Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-08-02
TO HOLD CONVENTION ANY WAY

MOUNT PLEASANT. Ia, Aug. l.
Ex-Congressman Victor Murdoch Of
Kansas, chairman of the progressive
national committee, gave out the
following statement today:
81 have Just completed a three
months personal canvass Of the sit
uation with progressives in the CEN
trail west and on the Pacific coast,
and after making It. am ready to
say flat-footedly that we progressives
are going into the 1916 fight as a
party, and to win.
Moreover. a meeting Of represent
ative progressives, held this month
in New York City, reported the same
conditions In the eest that l have
found in the west, and they are lin
ing up for the next battle This is
also the sentiment of the progressive
national committee. We will hold
our national convention early and
nominate a candidate.
| ne kINal haNNlN Ol WV Will npN w
over candidates, but will be over plat
forms The storm win rage. not in the
committee on credentials, but in the COM
mittee on resolutions. Tho board OF
republican leadership viii not only in
sist on standpat candidate, but will
fight for an unstinted and uneluivocal
Endorsement Of the administration of
William Howard Taft. including the
Payne-Aldrlch tariff bill.
Tho democratic leadership, likewise.
will point with pride to the equally la
Imentable Simmons Underwood tariff bill
and against "a Bryan insurrectiop OF the
first magnitude will cancel the one-term
presidential pledge and other Bryan
propaganda; and the progressives will
reiterate and re-omphasize their Chicago
platform Of 1919. That platform remains
the most nearly perfect utterance OF the
principles OF Abraham Lincoln of modern
times.
Both In its protest against the inroads
OF the privileged fnttcning on an arrant
gross materlalism, and In its practical
iprogrnm of concrete econ1mi remedies
tho progressive platform has hccome tc
hundreds of thousands Of aggressive
Americans tho ark of tho covenant. and
there Is not township anywhere without
Its group OF Gittites devoted wholly and
solely TO it's preservation.
The progrcssives have tho right plaI
for the tariff and other economic issues
including the trust problem. The demo
cratic leadership. after two aud hal
years triol, has signally failed in soly
Ing the nations economic questions. It
4 IA rtf Ia Al
old log-rolllng leadership. is utterly un
productive OF any OF the results previ
ously claimed for IT, Its trust Legislation
founders, It's attempt at DEVELOPMENT o
locean-going craft has fizzled. That TIL
II tho Judgment Of the voter is nmpl
levidenced by tho tremendous anti-dcm
ocratic sentiment that has developed a
the polls at virtually every election Il
the last two years. At many of thes
elections the voter cast q republican
ballot because he believed that the re
publican leadership had learned its les
son and would hereafter take the pro
gressive path
, But now the voters know for Ger
tainty that when the republican loader
ship has been restored TO power II ha
shown moro. not less reactiouPry ten
= denotes. as notably evidenced by the &C
tons of tho legislators in New Yori
Ohio and Massachusetts,. Hand. .in-han
with the progressive proposition TO en-
compass social and Industrial justic,
goes the necessity Of solving the grea
economic problem OF the country. not n
the basis Of political advantage. O
which practice both the old parties al
UNANIMOUSLY guilty. but on the basis O
service 10 society
Everywhere I found these progressiv We
who made the fight OF 1912 with the ide
uppermost, eager now 10 continue tn
, fight, Whenever they have had chanc
!, to make good they have done so.
THE spectacle of republican reactlo
I IN New York and Ohio. In contrast I
Z progressive achievement In Californl
, under Governor Johnson Is dramati
portrayal OF the need OF the new stronl
patriotic party OF public service There
p fore the progressive party win go on wit
, its fight straight out and flat-footed."