The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1912-01-26
ATTACKING PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT.

In the midst OF the seething excitement over the
political situation there comes forth from some Of
the organs which catch their inspiration from close
to the White House the announcement that the or
ganization Republican leaders who have taken hold
Of the campaign for the denomination Of President
Taft are going to attack Rooseveltsm and progressive
ism OF the sort favored by La Toilette and Cum
minis wherever it is found
And at the same time, it is announced that Sena-
tor Boes Penrose, the boss Of the Republican ma
chine in Pennsylvania, Senator Murray Crane OF
Massachusetts, and Senator Reed Smoot Of Utah, q
high figure in the Mormon church, will form the
great triumvirate that will seek to force the reno
nation of the President.
1t is this sort of politics, countenanced at least
IL not actively abetted by the Taft Administration,
that Is putting the President in position in the eyes
of the country that makes his nomination in the
forthcoming Chicago convention extremely doubtful,
and that will make his election, should he be nomi-
mated, well-nigh impossible.
What sort of political judgment is it that leads
group Of men who are. supposed to have some
understanding of the trend of thought in the United
States believe that is within their power crush
out the progressive movement to halt the forward
sweep of that progressivsm of which men like
Roosevelt and La Toilette and Cummins are the ex-
ponents? Is it possible that President Taft and his
friends really believe that all they have to do to
stamp out the progressive movement or make It i'm
potent is to effect organizations Of machine elements
in large number of the States between now and
the spring conventions or primaries, and to direct
these organizations from headquarters in Wash
ington the direction of which will be in the hands of
Messrs. Penrose, Crane and Smoot? If they be-
lieve this they to be ped for their lack of
Outstanding of the public temper rather than con-
demned.
1t would hardly be possible to select three men
who would be recognized more fully representing
in the Senate of the United States that spirit of
action in political affairs against which the face OF
the people of the United States is determinedly set
So far as legislation is concerned without any pur-
pose to reflect them personally, it be truthful
y said that their influence well-nigh invariably has
been against the things for which the progressves in
Congress, whether Republican or Democratic, have
with the backing of public sentiment, contended.
These gentlemen are of the school Of politics
Of which the old and discredited Cannon regime in
the House and the Aldrich regime in te Senate
formed important parts The people rebuked the
Cannon regime by turning over the House to the
Democrats. Nelson Wmarth Aldrich was driven from
the Senate by public sentiment, and many of the
men who were his aides and leutenants have been
retired to private life. Others will be at the earliest
opportunity.
The moral is obvious The progressive move
ment, of which Roosevelt and La Toilette and Cum
Minis and other leaders who think they do are the
exemplars, is not going to be halted Politicians
who get in the way of it will find themselves crushed
1t is not merely American movement; it is world
wide II President Taft and his friends really want
to make any Roadway toward another Taft Admins
tration in this country they should take cognzance
of these facts 1t is because they blind to then
and either unwilling to see the light incapable Of
it that the movement to nominate some progressive
| is gathering head with such tremendous force tha
nothing stop it and that, as it looks now will pu
| Theodore Roosevelt in the White House for another
four years without him lifting finger to secure the
| office.