The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-03-03
HAS PROGRESSIVE" A MEANING

applied to KeFuDllcdns- OF 10 ld'-
ton of the Republican party. The
term arose as an equivalent to the
term ''insurgeut anil was applied to
those Republicans, especially in the
! ScnBte. who when tariff revision was
on ia 1909. objected to and voted
against the standpat programme for
rcvisiuc the tariff upward In place
of downward, as the National Repub-
| lean Convention Of 1905, interpreted
by President Taft in bis campaign
speeches. pledged the party to do. so
far as that is concerned. the iusurgeut
or progressive Republicans were in
slrcter accord with the party doe
trino as interpreted by the chief OF
the Nation and Of the party, than were
the standpat bulk of Senators.
| Presently. however. tho term began 10
spread out. and the meaning 10 get
thin. The people in the general cleo
ton Of 1910 enphatically approved
| the position. of the insurgents or pro
gressives as TO the tariff. That
seemed to be enough for any political
ouack in tho country, especially Re
publican. ouack, to base his theories
upon. from conservation all along the
list TO the recall OF the Judiciary, and
| finally 20 the proposition of Roose-
welt that when sufficient number
of people in any State is discomfort
cd with the opinion Of the highest
court iu that State, the matter shall
| bc submitted 10 vote of the people,
aud il the majority lie against "sus-
! tanning the decision, then the decls-
! ION falls. and the vote is held to es-
! tablish the conStitutionahty of any
| legislation that was heretofore uucon-
| stitutional. This, OF course, is the
widest sort of Il vsgary. IL would,
| furthermore. settle nothing; because. as
soon ~ decision of that kind was
submitted 10 vote. il would he con
slant issue. aud would he settled and
unsettled according as one election or
another might determine.
The Piuchot fads have been assumed
also TO be part of progressive Repub-
| licanism. though those would be par
aIvzing 10 all of this Western region,
aud their application to Alaska has
held that region in such tight bonds
that for fifteen years there has been
no gain in population. no advance IN
tho development Of the natural re-
sources of that region. 1t is psralyz-
ing doctrine altogether and amazing
il is TO see that people In the very
regions afflicted will give in their ad-
hcreuce TO such destructive PROPOSE
tions. and consent To have them grated
upon progressive Republicanism. AS
applied To this immediate region, these
| conservation policies withdrew ille-
gally from public filing large areas
Of coal lands and gave rise to fruit
| less and costly litigation which in no
| way profitcd the United States, but
which has built up and protected vast
coal monopolies all through this noun
already obtained their coal lands have
absolutc control Of the market and
prices because no one else can now
get any coal land to compete with
them
And so. running the whole gamut Of
political fads. everything is now called
progressive Republicanism; Col.
Roosevelt announces that he is pro-
greSsivc Republican, and in his Colum-
bus speech nc laid down a bunch Of
| maIodorous vaGaries, which, of course,
he will undertake to label progress
ivc Rcpublcanism. The idea that
any sort al folly or heresy could be
made popular by calling it "progress-
i've spread like vildfirc, and we have
now a conglomeratiou of rubbish, Of
fads. and Of revolutionary notions such
aS would overturn the Republic alto.
| gcther if they were put into effect
And all arc labelled Progressive Re
publicanism.
Ii is time that the people took time
10 sum up the jumbied mass Of fad
lism that now passes current for pro.
grcssive Republicanism. and wiped the
slate clean of all of it. except the one
original proposition, that the tariff
should he revised downward. as the
Republican National platform of 1905
construed by President Taft in his
| campaign speeches, were again made
the boundary and limit of that which is
properly TO be called Progressive Re
publicanism. Unless this is done
the berm progressive will fall into
contemptuous disrepute, and no one
Will know what any individual mean:
when he SAYS he is progressive Re
publican; for that might, under pres
ent conditions. mean anything from
st-busting TO revolution or chaos
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