The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-24

sight to behold. Mr. Mann fairly
foams at the mouth and words fail
him. when he gets on the subject.
Nothing can rile him more. no one
can get his nerves quicker than one
of the progressive crowd.
Murdoch knows this and takes great
pleasure, on every occasion. of nagging
the republicans. He reminds them con-
stantly that they were the tailend
crowd in 1912, and that they are not
entitled to much recognition in the
House. He eonfounds them with their
tariff record during the Taft admin
istration, and otherwise makes cutting
and telling observations that almost
cause minority Leader Mann TO COM
init murder.
Old Guard to Steal Teddy
Now there Is rumor that the old
guard-the regular republican organi-
zation is going to offer its nomina-
tian in 1916 to Teddy. They are going
to steal the progressive bag and bag
gage by swiping Teddy. For without
Teddy what would the progressive
party be? Absolutely they would be
adrift with no one to hover them.
The progressives are trying to be
brave and deny that there is any dan
ger of such thing More than that
some of them say that If Roosevelt
were to desert them they would sim
ply nominate someone else, and that
the progressive movement has come to
stay, and Is bigger than one man and
that
The progressives declare any way
that the drift of American politics is
toward the elimination of both the
old parties-tlfe democrats and the re-
publicans. and with that no one, two
or dozen men can stop it. They be-
lfeve, or profess to believe, that before
many years there will be two great
parties in the United States-one the
progressives and the other the conser-
yatives-and that these parties will be
made from the rank and file of the
republican and democratic parties
Refuse to Believe 1t
The real leaders of the progressives.
however refuse to believe that the
colonel would desert them They con-
slider him a permanent political as
set, upon which they can always rely.
His availability appears to them as a
constant quantity, mistaken, unsullied
and of high potentiality They can
always know where to place their
hands upon him-so they say. And
Yet they will not admit that If he were
to desert them that they cannot put
up another man and still control the
100000 add vote that the colonel sue
eeeded in getting last year.
The democrats laugh They believe
that Teddy would take the republican
nomination If he had the least idea
that it would mean his election. Some
of the democrats, in fact, most of them,
have no very high regard for the COL
one1 and they do not believe that he
Is so welded to principles that he
would not lay them aside If he thought
by doing so he could land in the White
House once more.
Many believe that the colonel has
resisted all overtures toward the ANAL
gamation Of the two wings of the re-
publican party, and will resist them
even though it is advocated by some
of his leaders in the last campaign
until he can make u trade to his own
advantage, said trade being that he
gets the nomination of the reorgan-
lied party-in event of such reorganf-
zation. The real progressives from
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. and there are
many such, are now engaged in hav-
ing cold chills chase themselves up
and down their political systems.