Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1915-08-26
DOUBLE C~ROSSING.n

NoSnIIH hoo
What constitutes double crossing, politically speaking?
four distinguished brethren of the Deadwood Telegram, the
Pierre Dakotan and the Aberdeen News appear to be engaged
In deciphering the conundrum.
The Saturday News doesn't wish to 'butt in' merely to
%straighten out the kinks in the logic of ADLER representatives Of
Journalism, but it feels justified in embracing the opportunity
to say that there is but one thing-only one-that a sovereign
elector of this great commonwealth can absolutely lay claim
to and call his own-hs very own-and that is his right to
cast his ballot in accordance with the dictates of his conscience,
if he happens to have one lying round loose.
The Deadwood paper AYERS that a certain brand Of repub-
hcans III 1872 very nearly encompassed the defeat Of the re-
publican nominee for governor. 'And therein continues
our Deadwood friend, lies sufficient justification for the re-
Efusal of the progressive republicans to support Burke for sen
ator last year,
Somehow, judged from audible acclamations, the Satur-.
day News had incurred the belief that the progressive repub-
(lican managers professed the utmost loyalty to Mr.. Burke's
candidacy. If this is not the case the Saturday News has been!
woefully deceived.
But perhaps that is neither here nor there. It need not be
said that the republican state ticket in South Dakota in 1912
occupied a peculiar position. While protesting to be repubEi-
can, and assuming to stand for republican principles, the re-
publican nominees in South Dakota were seeking to encom-
pass the defeat of the republican nominee for the presidency
AS a matter of party discipline, as a matter of party right,
as a matter Of party fellowship, We fail to perceive wherein
any loyal republican elector was under the least obligations to
support a nominee for governor, or any other office, for that
matter, who was doing his best to defeat the republican nominee
for president.
If any obligation of the sort attaches to any party elector,
the Saturday News contesse that its education along party
loyalty and party discipline has been sadly neglected.
It's an old story, we know-but we are on the eve of an
other campaign, and it behooves us to get ourselves untangled
II we have become enmeshed in crossed wires. The Saturday
News, without commenting upon the merits or dement's Of any
nominee III 1917, cannot understand how any man calling him
self a republican could feel obliged to support another man
calling himself a republican nominee who was exerting himself
to prevent the election of the party's nominee for the highest
office in the land.
We shall be glad to sit at the feet of Brother Sem if by so
doing We shall stand even the semblance of a chance to clarity
our mind on this score. But it occurs to dS-the present
editor of the Saturday News was not in South Dakota in 1912,
and perhaps he views the situation from the standpoint Of an
outsider, and to that extent his reasoning may be defective
that the managers and directors Of the republican party in
South Dakota in 1912 were guilty of political thievery second
only to the thlevery which the keenest critic could possibly
have charged against the managers of the national convention
at Chicago. IS
And we infer from the discussion in the press that it is
going to be rather difficult to determine exactly what consti-
,utes republican loyalty in South Dakota.
And, if the observations Of the Telegram concerning
progressive" repubicanism be well founded, it might be
well for the republican party to forget to make. nominations
for the forthcoming campaign!