Arizona republican., 1914-04-09
THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY
 AND THE SOUTHERN VOTE
By George B. Wilcox

Col. John M. Parker of New Orleans | an eX-confederate soldier, and who. i up to 1912, had been a democrat. ! speaking at the Lincoln day dinner of the progressive party, on February F. ! last said, among other things: Our people felt no personal enmity to the brave men who were fighting for their honest convictions, waging an open. I manly battle against men equally sin cere Tn their different opinion, but all over the south they did have an ab- horrence for the camp follower and carpet bagger who utilized our misery and misfortune as stepping stone, and with the assistance of the utterly ignorant and illiterate negro made the republican party in the south the most corrupt political machine ever organized-a machine that has been steadily and constantly used ever since by the political leaders of that party to serve the interests of the bosses and against the interests of the people,
 It seems to me that Col. Parker, in
 
 plain, indeed, why it has been almost impossible for d true southerner to affiliate with the republican party.
 Many of the voters of the south be- lieve in reasonable protection for the working man, farmer and manufac- turer: many of them have endorsed, in their own minds the administra- I I.l;. dents, but as to voting the republican ticket, the true southerner could not think of it. Many of these men real ized that a party which was almost wholly confined within one section Of our broad land was not calculated to furnish the proper vehicle for the expression of nation wide policies and principles. With the north voting al
 most solidly republican, and the south democratic, sectional prejudices have been stimulated and kept up, to the Getriment of the nation as whole.
 With the birth of the progressive party in 1912, and the adoption of d declaration of principles that were as well adapted to the south as the north, the east as the west 1000, 900 democrats. mostly from the south, inn mediately joined the new party; these men were the very flower of the democratic party, men of principle who desired to vote for their princi- pies and could not, for the reason that l both the old parties had been taken | over by men who considered principle in politics out of date and most in convenient.
 Mir Parker well says: The pro gressive party offers the first and only platform where the men from the north, south east and west can stand arm in arm, and shoulder to shoulder, and where patriotic demo- crats and patriotic republicans and patriotic progressives can unitedly fight for those principles which will . make this nation bigger, broader, and better to live in. Let us forever bury | all local and sectional lines. and work side by side, to the limit of our phy- sical ability, to solve for the best in | terests of the entire nation, those questions which mean so much to our
 future welfare and prosperity.
 . My democratic friends in Arizona, ., appeal to you to think this matter
 over seriously. If you believe tht
 democratic administration in Arizona :, is ideal and canot be improved upon | have nothing to say that you would Y like to hear. If you think the na Q tional organization. made up as it is < of men or high ideals on one side anC f the scum of the earth on the other d the same conditions and elements th' r republican party has had to contend n with for some years past; if you thinf
 such conditions within the ranks O.