The Washington herald., 1912-07-09
Thou Shalt Not. /"

AAOu- OAAoAh ~sSe
Those who hold that the command
ment delivered at Sinai: Thou shalt
not steaf,' applies to politics as well as
business" according to Senator Dixon's
call to arms, should join the new pro-
gressive party, whose standard bearer is
Col Roosevelt.
This is rather naive" on the part of
the Montana Senator and campaign
manager 1t presupposes that there
actually are men in this country, lead
ers of men, in whom the voters for
years have reposed their confidence.
whose doctrines they followed as prin-
ciples for honest men and honest gov
ernment, are just plain thieves. This is
a terrible arraignment, unworthy even
of men in politics. to quote a IA
yorite expression of the Senator.
We say that it is a poor slogan to
try to catch votes and voters with. Men
do not like to be called thieves. es-
pecially when their crime consists OF
nothing more serious than that they
differ from the one who attacks them
in opinions pertaining to their own and
the States welfare.
But as to the issues, the real issues.
Has it ever occurred to our readers that
Mr. Roosevelt is shifting them from
day to day while preparing his plat
form; that he is trying them out by
comparison with those of the other
parties, in order. to decide which of
them will be the most taking" with the
voters? Here is an instance: He has
been talking antitrust; he has made it
his chief issue. Later he asserted that
both old parties are wrong in calling
for a rigid enforcement of the Sher-
man act, And now ne points with
pride to the fact that he was the first
President to enforce that law rigidly
Apparently, he has learned that to
which he pointed with pride was a
mistake, for now he advocates a sort
of Federal commission, like the inter
state board, to regulate trusts. We all
know that this latest idea is not his,
but has been held by a number of lead
ing economists and business men. 1t
would, no doubt, please the interests
that are backing the new movement
and would bring to his colors a vast
number of men whom otherwise he
could not have reached. To get Wall
Street support with one hand and
Oklahoma voters with the other may
look difficult to the average man,
though he may not agree with the Thou
shalt not" maxim so proudly advanced,
hut the colonel at any rate is not averse
to- the attempt.
Now as to the support: We have
dwelt at length upon Senator Dixon's
scheme that some of the Governors of
States who are with Roosevelt, and
who are dominating their party in their
home States, will see to it that the cleo
tors chosen by them will vote for
Roosevelt and not for Taft. And this
is the man who. brazenly faunts into
the faces of American citizens his Thou
shalt not Seriously speaking, can the
progressives really propose such an ab-
surd-and worse-scheme? We do not
believe that Kansas will agree to it,
when we see a leading paper like the
Kansas City Star pledged TO support
Roosevelt Nor do we believe that
Senator .Cumnins would agree to such
plaic theft as this in Iowa, though he
10 a progressive. He will stick by the
old party, just because of such doings,
which make him say that with such
schemes the new party will, at best, only
last through one national campaign.
The truth is that the progressives are
badly mixed up in number of States,
even in those forty which by their
insurgent leaders are pledged to Roose-
welt Hence, any attempt to forecast
for them certain path would be fall
lacious. As for possible attempt on
the part of the leaders of the admin
istration to bring about harmony in
the interest of united front, they do
not seem to be exerting themselves,
fearing perhaps that any step of the
kind may be interpreted as undue pres
sure, and resented.
But what the Taft men should do
is to extend the olive branch to all those
former third partyists who have seen
the error of their ways. They ought to
initiate the harmonizing policy of the
Democratic nominee. And in this re-
spect we reiterate our often-stated opin-
ion that with little judicious work
just now, together with the Wilson
sentiment on the other side, there may