South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1916-08-01
ProgreSSiUe Party
Not a Suicide;
Was Assdssinated
(By SaNoyard.l

call that the aggregate popular vote
cast for Abraham Lincoln in his two
races for president-1S6O and 1854
amounted Il but 4.0S0,017, and
when We further reflect that Theo-
dore Roosevelt in 1912 got more
votes by 1,O96,70 than Gen. Grant
received in 1868, and more by 522,-I
ass than were cast for Grant in
1S72-when we remember these sta
tistics we must admit that il was a
sure-enOugh party. Indeed. Roose-
welt, the head OF brand new party,
got more votes for president in 1917
than were cast for II. b. Hayes In
1876.
So it was a party all right You
are bound 10 cOncede that Then
why should it die? 1t was a bigger
party than the republican party. and
filter to survive both in numerical
strength and in political character.
What was the foundation stone
and the cope-stone of the bull moose
party why, that its masses should
command and its leaders take orders.
IL declared for the initiative and the
referendum. and Il carried its de-
mands for social justice" so far as
TO order an appeal from judicial de-
cisions to popular election. 1t was a
revolt from the rule of the bosses,
who, for a score OF years, had sub
jected the party of Lincoln TO their
will and TO their within. II was an
indictment of invisible government
such as had controlled every repub-
lican national convention for a dou-
BILE decade.
From whose culver came the felon
shafts that did 10 death this party or
reform, so young, so vigorous, so en-
thusiastic, so patriotic. and of such
glorious promise? From the leaders
who assume 10 be its bosses. The
party did not commit suicide. It
was assassinated. 1t was not licked
in battle; it's leaders abjectly sur
rendered it ere the fire of a shot.
These leaders condemned it 10 death
and refused a referendum of the
sentence TO the great body who COM
posed its electorate. They felled il,
bound it, gagged it, and carried it
captive and laid it at the feet of the
party whose iniquities il had repu-
dated and revolted from only so
short a while before.
Shall the treason triumph? 1t is
for the honest and the sincere bull
moosers TO say. The responsibility
is theirs. If they are serfs they will
submit 70 be driven by their bosses
off their shackles and throttle their
would-be masters IL is a matter of
personal pride and patriotic duty
Were they in earnest? Did they be-
lieve anything? Were they only in
fatuated with novelty? Were they
just out on a frolic? The returns
from the communities that cast such
heavy votes for Roosevelt in 1912
will disclose.
What has the republican party
done since 1912 to clease IL of it's
In what respect are Penrose, Crane
Smoot and GalIinger reformed?
They have as firm grip on the party
in 1916 as they had in 1912. Elihu
Root, who presided over the republi-
can convention that robbed" Roose-
welt four years ago, is still the arti-
ficer and the custodian of the prin-
ciples of the z. o. p. and it is inces-
sanity proclaimed that he is TO be
premier of the cabinet if Hughes
shall be elected. If they win, James
r. Mann. standpatter. will be speak
er; Joseph w. Fordney will be chair
man of ways and means; Boies Pen
rose will be chairman of the senate
finance committee the place so long
held by Nelson w. Aldrich. and Ca
bot Lodge, standpatter. will head
foreign relations. now become so inn
portant, decreeing as IL may be
whether we shall have peace or war.
That is the feast of crow which
George W. Perkins, the plutocrat.
has purveyed for the reform party
of which he was chief of staff The
New York World is a very sagacious
newspaper. its editorials perhaps the
most powerful and convincing in the
immediate field of American journal
ism. The World opines that the
bull moose party ceased TO exist
when Mr. Perkins closed his check
book. There may be something in
that: but 1 think il a better opinion
that the bull moose party died when
Mr.. Perkins concluded that its death
was preferable 10 another defeat of
the republican party. Perhaps he
did not love the bull moose party
less: certainly ne loved the republi-
can party more There never was A
day. an hour. "A moment, when
George w Perkins's ideal of state
craft was anything in the world but
Aldrichism. When this new party
OF reform was created il was to the
vital interest OF Wall street to have
a representative in Il You see the
thing might have won and il behoov-
ed Wall street 10 be on the ground
That is how il came that George W
Perkins became a magnate of the
bull moose party IL is written:
Now there was day when
the sons Of God came TO present
themselves before the Lord. and
satan came also with them"
Roosevelts was the dagger OF the
beloved Brutus: Perkins stuck as did
the envious Casca when the bull
moose party fell at the feet OF Pom
pegs pillar.
Shall the treason triumph? Not