The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-09
Realized Importance

" MT Roosevelt undoubtedly realized
 the extent and importance of this third party sentiment, and when he was de- feated for the republican nomination al Chicago he at once offered himself az leader of this third party movement. He was gladly accepted as the leader on ac- count of his vigorous personality and be- cause of the strength of his following in the senatorial wing of the republican
 party also because the importance of the
 third party movement would be greatly increased under the leadership of man
 who had twice been President of the
 United States.
 'Mr Roosevelt adopted In their en-
 tirety the principles which the third party
 advocated, subtracting little or nothing
 from the national platform of the inde-
 pendenee party adopted at Chicago In
 1908
 The advocates of this third party
 movement are enthusiasts. They believe
 absolutely in the necessity of a third
 party to free the country of corporation
 control of both old parties. They believe
 that both of the old parties are in the
 grip of the privileged interests and that
 the strangle hold of these special inter-
 ests cannot be broken. They also believe
 that there is no desire on the part of the
 leaders of the old parties to terminate
 this association with the privileged inter-
 eStS as II lS d DTO1ldDlt tiSSbtlttlloi anu
 enables them to secure large campaign
 contributions as has been shown In the
 Standard oil letters and SO to finance and
 operate their machines and party organ
 izations.
 The third party supporters believe ar
 dently in their programme, the main pur-
 pose of which Is to take the control or
 government out of the hands of the party
 machines and privileged interests and re
 tt ,.st La, ,da nf ha r.
 ly all the measures of the third party
 platform are aimed directly at that. and you will see therefore, how impossible for the third party to unite with the re
 publican party, for the platform of the national republican party is conservative fin the extreme and the republican party is considered as the chief reactonary party in the United States.
 Then again the proposal of MT. Tart pnd Mir Roosevelt both retiring was brought up at the republican convention in Chicago. Neither one was willing to retire. I cannot believe that either one is willing to retire now, or that fusion between these two dametrically conflict ing factions can be satisfactorily accom- Ilished even if both candidates should retire. Of course, if the division in the republican party continues the probablli- ties are that MT Wilson will be elected. or that failing an actual majority, the cleo ton will be thrown itno the House of Rep resentatives.
 Vermont Election Significant The Vermont elections show no de-
 fection from the democratic party This is significant. The progressive sentiment in the United States is tremendous The men who class themselves as progressives, no matter 10 what party they belong, constitute considerable majority of the voters of the United States. There are probably more progressive democrats than there are progressive republicans. and
 finally the democratic platform was so
 vague and indefinite to fall far short of expressing the sentiments Of the pro- gressive demands.
 ITO a democratic platform of mlls and water, MT. Wilson in his letter of ac- ceptance merely added that water bub- bling water. sparkling with euphonipus phrases agreeably charged with gas. but nevertheless water. This situation in the l democratic party must be a disappoint- ment to militant progressives. Why. then, | is there not notable defectlon from the | democratic party to the new third party? Because Mir. Roosevelt committed the dis | tlnct error Of making this third party movement almost entirely republican. re- 1 cruiting it almost entirely from the re- publican wing of the party and officering | 1t with republican offlceholders.
 | " MT Roosevelt, being a republican l should have chosen a democrat. and pref. | erably southern democrat, for vice president. and if Roosevelt had been as anxious to unite the progressves as he was to disrupt the republicans. he would have had a democrat on the ticket. But ! MT Roosevelt, the candidate for Presi- dent Is republican; nearly all the lead 1 CTS and speakers for the third party in this campaign are republicans therefore I believe the third party movement will only half succeed in this campaign This
 agitation will go far, however, to estab-