The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-04

vocated of letting the people OF a state
decide upon the constitutionality of
certain acts of their courts, Colonel
Roosevelt declared:
ITO denounce such a proposition as
putting the axe to the tree of free
DOM without proposing any more
workable or better remedy, is to cham
pion the cause of special interests, in
whose favor, as against the people and
against the cause of justice, the courts
have decided.
when, in Difference to the reaction
aries in congress, the president put a
stop to the work of the country life
commission so that for three years the
national government has done little
but mark time, or, indeed, to step
backward, as regards this movement,
then, no matter how good his inten-
tions, his actions ranged him against
the progressive side. When the presi-
dent opposes the effort to give to the
sober Judgment of the people due eff
fects-against the decisions of a reac-
tionary court, then he shows himself a
reactionary.
-Four years ago the progressives
supported Mr.. Taft for president, and
he was opposed by such representa-
tives of special privilege as Mr.. Pen
rose of Pennsylvania, Mr.. Aldrich of
Rhode Island, Mr.. Gallinger of New
Hampshire, as Messrs. Lorimer Can
non and Mckinley of Illinois, and he
was opposed by practically all the men
of the stamp of Messrs. Guggenheim
and Evans in Colorado, and Mr.. Pat
rick Calhoun of San Francisco. These
men were not progressives then, and
they do not pretend to be progreSsiveS
now But, unlike the president, they
know who is a progressive, and who is
not. Their Judgment in the matter is
good.
Men He Has Won Over
After three and a half years of asso-
citation with and knowledge of the presi-
dent, these and their fellows are now the
presidents chief supporters; and they and
the men who feel and act as they do IN
business and in politics, give him the
great bulk of his strength.
THE president says he is progressive.
These men know him well and have
studied his actions for three years and
they regard him as being precisely the
kind of progressive whom they approve.
However good the presidents intentions,
| believe that his actions have shown that
he is entitled to the support of precisely
these men.
The Republican party is now facing a
great crisis. 1t is to decide whether 1t
viii be, as in the days of Lincoln, the
party of the plain people. the party of
progress, the party of social and indus
trial justice, or whether it will be the
party of privilege and special interests.
the heir to those who were Lincoln's most
bitter opponents
Prosperity can only permanently come
to this country on basis of honesty and
of fair treatment for all Those men OF
6AoTu1OuS wealth. VINO bitterly OppOot
every species of effective control by the
people through their government agents
over the business use of that wealth are,
l verify believe, most shortsighted as to
their own ultimate interest They should
welcome every effort to make them OBJ
serve the law so that their activities shall
be helpful.
ST stand for the adequate control the
real control. of all big business, and
especially of all monopolistic big bust
ness where it proves unwise or impossi-
Die to break up the monopoly
Clouds hover above the horizon
throughout the civilized world But here
in America the fault is our own if the
sky above is not clear. We have con-
tinent on which to work out our destiny;
our people are men and women, are fit TO
face the mighty days The present con-
test is but a phase of the larger struggle
Assuredly the fight will so on. Our cause
is the cause of justice for all in the in
terest of ALL Surely there never was
more noble cause; surely there never was
a cause in which it was better worth
while to spend and be spent