Imperial Valley press., 1912-10-31


social consciousness; when it comes 20
question of human conduct you have
to show me. If the thing has been
worked out anywhere let us turn back
the pages and find the answer, if it
hasn't been worked out let US turn over
a lew page and try it. I believe in
free social experimentation; nothing of
any moment to the race has ever been
decided by arguing about it.
Now, a number of things which the
Progressive party stands for are things
which have been worked out either
here or in other lands, and nothing but
inertia and vicious neglect of the old
parties prevents their being carried out
to a fruitful finish. Take the issue of
woman suffrage, which is personally
of prime Importance to me; it is al
ready with us, it is here to stay, ii
has passed the stage of experimental
ton and the heavens have not fallen.
Whatever objection even its opposers
may have had against it, they hav:
stultifed by calling-can't you hear
them, Come down off your pedestals
you dear angelic creatures, and help 10
elect Me"-calling on women for help
which they publicly declare women in
competent to render and damag ging TO
them when done. If political activity
is bad for women, then Candidates VIII
son and Taft are a pair of the most
brazen corruptors of womanhood and
the home which the country has ever
known, and the word which describes
men who profit by what they believe -
be the degradation of women is not
nice even for a suffragette to use. But
in fact they are not so bad as they
sound, they are merely talking the an
cient hypocritical twaddle because they
have got into the habit of it and cant
help it. But man who has habits
like that-for president. Whether
the Progressive party can imm ediately
procure woman suffrage, 1t being Il
matter of states rights, they have at
least rid themselves of the necessity Of
lot of foolish talk about it,
Then there is the business of CON
servation. Ever since the time of Tam
merlane, Europe has been learning the
utter wasteful stupidity of forest de-
nudation, and still our own means for
preventing n repetition of that folly
are ridiculously inadequate. What is
true of forests is also true in a less
conspicuous and dramatic way of min
eral and other resources.
The differences between the policies
of the Progressives and the old parties
is just the difference between owning
your own melon patch and trying TO
regulate the size Of the melons that
other people might raise in it.
Another thing it is time to stop talk
ing about is child labor When il
hasn't argumentatively a leg to stand
on, to ignore it as the Republican
party does or to talk of regulating il
with the Democrats, is to choose be-
tween being grossly Indifferent or
merely Intellectual One might as wei!
tie string about a sick mans leg
and say that the blood poisoning shall
come no further up. We are either
rich enough as nation to support our
children or we are not, and If not, il
is time to find out why 1t is this
ability of the Progressive party to rec
ogniZe lusty and crying actualities like
these, which makes hopeful the pros
pect Of being allowed to deal with
them. At the worst it cannot fall so
far short of it's opportunity as one
which does not even see
If 1 don't go into more items of
the prevention of occupational dis
eases, of minimum standards and
wages, it is because there are others
to do it with more authority. All I
am trying to make clear is that it is
primarily the attitude of the party
which calls for my active commenda-
tion. Between the words "prohibit"
and prevent" as used by the Prog
ressives and "safeguard" and "limit" as
appearing in the platforms Of the old
line parties, I discover the difference
between the sound of the breaking Of
eggs for the political omelette and
the preliminary clucking over an egg
that is yet to be laid.
The truth is that there actually is
enough tabulated, reliable knowledge
in the world to effectively settle a
great measure of our social and eco
nomic difficulty; what lacks is a little
doing.
And secondly, l am a Progressive
because of the things to which the
party is not yet committed. For there
are number of things about which
no conclusions may be reached with
out further experime entation. This is
especially true in the department of
social and econ omic justice.
The greatest objection to the other
parties who approach this question in
a spirit of active sincerity I refer to
the two wings of the Socialist party in
particularly is that they leap ahead, set
mark and say it ends there.
But the spirit of true progressive
ness is not compatible with limit set
ahead. We must 60 forward, and for
ward
not exist who knows what complete
economic justice is, no matter what he
asserts about it; the least we can learn
by the process of the years is that
there are several things which are
rank injustices, to be eXcised as gan
grenous flesh in the social organism
1t is the presence of fostering poisons
that by the very irritation which they
set up may plunge us in economic dis
aster, against which much Of the Pro-
gressive effort is directed. very cas-
ual reading of the platform will reveal
the fact that its limitations are set
up, not before us, but behind, bars
about pits of ignorance and injustice
into which we discredit our intelligence
again to fall And all these measures.
though they are measures of relief
may be had without committing the ul-
innate social judgment of the prin-
cip3Is 1t is sure way to stop an
aching tooth to jump out of an elev-
cnth story window with t, but it is not
really good way. When we have
pulled a few of the liberated ard
torturing fangs of labor W shall have
a right to expect a more dispassion
ate consideration of the next move and