The Republican journal., 1912-11-14
PROGRESSIVE IDEA DOES NOT ROOT.

iThe Progressive party is one-man
affair. Aside from the vote polled for
Mr.. Roosevelt himself, it has made an
extremely small showing. 1t appears to
have elected only eleven members of the
House, as against more than ten times
as many Republicans. Other third par
ties, without half the pretention. have
done much better than this. There were
sixteen variously assorted Populists
elected in 1896, and as many Greenback-
ars in 1878.
In the State legislatures the Progress
sive organization cuts very sorry figure.
The men who will make the country's
laws, local and general, are either Re-
publicans or Democrats. Nowhere do
the third party men even hold the bal
ance of power The minority room in
Washington goes to the Republicans,
who saved many more districts than
they did in 1890, and about as many as
they did in the clean-cut contest OF 1892.
The minority leader of the House will be
Republican, and his party will be "the
opposition.
Of course the Progressives will claim
that they are the magnet and all else the
filings, and that to them all minority
forces must ultimately be drawn. But
it is not easy to see how this will! come
to pass. 1t will be extremely difficult
American people for the next four years,
without holding public office from
which to preach. His field for agitation
is also likely to be much circumscribed
by the output of progressive ideas of the
Democratic congress-; after that body
has had it's fling at new devices destined
to 'enthrone the people," it is doubtful
if any large hunger for further efforts in
that direction remains unsatisfied.
The weakness of the Roosevelt party
has been it's lack of definite and affirma-
tive principles, particularly in the field
of national legislation. 1t has been
reactionary to the last degree on the
tariff. And yet it was on that issue that
the group of senators who have long
called themselves Progressive broke
away from the Republican standard.
Most of the ''causes" which the Roose-
welt movement has espoused either come
within the domain of State law, or are
already in process of being attended to
by the older parties. The popular cleo
ton of senators, for example, and the
federal income tax are in course OF
adoption on the impetus of Republican
Congress.
1t accordingly looks as if the Progress
sive party would dry up and blow away,
as have the long line of third parties of
the past. Much, of course, will depend on
what happens in the immediate future.
If, in the Congressional elections two years
from now, the Republicans should make
substantial recoveries, the party prestige
would be restored once more, and with the
prospect of victory under the old banner
assured, Progressiveism would rapidly
fade out. But if the cleavage in Repub-
lican ranks continues unmodifed, and
one or two presidential elections roll by,
with the country given to the Demo-
Gratis by the failure of the opposition
forces to coalesce, the electorate might
ultimately turn in desperation to the new
er broom. This, however, is extremely
remote. The mass of experience is against
perpetuity of one-man party, and par
ticularly a party so lacking in definite
excuses for existence.
This is made particularly clear by the
inverted pyramid aspect of the Progress
i've vote. 1t is largest at the top. 1t
tapers down very fast. 1t was not in
this way that the Republican party of
1856 displaced the decadent Whiggery.
That new party laid it's foundations deep
and strong in popular support. 1t be-
came recognized as vigorous opposi-
ton in Congress before it successfully
grappled with the electoral ticket. And
no one man created Republicanism: it
had principles enough to summon into
service the men whose names are today
its peculiar pride. Boston Herald.