Mr. Baker's opposition to the Eighteenth Amendment and his support of the resubmission of the prohibition question to the states was made clear in an independent report delivered as a member of the Wickersham commission. No true believer in democracy could hod otherwise that the law to be valid and effective must rest on general consent and if that consent be wanting in large and populous sections the law must be changed.

As for economic issues, Mr. Baker's general philosophy and such recorded statements as we have would seem to place him in a moderately progressive position between that of Smith and Roosevelt. He has urged the gradual reduction of tariffs, the extension of the Federal Reserve system to cover all banks and the development of the anti-trust laws. He has declared that "progressive opinion does not believe that all our water powers should be added to the private fortunes of the privileged classes." He has argued that the primary responsibility for unemployment resulting from technological changes rests on industry but that it is shared by that industrial civilization as a whole which "invites or rather coerces the individual to surrender his independence and to become dependent for our sakes." At Williamstown last summer, he expressed opposition to the "strait-jacket of world economic planning" and faith in a system based primarily on individual initiative. But that this is not identical with an outworn laissez-faire theory is indicated by the following: "Our own capitalistic system obviously needs modification...There are large areas of new relations, of old relations expanded into new importance and meaning, as to which conscious regulation is the effective answer."

His Increasing Conservation

Years ago in Cleveland, Mr. Baker fought with Old Tom Johnson against the corporations. In more recent years as a practicing lawyer, Mr. Baker has represented some large corporations and this in the eyes of progressives represents him as more conservative than formerly. While this may be so, his advocacy in the law courts must certainly be read along with his general social and economic pronouncements.

Educated at Johns Hopkins and Washington and Lee Universities, Mr.Baker has spent most of his life practicing law save when he was Mayor of Cleveland from 1912 to 1916 and Secretary of War under Wilson from 1916 to 1921.

Short in physical stature, Mr. Baker does not look the politician, but the squareness and determination of his jaw indicates the temperament of a fighter and a leader. The White House could not find a better occupant when the vacancy sign hangs out next March.