The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-06-12
CRY OF The HEART
That Was What Ida TarbelI
Heard at Chicago.
Progressive Convention Lik-
ened to a Steam Roller.
COULD START AND STOP ITSELF
1t Was Suspicious and Watch
full of Every Action.
Was as Intuitive as Woman
and as Jealous.
lBY IDA NJ. TARBELL.l

Adams.1
Chicago, June 12.-It is not
given to men and women more
than once in a lifetime, if ever.
to see what those who have followed
the last few days of the Progressive
convention have seen. 1t has been
thing SO wonderful-so beyond all of
the experiences of men and women
l have had that / think the day will
come when 1 shall ask myself if
really saw it. 1 have always be-
heved there was a heart in democ-
racy. 1t has seemed to me sometimes
that l heard it's beat. But to see it
stripped of all flesh, bounding in pas
sion-quieting and then straining at
the walls until it seemed as if they
must break-this 1 had never con-
ceived was to be seen. 1t was a heart
set on one it believed to be a hero.
If man dior ever could feel what
We have seen he would be kneeling in
humiliation before the stupendous
revelation.
The Progressive convention almost
to man came here fixed in its de-
termination to nominate Theodore
Roosevelt. 1t hardly waited for a
chairman to declare its choice in the
demonstration of which all the coun-
try has by this time read scores of
descriptions At first 1 thought this
/
| son outbreak-party 1oyalty-good
politics. But at the end of the first
! 10 minutes something crept into the
| reiterated cry of Teddy" 1t was the
cri du coeur-that curious thing YOU
never mistake As it went on the
We viii have Teddy and there was
never an instant afterwards that the
want was not will
| Convention Was Suspicious.
1t took only few hours to heed
suspicion in its enthusiasm. The con-
ventlon was from the start as intuitive
as woman in love and as jealous No
man could make a gesture or utter a
tone that it did not see. Its atten-
ton was intense and unfaltering.
There was not a moment of the four
days that it was not glued to the mat
ter in hand and every now and then
bouncing quiet as a cat at that which
it nlistrusted.
| It heard everything-saw every
thing-felt everything. Never have 1
dreamed that crowds could SO instant
ly sense such subtle shades. or SO in-
stantly express themselves. Suspi-
cious as it vast was always gener-
Gus. When Chairman Perkins,
worn with his forty hours a day" of
work, told them with more emotion
than one associates with his idea of
Mr.. Perkins that he had done his best
even if they did not think SO, they
gave MIN the QeInOnStIallOn OF dis
life
When Senator Borah came to call
no one knew quite why-they cheered
him in and out with cries of ''Wel-
come home, BILL They even tried
to get Bryan out of the press gallery
so that they could demonstrate in his
honor.
Generous-but at moments cruel
it couldn't stand bunk in its speeches.
| It had swallowed enough in its plat
form. When one misguided individ-
ual tried to pay tribute to the ''wo-
manhood of America nobody knew
why they drew him to his seat. 1t
was a fighting crowd prepared at
every moment to struggle for its will
and it was a crowd which from start
| to finish, through all its wild cheer
ing, it's bursts of suspicion, it's rage
over sitting at the feet of Reed
Smoot"-its bursting desire to rorni-
nate Teddy-never for one moment so
i lost control of itself that it could not
in 80 seconds bring itself to order il
it saw the necessity.
ton able to check itself at the very
moment it seemed about to destroy it.
self by its made momentum. It con-
trolled itself over delays which it
| hated. 1t controlled itself even when
Colonel Roosevelt's amazing sugges-
ton of Lodge as a. candidate was given
it Friday morning. 1t was a great
and noble hearted body and its ire
| rs1endous fight deserved a better end
than the stab its leader gave it in the
message which its chairman merci-
fully and wisely withheld until the
end.