The Odanah star. [volume] (Odanah, Ashland Co., Wis.) 1912-1916, 1916-06-16
PARTY OF MONOPOLY.
Republican Leaders" Cannot
Change II.
Organization Always sias Been Wiz
"Big Business" and :sae interests
of the People Have Received
Small Consideration.

Our neighbor the Tribune, which has
! spasms Of honest radicalism now and
then, has delivered an ultimatum 10
| the Republican leaders, parts of which
we take pleasure In reprinting, says
the New York World:
do those WHOM certain fondness
for the obsolete phrase still moves us
| to call the leaders of the Republican
party desire to reflect Woodrow Will
son?
| "The thing can be done. In fact, IL
can be done with ease and with merely
| incidental campaign activities if only
Penrose, Barnes, Gallinger and a GER
tain number of equally eminent gen
tlemen turn their entire effort to the
| task.
"The Democratic party cannot save
Mr. Wilson, but the Republican party
can save him as easily as it assumed
the responsibility for electing him four
years ago."
The trouble with the Tribune is that
1t does not understand the Republican
party. The Penroses, the harnesses,
the Gallingers and the rest Of the old
| guard are not accid 1tal leaders
clothed with a little Nief authority
They are the Republican party. They
| represent the things that the Repub.
lican party represents. They embody
it's principles, and if they were to re-
tire, other, Republicans who embody
the same principles would succeed
them.
These men are the links that con-
meet the Republican party with the
great financial interests, with the great
corporations, with the tariff monop-
olists and with all the elements OF
special privilege without which the
Republican party could not survive.
The Republican party is essentially
a property party, and when these men
put property first they are promoting
the true Republican doctrine.
It makes little difference who the
Republican candidate for president is,
his political environment makes him
the candidate of property. Whether
Hughes or Root or Roosevelt or Bur
ton or Harding or Fairbanks or Nc
Call is named at Chicago, he will be
named by the cohesive power Of ~prop
erty, and if elected he will give the
country property administration. He
could not do otherwise If he would. A
Republican congress is bound to be
property congress-, a Republican adj
ministration is bound to be property
administration.
No other president ever ranted so
much against property rights as
Roosevelt, and no president was ever
more docile whan he was confronted
with crisis that involved property
rights. Yet Roosevelt merely followed
the genius of his party, and when he
gave assurances to Wall street that
''the administration will not run
| amuck," he was only announcing that
the Republican party controlled the
government.
The Tribune cannot expect the Re-
publican party to BE anything but the
Republican party. When political
party has champIoned property year
in and year out, it cannot change it's
habits If it would. Nor is there any
real desire Ia the Republican party for
change. Every Republican leader
knows that the one chance of Republi-
can success next fall lies in a massed
attack Of the great property interests
on the Wilson administration. With
out the support of Wall street, Of the
stock exchange, of the banks, of the
railroads, Of the predatory tariff cor
pOrations, of big business, Of steel, oil
and the like, it would not be worth
while to hold Republican national
convention and nominate candidate.
The Tribune must take the Republi-
can party as it is. When it assails the
character of the leadership of the par
ty, it is assailing everything that
makes Republicanism Republican.