Arizona sentinel Yuma southwest., 1916-02-24
PARTY LEADERS
 BETRAYED TIE RANK AND FILE

shine and Gold"
 Things were going so smoothly for the Wisconsin senator that 1t appear ed he would get the nomination with out serious opposition, when all of sudden it was given out in Califor- mia that LaFollette was unbalanced; that over-work had unfitted him for leadership; in other words, that he had completely broken down, mental ly, and could ont be trusted to carry the banner of Progressivism.
 Johnson jumped into the game him. self, trhew his forces to "Teddy-the- Terror" and the latter joined hands with Johnson, which smashed the La Toilette ambitions as flat as a pan cake.
 Four years have passed.
 Johnson has been in power ever since, but with each stroke of the pen he has lost ground. He and Roose- welt were defeated for the presidency and vice-presidency on the Progress sive platform.
 LaFollette, in the meantime, has been quietly awaiting opportunity to "get even" with the awful treachery played him by Johnson. Now is his chance, and, taking full advantage of the opportunity, he has openly declar- ed his candidacy for the presidential nomination at the hands of the Re publican party, showing that he has entirely abandoned the erstwhile Pro gressives. By so doing, he intends to carry all his followers back into the G. o. P, from which he and Johnson sprung, thus leaving the latter to fight his own battles among minori- ty so small that they wont be worth counting
 This is only another illustration that politics makes strange bed-fel- lows" Four years ago there was nothing in the category of crime to severe for the Progressives to lay at the door of the Republicans. But it's different now. Four years of hunger is mighty long time.
 As in the days of old, so 1t is now with the average Republican,: Any ! thing, O Lord, just so we get the pie. v 1 The leaders of the great Progressive | party have long since learned that the pie-wagon will not come their way, so they have concluded to go 1 the shortest route to the pie-wagon. Principle be d." is now the motto of some leaders. All of sudden they have hardened back to the days of the immortal Webster Flanagan, of Texas, who gave utterance to the expression:
 What are here for, if not for the offices?"
 And so it is with Senator LaFollette and others. They wanted the offices that and nothing more. In their wild scramble for the spells they hood winked millions of good, loyal, pa triotic men all over the country, men who were fighting for principle.
 But now, that they see the shortest way to the offices, to the pie-wagon, is by the G. o. P. path, they throw Principle to the four winds of Heaven and are all clamoring to get aboard ! the Republican band wagon, which is supposed to contain all the Federal pie cooked and baked under the au- spices of the easy-going, good-natured Uncle Sam.
 ! The question naturally arises: Will the rank and file of the once rampant Progressive Party be blindly led back into the Republican camp?
 Or, will the vast majority of them | uphold the progressive laws enacted under the Wilson administration, and advocated by Democracy? ! Time alone can tell.
 It is certainty, however, that the thousands upon thousands of honest Progressives will refuse to be led to the slaughter by these hungry office ! seekers. They are just as sincerely 1 in favor of Progressive principles to- day as they were four years ago, and for that reason they will support MT. Woodrow Wilson in preference to be- ing led back into the folds of the old "stand-pat" Republican ranks.