Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1912-07-22
Disinherited Republicans

Throughout the Union in every state
where the Republican party is num-
erous enough to have the attributes
recognized as belonging to parties.
there is a large class of Republicans
who have no natural utilization with
the destructive frenzy of demagogism
or the sullen intolerance of reaction.
Republicans of this category would
fain walk safe middle path alike
aloof from the madness which would
tear down American institutions to
to build of the wreckage an altar to
personal ambition, and the stealth
which would undermine those insti-
tutions by party machinery and spe-
cial privilege.
Those Republicans who have no
sympathy with either the demagogue
or the Bourbon, may be counted by
thousands and hundreds of thousands.
A tolerably accurate census Of them
might be made, We're it possible to go
to the Republicans who stayed away
from the Presidential primaries, and
to ask them why they refused to
participate in the pre.convention can
vass of their party.
The answer in multitude of in
stances would be, in effect. this, that
the roof given over to the fury of
fanatic aDd rooct;oporoc uoc pc
cover for the head of a Republican
who was neither reactionary nor
fanatic; that to Republicans of the
Lincoln tradition, the humiliation of
immemorial American precedent and
established party law, by third term
candidacy. stands on parity Of shame
with the tender OF a. second term to
President whose administration
proves him utterly undeserving of it;
that Republicans OF the rank and file,
cherishing a sense Of party dignity
and personal seif.respecr, are equally
unwilling 20 be crushed by the steam
roller or t-ampled under the heels
OF the mob that such Republicans
are afflicted by the degradation to
which & President and ex-President OF
Republican a:Hliation and election.
are submitting their party-in short.
that Republicans Of inward honor
and outward decency. cannont bring
their mouths 70 utter any counter
sign that would admit them to the
Taft or the Roosevelt camp.
1t is this great body OF Republicans,
who cannot stomach either of the
factions into which their party is di.
vided, to whom We apply the phrase
which appears at the head OF the edi-
torial. THE Homeless Glass of Re.
pubicans. Their own party has tao
lily repudiated them. 1t has proven
to them, not a mother, but step.
father 1t offers them no shelter
gives them nothing they want-noth-
ing they can tolerate.
These disinherited children of the
Republican party-these whose voices
are unheard in the convention mutt
tering or the caucus clamor-repre-
sent the best element in it. 1t is
an element enormously more numer-
GUS than is sometimes supposed. Take
out of the late Republican showdown
in the primary contests, those Re
pUblicans who stayed at home and
didn't vote, those who voted for TAFT
from alarm at Roosevelt and those
who voted for Roosevelt as a protest
against Taft, and the Republican
booths would have been as lonesome
as a district school in vacation time
The silent and homeless Repubh-
cans, those who have neither shelter
under their party rooftree. nor voice
in the deliberations of their party
conclaves, are a big factor in the pres
ent conditions. They are force the
Republican party is going TO feel. i
will feel it in the weakest joints OF
its harness. Many of the homeless
Republicans found home in 1910.
More of the mare going to find one
in 1912.-The National Monthly