South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-04-23
REACTIoNARY PRoGREsavEs.

called Lincoln club. Wednesday night.
TO be allowed 20 imagine that all the
personal shafts thrust at them during
the past two years. and all the accu-
sations Of immortality and crooked
ness With which the republican ring
leaders had branded them, are 20 be
recalled and forgotten, if-
And In consequence il is interesting
10 note how easy il is for some men
TO be politically dock-walloped.
Taking republican expression for it,
you could not mention a man who
had gone with the progressive party
two years ago. or since. against whom
some brand OF crookedness could not
be charged; politically at least, If not
in their personal lives, and it seemed
then to have been thought that the
G. o. p. was well rid OF them.
Some Of them were accused of loot
ing campaign funds; others of using
public offices held by them IS a source
OF graft. Still others were said TO
have stolen other mems wives, while
a few were so bad that they almost
deed. the progressive party was a YER
liable pest hole. as the republican
stand patters defined it, 1t was good
rubbish 10 bad rubbish" and they
were glad to see them go"-but APP
parently it has become awfully lone
some without them. Now, in the
stress of campaign necessity, these
afF he haT yr~bf
snow, and the prodigals are wished
back. under pretense of resemblance
TO that grand old man of the scrip
lures.
Taking these republican leaders.
however. at their former word, which
TO our mind was nothing more nor less
than political Islander, we question the
resemb lance. If we should be mis-
taken In denominating the old tales
as SANDER. then we doubt the resem-
blance the more 1t appears to us in
such instance. as a case of like seek
ing by especial stress. 10 attract like;
that the old self-asserted sainthood- of
the stand-patters was hypocritical
then, and that the asserted white
hackers" is a hypocrisy now Pro-
gressives who left the republican party
two years ago for the reasons given
then. and can swallow the republican
claptrap now, never were prOgressives.
They were mere reactionaries in a
progressive misunderstanding against
something and not knowing what
now. They were bull moosers. with
the emphasis on the bull"
Soft-soap spreaders at the Lincoln
club organization meeting notwith-
standing. there is no more show for a
real progressive or for real progress
sive principles in the republican party
today than there was in 1912. The
republican party. as a national orCan-
ization, and after all that is the basis
OF party action, is proceeding not on
the theory that the masses of people
need help and that more progressive
legislation than the democrats have
been furnishing. is essential. but on
the theory that imposed industrial
stringeEcy has satisfied the voters that
the thing to do is TO turn the govern
ment over to representatives of big
business.
With the republican party in power
we are TO have another era Of Mark
Hanna promotion, where prosperity is
poured into a great hopper held by
special interests. but with no outlet
until that hopper is filled to over
flowing, and then the masses can have
the overflow. That is the kind of rule
for the people" that the republican
party Is working toward and the only
kind. 1t Is but natural that when the
democrats took TO boring holes in the
bottom OF the hopper. to let a little OF
the prosperity through. big business
should have grown surly and want 10
retrench. but in spite OF It's industrial
treason a reasonable measure has
stood its ground.
Capital cannot long lie idle and con-
tinue profitable. The cry OF the full
dinner pail" appeals TO the stomach.
not 10 the brain. Forward looking
men, whose hope is in the future OF
the country and OF mankind. do not
Brighten at the reacuonary resistance
10 progressive measures that build up
for the future Temporary inConven-
fence never induced "a strong man TO
give up fight that he believed TO be
right Progressives who can be APP
pealed 10 by a full dinner pail are
more glutton than patriots. and upon
that estimate the local republican
leaders. in characterizing seeding re-
publicans two years ago. as gaHopers
after some brand OF graft may not
have been so far amiss as we had at
first supposed.
Reactionary progressivism is. Of
course a misnomer, but II is the most
suggestive term available for the bull
mooser who starts of on a preten-
sively reform tangent in the midst OF
an excitement. pretending FOR a while