The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1912-07-03
LAFoLLETTE ATTACKS TEDDY.

senator Lar OlletCe has "IlLleu Lue
GLOWING editorial in the current num-
Der of La Foilette's weekly:
until Roosevelt came into the open
as a candidate for the presidency five
months ago, there was strong and
rapidly growing progressive move
ment within the republican party. 1t
stood forth as the representative of
modern POLITICAL thought on funda-
mental democracy.
Unto this movement, when it gave
promise of national success, Roosevelt
projected his ambition to be president
third time. He spent weeks care
fully planning a spontaneous call for
himself. He responded by announc-
ing that he would be receptive
candidate. His candidacy began to
drag. He and his friends were in de-
spair Then came his defeat in North
Dakota. He became desperate.
"An enormous campaign fund was
raised Headquarters were opened in
tates east and west. Newspaper
writer's were engaged at large prices
O boom his candidacy. Special trains
were hired and the receptive candi-
date started in frantic pursuit of the
nomination. In the history of Amer
lean politics there never has been in
a primary campaign for presidential
nomination, an approach to the ex-
ravagant expenditures made in his
campaign.
men VIGOROUSLY identified with the
steel trust and the harvester trust
became his most active supporters.
Leading reactionaries, standpatters
and political friends and representa-
|tives in many states.
Teddy's Noisy Supporters.
MANY of the newer recruits to the
republican progressive cause, men
who before 1909, with three or four
exceptions, had either been Indifferent
or opposed to the progressive move
ment became the noisiest supporters
|of Roosevelt, the winner 1t mat
tered not to them. that Roosevelt had
|cooperated with Aldrich on legjSla-
ton during the entire seven years he
was president They forgot that it
was only when Roosevelt was out of
office and in Africa through the unit
ed efforts of men, who for years had
been fighting special interests, that
the progressive cause became nation
al movement That Roosevelt was
for Taft in 1910 when Taft was de
nouncing all progressives as pirates
and traitors that he waited until lit
tie more than a year ago, balancing
the chances before deciding whether
to cast in his lot with the progressives
lin this presidential year, counted for
nothing with the class of progressives
who wanted to- "win'-nOt real pro-
gressive victory-iust victory. "A
"And they did win precisely that
kind of victory that intoxicates-
that reaches only the great standpat
states of Illinois and Pennsylvania.
That stamped the Roosevelt candi-
dacy with its true character. No real
progressive could have secured any
thing like such a vote in either of
those two states. 1t had, however, the
outward seeming of success, the sort
of success that intoxicates-that
reaches the crowd 1t enabled Roose-
welt TO win in two or three really pro-
|gressive states.
Fortunately, it did not enable him
to- secure the nomination which would
have compromised the progressive
movement and defeated real achieve
ment for years.
Blamed for Split.
Upon Theodore Roosevelt and his
followers rests the responsibility of
having divided the progressives in
their first national contest. Stimulat-
ed by an overmastering desire to win,
they denounced loyalty to conviction
and principle as stubborn selfishness.
In the convention they put forward
no platform-no issues. They made
no fight against the reactionary plat
form adopted. They submitted vulgar|
personalities and the coarse epithets
the prize ring for the serious con-
Iteration of the great economic
roblems and for the time being they
rought ridicule and contempt upon
great cause"
RlINCOM8E