The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1916-10-19
PROGRFSSIVES ARE
IN THE MAJORITY
President Wilson Says Re-
aCtiOniStS Are Few
PLEA MADE FOR THE UNION OF
FORCES OF ADVANCEMENT.
Delegation Headed by Amos PinchOt
and Rabbi Stephen Wise at Shadow
Lawn.

LONG BRANCH, N. president
Wilson today told a delegation of indie
pendents, comprising the Wilson vol
unteers, that the Democratic party is
the only fundamentally now at hand
for the enactment of genuine, hui
name, just and progressive legisIa-
ton"
The members of the delegation came
here to tell the president they planned
to campaign for him from the Bat
terry to Buffalo" in New York state be-
cause they felt he had given the ma
ton "a square deal.'
Led by Amos Pinchot and Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise of New York, the
delegation remained with the presi-
dent longer than an hour. He talked
with the delegation in the reception
room of his summer residence, Sha-
dow Lawn.
The president declared the time has
come for America to unite her pro-
gressive forces" He said the leaders
of the opposition want only three
things-"the scalp of the present
comptroller of the currency" John
Shelton Williams; to get control of
the banking system of the country,
and to put the army and navy of the
United States back of their financial
enterprises in Mexico and throughout
the world.
THE problem that America has had
to face for some time" said the pres
ident, "has been to unite and organize
her progressive forces. They have
been present in the nation for a long
time. They have been running like
undercurrents. They have been as
sorting themselves here, there and
elsewhere in sometimes unexpected
quarters, but not until four years ago
did they disclose their numerical
forces"
Dissecting the presidential vote of
1912, which he called Striking" the
president said that of the more than
100000 votes cast, 100000 were
cast for the Progressive candidates
and programmes of the campaign rep
resented by the Progressive and Dem
ocratic parties. OF the remaining s.
100000 votes, only 100000 were cast
for the Republican candidate, "a most
extraordinary manifestation of the de-
sire of the people of the United States
to move forward along new and con-
structive lines in respect to their pub
lie policy"
He said that for a long time the
progressive element had been the
dominating one in the Democratic par
ty, and the election four years ago
showed the strength of that element in
the Republican ranks, as given by the
Progressive party vote.
Nov, since then" continued Presi-
dent Wilson, this group in the Demo-
cratic party has had an opportunity to
show the country whether it meant
what it said or not, and it has shown
that it did mean what it said, that it
was a genuine progressive force, ready
to do the things that it had promised
to do.
"The men who oppose us can sum
their desires in three propositions. To
put it as they would put it, they want
the scalp of the present comptroller Of
the currency can only conjecture
because for the first time in many
years he has been obliged to obey the
banking laws; knowing him to be hon
cradle, knowing him to be efficient,
can conjecture no other reason.
In the second place, they desire to
get control of the new banking sys-
tenn, and in the third place, they wish
to put the army and navy of the Unit
ed States back of their financial en-
terprises in Mexico and throughout the
world. In private, this is what they
avow. 1t ought to be avowed in pub
lie, and it summarizes as compactly
and neatly as need be summarized the
general purposes of the leaders of tho
three and half million.
Il want to say in passing, with re-
o. II n mil 4 /, .
of my fellow countrymen, that l be-
lieve them to have been misled by an
cient prepossessions, by old pre1u-
dices, by inveterate habits of voting
from which they have been unable to
break away. But the purpose of their
leaders is patent to everyone WING has
studied the annals of recent legisla-
ton of this country
Here, then, we strike the essense of
the campaign. An instrumentality of
enlightened legislation, genuinely
democratic in spirit, is, if their sug-
gestions are accepted, to be replaced
by men who have no public objects
except the objects of spoilation. Can
anyone wonder what thoughtful men
in such circumstances are beginning
to see, that we are facing the most
critical political choice that has been
made in our generation, because we
are now to chose, for the time being,
at any rate, the very character and
foundation of our government? We
are to choose its spirit, its object. its
motive, and we are to choose between
the interest of the great mass and
body of people and the interest of GER
tain privately controlled and secretly
concerning interests "