste of energy; that he would devote his time to adding the above few states to his support in the South and then try to secure a substantial number of the larger states East of the Mississippi--Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, West Virginia. After four days of comparative quiet, the special train pulled out of Chicago; and Mr. Davis on the back platform made speeches at Rockford, Freeport, Galena, Dubuque. At Omaha, he made his first major speech--on the farm problem. He declared that 1,200,000 people had been forced to leave the farms by the Republican policy of deflation. He called the Fordney-McCumber Tariff "an offense to every consumer in the U. S.," and described it as "an act to obstruct our foreign commerce, to increase the prices of what the farmer buys and to reduce the prices of what he sells. ... I am here primarily to learn rather than to teach. ... I am not a dirt farmer nor a pictorial farmer." He recalled Mr. Dawes' suggestion for a com mission to investigate and recommend remedies. "It has not even the merit of novelty!" he exclaimed. "I can smell the moth balls now." He concluded: "We undertake: "To adopt an international policy of such cooperation as will reestablish the farmer's export market by restoring the industrial balance in Europe. . . . "To adjust the tariff so that the farmer and all classes can buy again in a competitive market.

"To reduce taxation. . . .

"To readjust and lower rail and water rates. . . .

"To bring about the early completion of internal waterway systems and to develop our water power for cheaper fertilizer. . . .

"To stimulate, by every governmental activity, the progress of the cooperative marketing movement. . . . "To secure for the farmer credits suitable for his needs. "This .is our platform." He boarded his train once more and went on, while the metaphorical announcer called: "All aboard for Denver, Cheyenne, Topeka, Bunceton, Des Moines and Chicago!" Meanwhile, in the East, the rather ineffectual Clem L. Shaver sputtered that he expected LaFollette to get about 70 electoral votes in the West. Some Democratic campaigners set the number even higher. They admit it cheerfully. "This," they say, "means that LaFollette is weakening Coolidge. LaFollette having the West, if the election is not to be thrown into the Electoral College, it means that South and East must combine on one man. Davis has the South; so the East must go to Davis likewise." From the brevity of Mr. Davis' efforts in the West, it would seem that he accepts the forecast that the West will be divided between Coolidge and LaFollette; but far from waiting for the East to come to him, Davis is going out with all his energy to get it. Progressives. The LaFollette-Wheeler campaign experienced some difficulty in collecting the funds which they felt sure they would get from Labor. In fact, at the present time, both Democrats and Progres sives are having difficulty in collecting material resources. The Federation of Labor was called upon and issued an appeal for funds. It was said that Senator LaFollette's radio speech on Labor Day cost about $3,800 and that he had relatively little, as yet, on which to finance the rest of his campaign. Nevertheless, the LaFollette men continue optimistic, promise to carry Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington, Nebraska, Iowa, the Dakotas, Oklahoma and possibly California, Kansas, Arizona, Illinois. Wisconsin seems pretty cer tain. In the Republican primary there, the insurgent Congressmen who had been supporting LaFollette were all renominated with substantial majorities. Meanwhile, Senator Wheeler has continued his tour of New England, telling the mill hands: "When the people of the West got tired of their Congressmen, they got others. You can do the same. When their Senators were creatures of corruption, they changed them. You can do the same." Leaving New England, he burst into upstate New --York and was scheduled to continue his trip via Newark, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Chicago.