The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-02-13

and women of all classes who have sin
cere regard for the safety of American
institutions and VINO opposed to the
present method, then the movement must
win. Official dishonesty, exploitation of
natural resources for private gain, corner
ing of money and food supplies, and pow
erty and unequal opportunities, are some
of the conditions that demand attention
at the present time.
ION this, the natal day of Abraham
Lincoln we should dedicate our lives anew
to the principles for which he stood. He
lived in a period when men and women
struggled and made sacrifice for better,
broader and more human conditions He
spoke to them in the midst of their struG-
giles and made sacrifice with them, and
every word he uttered was from the hui
man side. He thought as a man of flesh
and blood and dealt with human values
He judged correctly the mass as he looked
through it and saw the individual unit
In the Democracy of his time, which was
only the promise of the New Democracy
now knocking at the gates, and demand
ing admittance."
Henry Allen of Kansas.
1.-TWO weeks ago in this hall d night
of fluent oratory was devoted to the
Republican party. I've read most OF
the speeches and in the eulogies upon
the party of Lincoln and Grant and
Logans and Blaine and Garfield and
L find much to stir my pride and en-
thuSiasm. The orator spoke not at
all of the party of Barnes and PEN
rose and Smoot and Root and they
were dumb concerning the glories of
the Chicago convention and the VIC
tories of the November election.
Unfortunately it is the Republican
party of today and not of yesterday
that we Progressives are invited to
come backward to.
"And we thought we distinguished in
the invitations which We're extended
that highland these leaders did ev-
erything that oratory could do to make
us feel comfortable-a disposition to
ignore the reasons why most of the
members have left the Republican par
ty. The Republican party had been
making brave fight along progress
sive lines for good government. The
need for correction OF notorious abuses
was being recognized. We knew that
predatory interests had been shielded
behind laws granting special privileges
Every predatory corporation, every pro-
tected eXtortioniSt, every crooked adj
ministrator of the law was attached to
some special interest protected by spec
ial privilege. Theodore Roosevelt had
served seven years as president: he
had awakened the national conscience.
he had begun the remedial legislation
His successor had been elected with
special obligation to carry on these
corrective policies. In six months he
had forgotten the VOWS. The nation
demanded that the Republican party
fulfill its pledges-and how did the
members of the Republican party re-
spond to the demand? MagnificentIyI
when the issue could be presented
at the first opportunity last snrinar
more than three-fourths of the great
Republican states III primaries bv ma =
joritieS agSregating over two million
votes commanded the party to take mn
the Progressive banner which Mr. Taft
he'd surrender at Winona and carry 1t
on to victory.
Illinois, the state of Lincoln snol.e
for the onward march by $50. 600 ma
jority Ohio, state of Garfield and Nc
Kinley, spoke by 100000 majority.
Pennsylvania by 10000 majority. An
across the great country the states
who have formed the buIWarlz of the
Republican party wheeled into line.
Maine and Oregon; California and New
Jersey, Maryland and Minnesota. Wis
consin and Kansas, Nebraska, the Da-
kotaS, Missouri, Oklahoma, even Mas
sachusetts, came forward with COM
mand that the Republican party should
carry forward the progressive work it
had entered upon. The history of how
this command WAS nuIlified by the ma
tional committee; which deliberately
scuttled the party rather than surren-
der control to the Progressives is
known. Now these leaders without fol-
lowers ask us to come back They
might as well urge the survivors to go
back to the Titanic. 1t is still a ship
and we know where it lies beneath its
uncounted fathonns of green and icy
waters. But nobody expects to go back
TO it,
What do these generous leaders
who met here on Kansas birthday and
asked US to come back and forget
everything in the past except the glory
of the party's history offer? What
guarantee do they propose to the four
million voters of the Progressive party
that the Republican party has changed
any in the spirit of its mana cement
since it lost most of its membership?
If an honestly elected majority of the
party's delegates at Chicago under
solemn obligation to those who sent
them there to fight under a Progress
siVe banner could not succeed what
2eW assurance have we that we could