HATS IN A DUSTY RING

In the current issue of the Saturday Evening Post Mr. Will Rogers makes an original suggestion to the man who receives more gratuitous advice than any one except the President--Al Smith. The humorist remarks--seriously--that while Governor Smith may be the best chance of the Democratic party, the Democratic party nevertheless has practically no chance at all. Therefore, says he as one wise man to another, let the Governor withdraw gracefully from the race, and in 1932 his rating with his party should be higher than ever, and in the meantime something may happen to give the rooster a chance to crow.

It is sound advice, to judge from the past history of major politics; a Democratic administration comes at rare intervals, and the pendulum has not begun to swing. To the unskilled observer, however, there seems no sure guarantee that the pendulum will swing at all; it lacks oiling, or else the works are running down. The national vote at each election grows smaller, in disproportion to a growing population. The dwindling voters of the South will remain Democratic because they always have been, and see no reason to change; the dwindling, but still vastly more numerous, voters of the rest of the country will remain Republican, because they are on the winning side. The prevailing indifference is shown by the very fact that the nation is much more interested in discussing the election of a year from now than in the actions, if any, of the present administration.

Apathy is, after all, the leading note in the current democracy, and since Mr. Coolidge, with all his merits, well typifies this state of mind he apparently is fitted to remain. The unskilled observer, had he the chance, would cast his vote for Will Rogers. The nomination of the comedian, which has been proposed before, would serve two purposes: it would bring to notice for the first time since the war a candidate for President who is known by the public, and thus restore its interest in national and world affairs; and it might bring to the White House a man at once astute, colorful, and original in mind, in whose actions the nation would retain interest after the fading glamor of election night had passed away.