The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1916-09-21
PROMINENT N. Y. LAWYER
QUITS THE MOOSE PARTY

Hugo Wintner, an attorney with Of
fees in the Woolworth building, New
York, who became Progressive at the
birth OF that party, has written let
ter to President Wilson assuring the
president of his intention to "labor un-
qualifiedly and uncompromisingly for
your reelection.
Mr. Wintner was nominee on the
Progressive ticket for justice of the
supremen court of New York state at
the 1912 election. He participated &C.
lively in the National Progressive con-
vention at Chicago in June last.
1.-The statements exploited in the Re-
publican press, of individuals up to now
high in Progressive leadership that they
have now all enrolled under the
Hughes banner said Mr.. Wintner in
his letter to the president, care the
statements for the most part of the
very men who from the first furthered,
or at least did nothing to hinder, the
covert movement (and which the thous-
ands of my fellows now believe was
initiated months before the conven-
tion), to betray the Progressive party.
for the gain of the Republican party.
But the truth is that not even the
plausible phrases of Mr.. Roosevelt nor
the action of the National committee
dominated by him, have succeeded in
effecting the transfer to Mr.. Hughes
of the allegiance of the mass of the
Progressive party.
AN Ecstasy Suddenly Born
= MIR. Roosevelt s pretended show of
horror at the thought of another four
years under you, and his recent glori-
fication of Mr.. Hughes Gan ecstasy all
too suddenly born to ring true), we
now know are in reality, the one and
ignoble personal hatred and the other
an insincere justification for his own
constituencies and premediated aban
dOnment of his followers.
Neither his clamors nor the reso-
lutions Of any committee have driven
the thousands of us thoughtful Pro-
gressives to the side of Mr.. Hughes
We had for years foolishly worshipped
at the shine Of a personality; when
that personality without word of
warning before, or word of comrade-
ship thereafter, so cynically and readi-
ly deserted us whom he had sworn to
cleave to, the spell was for all times
broken. We are now even grateful for
lit. Selfrespect, if nothing else, for
but even to find sanctuary with him in
the same party
Whether the failure of our party
to nominate it's own candidate was due
to chicanery or to our own stupidity,
matters not now. The fact remains
that the logic of events has not per-
mitted us to nominate a candidate Of
our own. Since then, earnest reflect
ion and solemn heart seeking have driv-
en- most OF us to the conviction that
the character, the traditions and the
associations OF Mr.. Hughes and of his
party offer little for the triumph of
the Progressive ideals which we still
crave.
See the Light at Last
eve have seen the light at last, and
it leads not where Mr.. Roosevelt would
lead us now. I and those for whom 1
speak feel sincerely that in you they
find worthy leader and exponent of
those fundamental humanitarian and
social ideas which made up the stuff
of Progressivism and which we fool
ishly compromised in so large meas
ure by our misplaced devotion.
"We believe that your patriotism is
a vital thing: that your zeal for ideals
in government, your love for mankind
your social vision, your intellectual
powers, your capacity for growth, your