New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-06-26
Progressive and Free Soil.


purposes to support Charles +. Hughes
thereby becoming Republican again, and
by example and possibly by exhortation to
point the way of duty for all Progress
sives.
As to Colonel Roosevelt's personal de-
cision. it is enough TO say that such
course as has been forecast is about The
only course he could follow and escape
from an impossible position. Il is the i'm
perative necessity of leader that he lead.
AS the leader of the Progressive party
Colonel Roosevelt must lead his followers
somewhere. He will not undertake again,
for obvious reasons, to lead them into bat
tie; there remains no other place TO lead
them toward save the Colonel's old home,
which is the home Of most but not all Of
his followers.
But when he has covered this distance
i is hardly too much to prophesy that The
Colonel will have laid down not for a cam
raign or a season, but for all time, the
role and the powers Of an active leader in
American politics. Unless all signs fail
lie has fought his last fight as q candidate
for Office or as the active head Of fac
tion or party.
If Mr.. Fu-hes is,elected, no one knows
better than Colonel Roosevelt that ne will
find Oyster Bay pleasanter than Wash
ngton, and that his advice will not be
asked or his influence invited Mr.. Hughes
is not the man to ask, either. His record
in Albany, whittier he went as a result of
Colonel Roosevelt's personal interference.
in New York State politics, IS the best
proof Of this
If Mr.. Hughes is elected he will be re-
nominated and probably reelected as he
was reelected Governor. This means that
for eight years there will be no real op-
portunity for the Colonel to exert personal
influence or regain any power within the
Republican party. And eight years is
fatally long period for any politician TO re-
main in retirement.
If Nj. Wilson is reelected the Coloneps
position will hardly be better. The Pro
cressive Republicans may seek to gain
control Of the pary-there may be an
other split and one more fractional fight.
But it is altogether unlikely that either
faction will turn TO Colonel Roosevelt after
the experience Of 1912 and 1916. Rather
it is wellnigh certain that new men and
new ideas will come forward.
We have had wholly similar episode in
our political history. Martin Van Buren,,
denied a nomination because of the action
Of the slaveholding element in the conven-
ton of 1874, took his revenge in 184S
when he headed the Free Soil ticket and
made Taylor President.
But in 1852 Van Buren, went home,
taking with him his brilliant son prince
John" and most Of the Democrats who
followed him outside in 1913. The Free
Soil movement collapsed and the Demo
c.ats were victorious, electing Pierce in
1852 and Buchanan in 1856. This may
reasonably be accepted as a favorable
omen by the Republicans in the present sit
ration.
We. the Free Soil movement did not col
lapse save as it was expressed in Free
Soil party. Out Of it came some of the
greatest among the founders Of the Repub-
lican party. II was the Wing party which
ultimately persisted killed, as men said at
the time by the effort to swallow the
Fugitive Slave Law.
It is not possible now to say that there
is in the Progressive party a vitality such
as existed in the Free Soil party. Ger
tainly it is not possible TO see in all their
Orfvrir1re ,f L. 20
the main principle of the Free Sellers,
the resistance TO slaveholding domination
Of both political parties.
Yet no man or woman who was at Chi
eago can fail to have recognized that there
was very real difference between the
\ delegates who sat in the Progressive con-
d vention and those who sat in the Republi-
y cal convention They were not merely
factions of-rhe same party, they were di-
vided by something more than Colonel
Rooseyelt's personality. There were DIFF
ferences. imponderab'e perhaps. but real
nevertheless, and it is not by any means
certain that these differences can be com
posed permanently within Republican lines
With much that the Progressive party
ant TO Progressives Colonel Roosevelt
fal as little TO do as Martin Van Buren,
l~d % do with the extreme doctrines Of the
cal fringe Of the Free soil party.
Llter all, Colonel Roosevelt was a Repub-
hcan with a grievance, with great natural
ability as a leader and with a capacity
for enlisting men never equailed in our
political history.
For the P.ogressiyes he became. in a
sense, a symbol. And a symbol NJ. Glenn