The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-10-31
WILSON AND THE CONSERVA-
TIVE.

VALVES OlQ SOME serious luluhluS
about the wisdom of supporting
Woodrow Wilson for the presidency
In the opinion of The Republic.
Wilson is not only the best man now
before the American people from
the standpoint of the progressive
forces of the nation; he is also the
best man from the conservative
standpoint-all thing considered.
For the conservative, if he is clear
sighted and faces things as they are
and not as he wishes they were,
knows that sooner or later this
country is bound to get progressive
legislation. He cannot choose
whether or not it shall come. At
the most, he can only strive to de-
termine when it shall come and
under what auspices.
The conservative who believes
that progressive legislation may be
delayed indefinitely is requested to
run his eye over the history of re-
cent years. Within few months
we have, heard of Theodore Ropse-
yelt's haunting reminders, addressed
to- his successor that four years ago
he forced by control of the republic
can party machine the. nomination
of the man who afterwards "bit the
hand that fed him." The people re-
member this. ~. r,e (.
They remember the unspeakabie
of the Lorimer scandal
and they have. not forgotten Lori
mer's "bellweather" speech in which
he told how he followed Messrs.
Aldrich, Crane, Frye, Lodge, etc.,
in his voting. They remember the
circumstances that surrounded the
making of the Payne-Aldrich tariff.
They know what the Aldrichized
rubber interests got out of it, what.
former Congressman Littauer got
out of it. what the wooden interests.
got out of it, They remember the
North scandal. .. ..-..' =
The people of the United States
have not forgotten CLAWS. Nor
Wiley. They remember the story
of the Guggenheim activities in
Alaska. They remember what the
insurgent republicans did to help
the democrats make legislation pro-
gressive and what President Taft
tried to do to the insurgents. They
have been reading the reports of the
sessions of the Clapp committee.
recalled the Roosevelt permits
sion granted to the Steel trust
granted to the Steel trust
to absorb Tennessee Coal & Iron,
and how when Mr.. Perkins objected
to the prosecutions of the Harvester
trust the law officers of the govern
ment stayed their hand.
The people have been treated re-
Gently to a rehash of certain more
or less familiar doings of Standard
Oil. They know all about the Gary
dinners. They have seen trusts dis
and thriving nightly
under the knife. And they have
made up their minds.
The general temper of the public
is good natured but thoroughly de-
tcrmined. The people believe in
their own strength. They are con-
tident that the time has come to
bring the reign of special privilege
to an end and that they can do it by
voting for Woodrow Wilson and a
Democratic congress. Now the
question which the unsympathetic
conservative who only wants to be
let alone should ask himself is this:
whether it is not more to his interest
to accept now the kind of progress
sive legislation the Democrats are
prepared to write on the statute
books than to try to stave off the
day of reckoning.
When highly protected interests
are responsible for such labor con-
ditions as those at Lawrence, in the
mills of the Steel Trust and in the
Irvine factory of our friend Mr.. Per-
kins' Harvester Trust, and such fl
nancial and political conditions as
panic of 1907 revealed, it is evident
that the foundations of our indus
trial and political life are cracking
and settling.
There is no hope in the Republic
can party. Even if the leaders
could command a majority, they are,
irrevocably committed to the propo-,
sition that everything is as it should
be. The Democracy, on the other
hand, with majority in the House
and almost majority in the Senate
Of men trained to act together, has
for the presidency a man
of the best traditions
~ American cifiznnshin American