Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-11-07
AN UNPRECEDENTED FEAT.

The Progressive party has achieved
the greatest moral victory in con-
structive politics since the founding
of the Republican party. For a party
within five months of its inception to
spring to the second place in the poll
tics of the United States is something
heretofore unheard of in the history
of pupular government. 1t has made
the slogan of human rights the key
note to which all successful political
action must hereafter be pitched. 1t
has made honest politics and govern
ment free from the domination of big
business the test by which every
party and every public servant must
abide If Woodrow Wilson and the
Democratic party live up to that test,
then they will have a show of re-
newing their lease of power in four
years. If they do not they will find
themselves confronted with the mass
VI thO POOpiO VI lhO ChllOu OloIOS
under the Progressive banner. They
will not then meet a divided antag-
onist. The Progressive Republicans
who voted for Wilson because they
believe him to be progressive will not
do so in 1916 unless the Democratic
party makes good along progressive
lines. The Republicans who remained
in the Republican. party simply be-
cause it was the Republican party
will perforce fave to seek a new
party home. The interests are no
toriously ungrateful and, having
used the Republican machine and its
candidate, they will cast it aside as
sucked lemon and seek what other
organization it may control. 1t will
not seek to control the Progressive
party because big business has no use
for any party which honestly stands
for the initiative and recall espec-
tally of the judiciary Someone has
/ said, 81 care not who writes your
laws if may write your songs" Big
| business says, I'VE care not who
writes your laws if we can make your
judges" Therefore the Progressive
party will continue to have the an.
| tagonism of crooked business as il
had in this campaign. Whether
Woodrow Wilson is not bigger thar
Tammany and Taggart remains to bt
seen. If America gets progressive
legislation 1T will be solely because
the Progressive party has made itsel
in one campaign such a formidable
antagonist that it is able to force i
from the reluctant lawmakers of tn,
old parties. The Progressive part,
Will be the dominant factor in tn,
history Of the next four years, anC
fear of this is the reason of the at
tack of the interests being centere;
upon Roosevelt rather than upol
either of the other candidates, boil
OF whom claimed during the cam
paign to be progressives in fac
! though not in name, They tough
Roosevelt and the Progressive part
because they fear them and hope,
to crush them so that the new organ
ization would go to pieces, In thi
they signally failed. The Pfogfessiv
party comes out of the fight stronge
than it went in, and this not true O
either of the old parties. TIL
strength of the Democratic party ha
been in the fact that it has not ofte
been compelled to abide by its recor
on the fulfillment of it's promise.
The strength of the Republican part
in recent years has been the strengt
of the big interests. The latte
strength has proven inadequate an
the Democratic party cannot in 191
rely on record of promises. 1t mus
rely upon the performances of tn
next four years, Both parties ar
therefore weaker than before tn
! election, while the Progressive party
having polled an unheard of vote TO
a new party, is unmeasurabl
strengthened by the contest.