At Columbus

On his first invasion of the region west of the Alleghanies, John W. Davis spoke to the State Democratic Convention at Columbus, Ohio. His subject was the acceptance speech of Mr. Coolidge, which he attacked from stem to stern. Extracts: "What is the issue that you bid me submit to the American people? I care not in what words we put it-- honesty in Government, fidelity in administration, uprightness in the administration of the law, justice in the passage of legislation--it all comes, in the last resolve, to the question of party responsibility. . . .

"I make no charge against the honesty and integrity of the present occupant of the White House. I think no man truthfully can. . . .

"We are told that the things for which the American people are longing and yearning, that the thing which above all others they desire, and the thing which they are going to struggle to, is a Government of common sense. Now, I shall not go back over the history of the last three and one-half years in order to define that term. (Laughter and applause). . . .

"May I be permitted to say this in all kindness--that, after all, there is no virtue in the world more universal, no virtue in the world as common, as common sense; and the reason I say so is that I never yet have met an adult man or woman, and very few of minor age, who did not claim that they possessed it. (Laughter and applause). . . .

"What have the Democrats to offer? We also have some rather common things to offer. But they are things, believe me, which require even more of struggle, more of effort, and certainly more of vigilance than this universal common sense. We want, my friends, to offer to the American people, first of all, common justice. (Applause). We want it in our legislation, and we declare that a tariff law which takes from one man in order to enrich another, which imposes upon the people of this country an indirect burden in the form of revenue derived by the Government is, in its nature, inherently unjust and must be modified. (Applause). . . .

"Then, we want not only common justice, but we want to offer to the American people common honesty. And when I speak of common honesty I do not mean only that we shall keep our fingers out of the public pocket. I do not mean only that we shall abstain from stealing the public money or giving away the public lands. I mean honesty in thought as well as honesty in deed. . . .

"Then, we wish to offer to the people of this country another common virtue--the virtue of common courage at home to speak those things which we believe and let the public pass their judgment upon them; courage in legislation to refuse, if need be, a general demand, if clearly adverse to the interests of the country; courage in administration."