Coplay High School - Coplayite Yearbook (Coplay, PA)

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is not well liked by the prohibitionists or women voters. Mr. Underwood is a man of brilliant qualities having served in both the House and Senate. His reputation is based mainly on his mastery of tariff legislation and his skill as a leader. Mr. Underwood’s qualifications are materially the same now as they were in 1912, only time has more fully impressed the qualities that made him a leading candidate at that time, lie was also a delegate to the armament conference at Washington. Bryan has always been his bitter opponent and this might be regarded as unsuitable to him as a candidate when Big Business is likely to be an unpopular issue. Underwood is not a party man. He never hunts trouble, but when once in it, fights to the end. However, despite this fine record, Underwood has been before the public too long and is too well known to fill the President’s office. William McAdoo is also a promising candidate as can be seen by his sweeping victory in the Georgia primaries where he defeated Underwood by a two to one popular vote. It was stated by an Atlanta paper that this eliminates Underwood as a serious contender for the nomination. McAdoo holds a statesmanly and historic record of service to his country, being a tenacious fighter and having a heart winning personality. Another paper says that they cannot see anything strong in his victory and that some other candidate can be found in the long list of deserving Democrats. In the coming elections, therefore, the citizens of this country should use the best judgment possible in choosing their President for their decision at the polls this year will determine our national destiny during the coming four. PUBLIC FUNDS AND IIOW USED Hilda Artinger OF all the various problems of the government none affects and interests the people more intimately than the problem of taxation. Taxes are considered by some as a burden which must be shouldered by all people both rich and poor alike. Before the war taxes were normal, but during the war taxes have been increased considerably. Numerous surtaxes have been levied but are gradually becoming smaller as the debts of the war are being paid. It is one of the problems of the government today to find the means to remedy the present system of taxation without financial

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of tlx next President to establish confidence in his party. He must free it from those forces whose conception of the administration is to rob the public and to secure the aims of their party. These are some of the tasks which confront the new President. A person in order to vote properly should know something of the character of the candidates who are in the field. Let us then take into consideration the most important men and compare them, giving their ideas on political matters and their fitness for the Presidential chair. Among the most important and best fitted men we might class our present President. Coolidge is the most fortunate and most unfortunate of our public men. lie is fortunate that his past can not be attacked, that lie has reached his office through hard work and not through any discreditable means. His reputation as a president will depend entirely upon the way he handles the Teapot Oil scandal, lie may fail and lose the election or win and be nominated. He may use the Republican party as a tool to accomplish public ends. If the public does not find such leadership in the White House now, they will seek for it elsewhere. Coolidge then above other candidates stands in the best position to be elected. As another important Republican candidate we might place Senator Hiram Johnson of California who has established a good record for himself even though lie is not well known by the public. He has served six years as governor of California, as well as Senator for two terms. If he is nominated he can fight the election on his own personal record no matter what the platform of the party might be. This, however, does not mean that he is a man without a platform. He fully understands that a man without principles can make no effective public appeal. He is marked as a man who stays on the job. Golf has no attractions for him. He is a man of decision, not impulsive, but decisive. Such a record should give him a fair chance in the nomination. The Democratic party has come into power several times in the last fifty years due to the fact that the public suspected the private interest of the Republican party. No radical Democrat has ever been elected since the Civil War, but a sound liberal could restore the Democratic party. Among the names who suggest themselves we have Oscar Underwood and William McAdoo. Mr. Underwood has been before the public for the Presidency in 1912, but perhaps he was stronger at that time than he is now for he

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embarrassment to the government and at the same time prove satisfactory to all classes. The most popular plan today is the one submitted by Secretary of the Treasury, Mellon, but of which there is some doubt of its passage by Congress. This plan would mean a reduction of tin taxes by more than three hundred million dollars. But the most interesting phase of this discussion of taxes is the expenditures of the tax money by the government. Recently the government issued statistics which ought to interest every American citizen. It is estimated that sixtv-eight percent, of the public fund goes to wars that have already been fought . We are still paying the debt incurred by these wars which were originally started by nations that took pride in the fact that they were among the more advanced and civilized nations. Tn looking back over the expenditures made during the late World War we can see what an enormous amount of money was taken out of the treasury. Some of the facts of the last Wilson administration as revealed by a Congressional investigating committee gives us only a slight or approximate idea of what was taken out of the treasury. $176,000,000 spent on poison gas and powder plants which produced neither gas nor powder. $4,000,000 for ships which were not in use, and hundreds of ships were sold at a small fraction of the cost. Furthermore $1,051,000,000 was spent for aircraft construction and $1,191,000,000 for artillery with the result of having only 3,214 aeroplanes and 133 American-made guns on the firing lines at the date of the armistice. $8,000,000 of the people’s money was used in partisan administration propaganda, and President Wilson spent over $1,691,000 on his trip to Paris, a loose accounting for which was made upon the insistent demand of Congress. This was the price paid for President Wilson’s signature to the treaty which the American people repudiated at the first opportunity, the treaty itself having brought untold suffering to humanity without the slightest compensation to the American people. These facts are not given to belittle President Wilson’s administration, but to show how the public funds were used to pay war debts.