The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-06-05
WILL THE REPUBLICANS AND
PRoGREssIvEs UNITE?


j The statement made by Vice-Presi-
dent Marshall in Atlanta on Tuesday
that in his opinion Col. Roosevelt
would be candidate for President in
1916. but that he didn't believe that
the Republicans and Progressiyes
would unite, gives additional impetus
to the speculation as to whether or
not the efforts that are being made to
unite these two parties with Col
Roosevelt as their candidate for Pres
ident will be successful.
| There is no doubt that the friends
! of Col Roosevelt believe that a way
will be found to bring the Repu5li-
cans and Progressives together in
1916 and that Col. Roosevelt will be
their presidential candidate. They
have unlimited confidence in Col.
Roosevelt's ability to find the way
and Col. Roosevelt has unbounded
! confidence in himself. And while the
Republican leaders are holding on
from Col. Roosevelt now it wouldn't
be at all remarkable if their desire to
win the campaign in 1916 would in
duce them to yield. Just before Col.
Roosevelt returned from South Amer
lea he was quoted in an interview as
saying that if he were candidate OF
the two parties the Republicans
would have to accept the principles
of the Progressive platform of 1912,
but he would be very glad to accept
the nomination of the two parties on
a platform that would be a very great
modification of the Progressive plat
form.
Nobody thinks that as the candi-
date of the Progressive party he
would stand the least chance of be-
ing elected. He would simply make
certain the success of She Democrat
ic ticket. AS the head of a ticket sup
ported by the Republicans and the
Progressives he would stand pretty
good chance of being elected. There
is every reason, therefore, why he
should be willing to greatly modify
the Progressive platform in order to
get the support of the Republicans.
And with the prospect of getting con-
troll of the government again, of beat
ing the Democrats, the Republicans
would accept some of the Progress
i've doctrines least Objectionable to-
them.
Vice-President Marshall says that
he sees no likelihood of the fusion of
the Republicans and Progressives.
Neither do many other shrewd politi-
cal observers at this time, but a year
or so may work wonders in the atti-
tude of the Republicans and Progress
sives towards each other, particular
ly when fusion promises success
while without fusion both would face
inevitable defeat.
The fact that when Col. Roosevelt
visited Washington on Tuesday no
Republican of prominence was seen
in his vicinity means nothing. All of
them held aloof from him, but that
doesn't mean by any means that there
is no probability of the fusion of the
two parties. There will be no signs
of fusion until the leaders of the two
parties have opened the way for it.
Many of them are trying to open the
way and if they try hard enough the
chances are that they will succeed.
To accept Col. Roosevelt as their
presidential candidate in 1916 would
of course be bitter pill for the Re-
publicans to swallow, but they would
be willing to swallow a bitter dose if
by doing so they could wrest the con-
troll of the government from the
NOTWITHSTANDING News.