Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1912-07-08
wnERE A. VIZ At,

EOltOr V1me0- Nepo blacon:-1 ne aOOSc
inquiry 10 serious one to thousands
OF republicans who have always be-
lteved in republican principles and
generally In republican leaders. and
have voted accordingly. g. O. 2. used
in diversion by our opponents has been
symbol Of living light to its follow
ers. To them 1t has meant the highest
OF political principles and the best OF
American citizenship. But in Chicago
we have seen chicanery triumphant
and the democratic rule Of the major
ity overthrown. Our party has been
men as ever "scuttled a ship or cut a
throat" How can we who believe In
fair play and that the foundation Of
our government Is based upon the rule
Of the majority condone this substitu-
ton of triumphant chicanery for tri-
i umphant democracy?
Every patriotic impulse, every ma
ture judgment of right and wrong.
cries out against it. There can be no
| condemnation Of the action Of those
! freebooteTs. R:sh: IS right and wrone
is wrong, and there can be no middle
course.
Let its humbled sons instead
From sea to lake
A long lament as for the dead
| In sadness make.
| Walk backward with averted gaze
And hide the shame
1 Principles are greater than any par
| ty. certainly greater than lot Of buc-
cancers who have seized the party.
Whom the gods would destroy, they
| first make mad" When the south
saw that the sentiment against slavery
and for freedom was growing and IN
Time would become resistless, 1t sought
to stem the tide and in its madness
(, fired upon Fort Sumter and thereby
aroused the nation TO the highest pitch
| of patriotism. That act precipitated by
many years the consequence that its
| people foresaw ard attempted to pre-
vent. So now the interests. the po-
Etlcsl oligarchv in control of the ma
| tional republican machinery. saw that
progressive principles were growing
with ever-increasing and resistless
force and that if something was not
done and done quickly, the progress
sives would soon have control OF the
national republican party as they al
ready had of many of the states. So
they, too. resorted to violence, seized
the machinery of the national repub-
llcan party, unseated enough OF the
rightful delegates so that they could
substitute oligarchy for democracy. the
rule Of the minority for the rule Of the
majority. The gods were surely after
;hen:. ter they rnust indeed be mad"
TO think that self-respecting voters
will ever stand for such highwayman
methods. The Catalina conspiracy of
Roman senators was insignificant as
compared with the conspiracy of
American senators twenty centuries
later.
thousand times better for the in
terests and the conspirators had they
permitted the nomination OF Roosevelt
than that they should show that they
played with marked cards or dealt
from the bottom. BY their act they
have precipitated the triumph Of
progressive principles many years earl
Ter than 1t other wise would have been
and forced the democratic party to
name progressive candidate as we'll
as progressive platform.
Then, il not Taft, whom will we
progressives vote fort Why not Wood
row Wilson? Surely The is all right"
He 10 progressive Of the first rank
he Is scholar Of the highest standing.
He is gentleman Of the most admir-
able type OF American citizenship He
has made good as president Of a COL
lege, as governor Of a state, as a cam
paigner through many states He has
his whole mature life been student of
governmental problems and is the au-
thor OF number OF excellent books
thereon. His personal and financial
connections are not suspicious He
seems an inspired leader, without fear
and without reproach," for the prob
lens of today as was Lincoln of those
OF his day. The platform on which
he stands is certainly admirable as
compared with the Chicago one Will
son and Marshall" rings truer to the
progressive ear than does Taft and
Sherman"
Why not Roosevelt? Because Wilson
stands for all the progressiveness that
Roosevelt does and then some, for
Roosevelt has never committed himself
| on the tariff. Because there is senti-
| ment deep in the American breast
| against third term. 1t may not be
| dangerous in his case; and yet no
American is more positive that he is
always right and always ready to go to
the limit upon his own judgment A
iiAdh VI lioH We anu conn.,
dence in himself and his star Such
men may become very dangerous In
any event, the precedent Of a third
term may become very dangerous
one to our American institutions. Is It
| not better to follow the precedent set
by Washington and followed for over
a century?
| Again. it seems to me he was too
quick in his willingness to destroy the
republican party in nation and in state
His election would mean tho destruc-
ton Of the republican party. Wilson'S
election means all for progressiveisn1
that Roosevelt's does, anI means that
by the end OF the four years the gera-
mum scented republican officeholders
Of the south will be displaced and the
present office holding machinery
smashed and thereby become trium-
plant. When thieves have gotten into
your house. there is a better method
| Of getting them out than by bringing
down the house. r. e. SEARS.