The star-progress. (Opelousas, La.) 1917-1921, 1920-02-07
new YORK PAPER
OUT FOR HOOVER
The World Says He is Best Man
to Succeed MIR. Wilson in
That Capacity

1 IN Cue JuuSIuSllC VI LIZ WIN NAAO
best equipped and best qualified man
to succeed Woodrow Wilson as pres
Iident of the United States is Herbert
IC. Hoover.
We should be glad to support Mr..
Hoover as the democratic candidate
for president on a platforra that rep
resented the historical principles of
the democratic party. We should be
glad to support him as an independent
! candidate on a platform of progress
i've liberalism. We should not hest
tate to support him as the republican
candidate on platform representing
the kind of government which Mr..
Hoover has exemplified in his public
career.
Among the democratic politicians
the chief objection to Mr.. Hoover is
that he has been successfully a re-
publican and a progressive, but has
never affiliated with the democratic
organization, although he was ap-
pointed to office by President Wilson
and was the most distinguished of all
the presidents lieutenants during the
war.
Among republican politicians the
chief objection to Mr.. Hoover is that
he never was an organization republ-
can and that in the fall of 1918 he
had the independence and courage to
urge the election of congress that
would work tremendously with Pres
ident Wilson. If the country had fol-
lowed Mr.. Hoover's wise and practi-
cal advice it would not today be the
victim of a deadlocked government
which is virtually unable to function.
The partisan objections to Mr..
Hoover are arguments in his favor.
The American people are tired of pro-
fessionai politicians and Disguised
with party politics. The old party
lines have broken down so far as the
rank and file of voters are concerned,
and in respect to principles both par
ties are bankrupt Although the spir-
it of partisanship has rarely been
more bitter or more brutal, and never
since secession has it been more in
imical to the welfare of the country
the battle of these warning politicians
is a fictitious conflict.
Mr.. Taft was Mr.. Wilson's oppo-
nent for the presidency in 1912; yet
: in so far as fundamental questions ot
government are concerned it would
be difficult to detect any important
: differences between Mr.. Taft an6
Mr.. Wilson. Mr.. Hughes was Mr.
! Wilson's opponent in 1916, and il
would be equally difficult to detect
: any important differences between
! Mr.. Hughes and Mr.. Wilson. They
/; might disagree about this policy OF
!, that policy; but in so far as theil
public utterances of the last three
= years as an index to their politica
principles, these differences would b.
personal rather than partisan in an!
true sense.
. And if one wished to carry the par
: allel further he might well ask wha
e there is to distinguish democra
like Attorney General Palmer from
/ republican like Speaker Sweet o.
S the New York assembly. Both of then
have set forth to establish new doc
> trine of Prussianism which is a yer
t table crucifixion of the spirit o.
e American institutions.
: Abraham Lincoln declared in hi
: first inaugural that
i This country, with its institutions
o belongs to the people who inhabit ii
0 The Palmers and the Sweets ar
!, seeking to set up a wholly opposit
n theory, which is that the government
e no longer belongs to the people, bu
! that the people belong to the govern
! ment, and have acquired subjec
r status under which their most ele
g mentary rights and liberties can b
e denied whenever the government il
y self undertakes to regard those right
E and liberties as seditious or inimica
e 1t is needless to say that when den
e ocrats and republicans can unite i
s the advocacy of such constructio
f of the powers of government unde
e free institutions and when democrat
(, and republicans can unite in resist
e ing such an invasion of America
traditions, party lines have becom
: artificial and party adherence he
+ degenerated into mere matter @
e prejudice, habit, self-interest an
q cynicism.
This is not year for partisan car
didates in any sense in which ths
" term has previously been employed
VI politics. Party labels there must b,
le because the party label has been e.
8 tablished by law; but when the r.
: publican national committee is force
% to offer prize for a platform, it
ridiculous to pretend that there
t anything which resembles genuiT
y, y cleavage of public opinion along pa
q ty lines on the questions that confroI
D. the country. What is going. on
ID merely the manoeuvring Of ambition
e politicians who are waiting to 81
!; which issues are expedient and whiC