New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-14
Come East, Young West!

a
memory Of the men and women who nave
come thereafter. GO West, young man!
has no longer a meaning, for the west
has arrived in its own right. Political
supremacy has passed to the states be-
yond the Mississippi. The last two ma
tional elections have demonstrated that
the right of veto, at least, belongs with the
states which were but territories when
Horace Greeley uttered his still unforgot-
ten phrase.
We in the East who supported Colonel
Roosevelt at Chicago in alliance with the
Western Progressives joined Colonel Roose-
Welt in supporting Mr.. Hughes be-
cause we believed, with the Colonel that
it was more important to defeat Mr.. Will
sons foreign policies than to defeat the
Republican reactionaries actually in
charge of the Republican party on domes-
tic issues. To the West it seemed other
wise. and the West has decided the ma
tional election.
The single question that now remains
to be considered is whether the division OF
the nation hereafter is TO be sectional or to
be a cleavage based on principle. The Re
publican party of the East is Enthusiastically
In the hands of reactionaries. 1t is idle to
suppose that any but the most practical
and sordid Of all arrangements can be
made between a New York Republican
party under the control Of men like Her
bert Parsons and the Western Republi-
can leaders. If the Western Republicans
who are Progressives in spirit before they
are Republicans are prepared to do bust
ness with Parsons and Penrose and Muir
ray Crane and Gallinger, then there IS no
hope for any evolution of the Republican
party.
But if the Western Republicans who de-
feated Mr.. Hughes because they judged
him a reactionary and considered domes-
tic questions Of more Importance than
foreign relations will look at the election
returns in many Eastern states they will
see that the spirit and conviction that trl-
umphed in the West left its mark in many
Eastern celebrates, and nowhere more
conspicuously than in Massachusetts,, New
Hampshire and Maine. Those who know
New England best would not hesitate to
say that it is as radical as Kansas and as
Progressive as California. Local handi-
caps may prevent as complete an express
sion Of the spirit, but the fact is patent!
The Republican party in the nation can
be made progressive, it can be made the
thing that it has been made in many West
ern states if the Western Republicans will
take the trouble to familarize themselves
with Eastern conditions and vigorously
and steadfastly refuse to have trade or
commerce with men Of the type of Herbert
Parsons, Murray Crane and Boies Pen
rose.
As long as these men and men of their
sort control the Eastern machine there will
be no real reorganization of the Republi-
can party, there will be no transformation
Of the party. If the West succeeds in
naming its candidate in the national con-
vention, the East will knife him; if the
East prevails, then we shall have a repe-
tition of 1912 or 1916.
As far as the Republican party Of the
East is concerned, it is bankrupt. It has
no ideas, no ideals, no principles. The
men who control it control it as a piece
of machinery. and they use it for purposes
which bear no relation to national we'll
being or national aspiration. In the East
the name progressive" is frequently used
by one faction of the machine 10 help il
defeat the other, as Herbert Parsons used
il against William Barnes this year; but
the label is only label and it is employed
solely for vote-catching purposes.
The pity of the situation lies in the
fact that there are thousands and thou
sands Of men all over the East, even in
New York State, who really sympathize
with the aims and the purposes of West
ern Progressives, but no opportunity is
ever afforded them to fight or serve, be-
cause never does the real issue come up
TO them. We have to go on voting year
after year for Parsons or a Barnes be-
cause we can find no way TO eliminate both.
AS a consequence our political organiza-
tons have fallen 10 the level of machines
and our political leaders TO the estate of
cooks and buffers.
II the Republican party is TO be saved,
the West must save it. II will die of its
own discredit, of its own weakness, of Its
own nothingness in the East if the East
ern conditions are not changed if the
West consents 10 the perpetuation of the
present conditions and remains satisfied