Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1916-06-30
ROOSEVELT DESERTS THE
PROGRESSIvES

| PkOGh6SSIVES
| In long letter to the national COM
mittee of the Progressive party, at
its meeting Monday, Col. Roosevelt
formally declined the nomination for
the presidency, and gave a bill of
sale of his followers to the Repub-
lican party. There is reason for large
doubt that the transfer to Hughes
will be recognized as valid by the
rank and file of the Progressives, who
have been honestly battling for four
years for certain principles which
we're laid down in their platforms.
Disappointed at the action of their
leader and with the growing convic'
ton that they were simply used as
dummies in a game of politics at Chi
cago. the unselfish. honest progress
ives are in no mood to eat dish
of crow, much less to take the Roose-
welt advice and say they like it.
But 32 out of the 48 committeeman
voted to support Hughes, after a
hard fight in the committee. Such
stalwart progressives as John M.
Parker nominee for vice president,
Raymond Robbins, who was chairman
Of the convention, and cambridge
Colby, Of New York, fought bitterly
for the nomination Of candidate to
fill the vacancy. They held that the
committee was without authority to
endorse any candidate upon another
ticket, and that their power was lin.
tied to the filling of the vacancy on
the ticket caused by the refusal of
Col. Roosevelt to run. During the dis
cussion, some members said that in
their states large percentage Of the
progressives would vote for Hughes
DR.. Harris, of Rhode Island, said a
majority of them in his state favor
ed Wilson. John NJ Palmer of LOU
isianna bolted the meeting and said
many of the Progressives were form
err Democrats, and intimated that he
would vote for Wilson. Austin E.
Griffiths, of Seattle, representing this
state, said a majority of his constitu-
ents favored a third ticket and that
President Wilson had many support
ers.
In recommending Hughes, Col.
Roosevelt said: 81 regard Mr.. Hughes
as a man whose public record is a
guarantee that he will not merely
stand for a program of clean-cut,
straight-out Americanism before cleo
ton, but will resolutely and in good
faith put it through if elected" All
of which listens we'll even if there
is no telling just what it means.
In reading the endorsement of
Judge Hughes by Col. Roosevelt, one
is compelled to bark back to the year
1908, when the colonel endorsed an
other Judge for the presidency, and
the fact that four years later the ex-
tensive vocabulary of the colonel fell
short of words in which to express
how grievously he had been mistak-
en-. OF course, anybody may make a
mistake, but the thought 4obtrudes
that the acquaintance of Roosevelt
with Taft was many times closer in
1908, than is that of Roosevelt with
Hughes in 1916, so that the recon-
mendation of the deserving colonel
cannot be accepted without reason
~l1 ,,H< <o ffp1cy nj nc
In making Taft his residuary lega-
tee in 1908, Roosevelt said, among
other things: 81 do not believe there
could be found in all the country a
man so we'll fitted to be president.
He is not only absolutely disinter-
ested and upright, but he has the
widest acquaintance with the nations
needs. without and within, and the
broadcast sympathies with all our ,citi-
zens." Really in the light Of such
recent history, one is fully justified
in accepting the recommendation of
Hughes by Roosevelt with some de-
gree of caution.
An interesting article in a recent
number of the Saturday Evening Post
by R. M. Wanamaker, Judge of the
supreme court of Ohio, directs atten-
ton to the assumed power of the
courts of this nation to say what is
and what is not law, despite what is
written and intended by the constitu-
tional law making bodies, chosen by
the will of the people for that ex-
press purpose.
Under the title, 1--WE, the People, or
We, the Judges" Judge Wanamaker
shows that through the usurpation of
the courts the judiciary has become
the nations rulers, though no author
ity therefor is given either in the
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