Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-06-23

deency a progressive candidate. on a
progressive platform, candidate and
a platform that will enable us to appeal
to northerner and southerner. easterner
and westerner. republican and democrat
alike. in the name of our common Amer
lean citizenship IL you wish me to
make the fight I Will make II. even If
only one state should support me. The
only condition I impose is that you
shall feel entirely free when you come
together to substitute any other man
in my place if YOU deem It better for
the movement. and in such case ] will
give him by heartieSt support
Wherever in any state the republican
party is true 10 the principles of its
founders. and is genuinely the party of
justice and of progress / expect to see
II come bodily into the new movement.
for the convention that has just sat In
this city is in no proper sense of the
word republican convention at all. 1t
does not represent the masses of the re-
publican party. 1t was organized in
cynical defiance OF their wishes and it has
served the purpose only of group of
sinister political bosses who have not one
shadow of sympathy with the spirit and
purpose of the republican party of fifty
Years ago, and many of whom have used
the party merely as an adjunct to money
making. either for themselves or for the
great crooked financial interests which
they serve
Compares Party's Founders.
THE bosses who first stole enough dele
gates to enable them to nominate this
convention. and then did their will in It,
have no kinship of soul or spirit with
the men who started the republican
party on its career as an agent of liberty
and justice. Imagine for yourselves now
Messrs. Barnes and Penrose and Guggen-
helm would have looked standing under
the historic oaks in that Michigan city
where the republican party was born
nfty-six wears ago
you, my friends. who are here before
me. YOU the heirs i'm the spirit of
Abraham Lincoln when he refused longer
u he bound by the shackles OF the past
and faced the new ISSUES in the new
spirit that the times demanded But We
are more fortunate in one respect than
our predecessors. for we who now stand
.or the progressive cause. the progressive
movement, have done forever with all
sectionaism. and we make our appeal
equally to the sons of the man who fought
under Grant and To the sons of the man
VINO fought under Lee. for the cause we
champion is as emphatically the cause of
the south as IL Is the cause of the north.
Il am in this fight for certain principles
and the first and most important of these
goes back TO Sinai. and is embodied in
the commandment Thou shalt not steal
Thou shalt not steal a nomination Thou
shalt neither steal in politics nor In bust
ness Thou shalt not steal from the
people the birthright OF the people to
rule themselves. I hold in the language
of the Kentucky court of appeals, that
stealing is stealing. No people is wholly
civilized where distinction is drawn be-
tween stealing an Office and stealing a
purse. No truly honest man should be
satisfied with an office to which his title
Is not as valid that of the homestead
which shelters his family
Interests Veto Primaries.
II DO not know whether our countrymen
fully realize the gravity of the crisis
which we this moment face. There is no
use in holding primaries. no use in hold
ing elections, if We permit a small group
of unscrupulous politicians, some of
whom are certainly acting in the interests
Of big crooked business. TO exercise the
veto power over these primaries and
elections by upsetting the results at their
own pleasure. The convention which to-
day closes its discreditable career here
in Chicago represents negligible mini
mum of the rank and file of the republi-
can party. But what it has done and
what 1t has provided for the future offer
material Tor very serious cOnSlCeTdtlOn.
The old national committee, chosen by
the politicians four years ago. made up
temporary roll, including some ninety
fraudulent delegates who had not been
elected by the people, and thereby they
controlled a majority of the convention
This fraudulent temporary roll in turn
chose fraudulent credentials committee
and all the fraudulent delegates voting on
one another's cases thereby made up the
permanent roll which constituted the
fraudulent convention.
Then this fraudulent convention chooses
a new and not less fraudulent national
committee. Now, gentlemen, there are
those who ask us TO stay in the party
which has just fraudulently nominated
for the presidency man who inspired
and profited by the fraud.
They ask us to submit to infamy in
the present on the ground that perhaps
we may be able to prevent such infamy
in the future. They seem to forget that
the vicious circle has been completed. and
that this fraudulent convention has pro-
vided in its fraudulently chosen national
committee a means whereby they can
hope once again four years hence ana
with the like impunity to overthrow the
will of the majority of the voters at the
primaries.
Must Freak .ViciOus Circleo