Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-01


Republican, because the Progressive
Party - now empty name. He
must abiure the right 20 bolt, for
forced nomination would spell Repub-
| ID ooSEvBLT faces the supreme test Of
IVA splendid career. 1t Is not test
Of strength, but test of honor. It is not
a test of his grasp Of the international
situation, but OF his grasp of the national
situation, It is a test Of his loyalty to
the Republican party and to Republican
principles.
His power TO name the candidate lies
according to the candid admission of
many of his followers, in his power TO
bolt. There was an unsel1sh excuse for
his bolt of June, 1912, because a well.
defined party had formed about the In
surgent leaders-well-delne from the
Republican party long before Roosevelt
came back from Africa. Roosevelt sim.
ply took the Irrsurgent party and rechris-
tened II the Progressive party. This In.
surgent (or Progressive) party was doomed
to extinction, because the Republican
party learned its lesson and made its fu-
ture the more secure by adopting and as
sImllating those features of the movement
which were good. This is tactly admitted
by Mr.. Roosevelt in his failure to reassert
with emphasis either the good or bad
features of his 1912 platform He has
swept clear the decks for something new.
II he thought such faulty idealsms as the
recall of judicial decisions were popular
mandates, he may have been justified in
responding to them. But there is no party
now which demands such things, and
there is no longer any significant vestige
of the La Toilette insurgency. The Re
publican party is reunited on the two
great issues of the tariff and prepared
ness, and the rank and file who bolted in
1912 are now so sobered by a realization
of the Importance OF these issues as to
make bolting seem to them a treachery
that would be either unpatriotic or utter
madness.
Then what of this cry that Roosevelt
may bolt? What is there to. bolt from?
What is there to bolt to? You cannot
bolt from a Republican party that ac-
cepts your views to Progressive party
that exists only in name, What is this
issue between Mr.. Roosevelt on the one
Mr.. Weeks, Mr.. Root on the other? Is it
the tariff preparedness, Americanism? Is
Justice Hughes not n good American?
Is Mr.. Burton against protective tariff?
Is Mr.. Root against preparedness? They
are sound on all these issues. Mr.. Roose-
velt's one point of differentiation is his
powerful personality. He thinks the
country is calling for great leader and
he has the fine courage to say he believes
he is that leader.
Roosevelt as such n leader-slmply in
Americanism-is a magnificent exponent
of virile Americanism. But he is not the
American-he is not American
ism personified. He cannot even be said
to be the typical American. There is the
slow but sure, close-mouthed New Eng
is a fine American, too. There
is the Southerner and his type Of chival-
rous idealism, different from Roosevelt,
but a great American, too. There are the |
men of Scandinavian extraction in the
North Central States, the men Of German
in the Middle West-they are
all very different from Roosevelt, but good
Americans all the same. Roosevelt is a |
good American. Hughes is good Amer
lean. The nation will have great and, |
in a broad sense. a typically American |
President If either of them becomes Pres |
ident.
1t is, therefore, on solid American |
up to Roosevelt, to let repre- |
convention make its own choice |
Of what it considers the best TYPICAL |
American without allowing his more fer
vent followers to hold over that conven- |
tion the fake" club of a possible bolt
of a possible third-party movement. For |
it is fake" club. If Roosevelt is nom-
mated by a convention that really wants |
him he may win. If he is accepted by a |
daunted by fake" threat, |
he will go down to defeat in the ruins |
Of party. For the American people will |
not stand for such fakes"
Roosevelt must be willing to support |
the candidate of the convention, because
he is before the country as a Republican,
and not as Progressive. He is against |
the hyphen. Let him, then, make it clear
TO the country that he himself is not |
tainted with the hyphen spirit = the |
hyphen spirit Of Progressiye-Republi- |
canism or blican.Progressivism. The |
party is the progressive |
party. A triangular tight is obnoxious TO
our American character - we love a |
straight, fair fight between two clean.
clear ideas.
Mr.. Roosevelt's name cannot come be-
fore the convention as that Of the leader
OF sane and responsible group Of Re
publicans unless he gives definite assur-
anee that he win give unqualified support
to that Republican, whoever he may be-
whom the delegates. acting as the free
and direct instruments of the desires OF
Republican voters. shall nominate.