The daily morning oasis., 1920-07-03

know what to do with it's power. Under the circum-
stances it may wiz .he election The politicians
would not have nominated Harding 7lnnss they be-
lieved themselves certain OF success. But once in
possession of the coveted power they under the
circumstances bound to fall under the influence of
strong and aSsertive special interests Mr.. Harding
like Mr.. Taft will find himself surrounded by men
who know what they want He and his party lead
ers will not possess any bond body IF conviction
which will prevent them from yielding to that die
tatorshp of the vested interests such that which
always flourishes under gOve1nn. ent by political
or congressional machine.
In short the Republican party while cheering
the of Roosevelt has finally repulated his work
root and branch 1t has reverted to the condition
from which its progressive members have labored
and fought for so long to emancpate It, Senator
Harding represents precisely and completely the
standards the methods and the ideas which prevail
cd at the time of Roosevelts acce sion the lresi
uency and which at the time rather ore defea-
Siole IT, n they today. The p,ogl esslve ag1ta-
H.. of the last twenty years within the hepuhhcan
party has ended in flat failure. The leaders OF
the machine have dared to say to the progressive
members of the party: 'You are Ineligible. We DO
not care how little you like what ws have done You
are bound to support candidate at the present
election and you support him you are bound to like
the medicine in the hope possibly, that we will recog-
nze you in the distribution of the offices We have
YOU nailed to the cross of the party loyalty and no
matter how you sweat and wigeje there you will
stick for as long we need you. You have nowhere
else to CO." And the machine leaders are rght
They have beaten their progressive republican as
socates and if they did not deserve TO win the pro-
gressive Republicans certainly did deserve to lose
They had ceased cherish any genuine integrity OF
conviction They had divided their support among
three candidates as different one from the another
in outlook as Wood, Johnson and Hoover. No won
der they failed. The triumph OF the machine is
traceabe not to its strength but 70 the decision
among it's opponents-to the plain fact that progress
sive Repubcanism has ceased to have unquivocal
meaning. @*s.
Its last chance of obtaining any meaning during
the present campaign disappeared when Herbert
Hoover abandoned his early attitude OF non-partsan-
ship and threw over his Democratic ard independent
supporters Those independents VINO were interest
ed in Mr mowers caluuaiy regarded 1t as the most
hopeful means of preventing the nomination OF ne
publican reactionary such Harding. For MI
Hoover alone among Republicans was in position
to play both ways and to take advantage OF the pre-
vailing lack of confidence in the politicians. I'm
like Wood or johnson he could swing his strength to
the Democrats in case the Repub lcan machine took
the BIZ in it's teeth. AS Democratic nominee ne
would have made formidable oipo,ent for Re-
publican candidate such as Haring, and in fact
might have prevented Hardng's nomination. But
Mr. Hoover preferred to forago his independence and
to tie himself to the Republican party in the Elusive
hope of thereby exercising more Influence on the Re
publican nomination and platform instead of that
he has exercised much less Now that the Republi-
cans nave nominated machine candidate on plat
form with most of whose blanks Mr. Hoover most
profoundly disagree, he is forbidden by predeclared
al, 6 ance tn the Ptm 'iean party from effect ely
protesting AGAINST the result The Incident Is simply
final proof of the incomratbility OF beng Repuh-
lican and progressive or liberal. The Republican
party has deliberately renounced tie tendency 70
to rrnorpssivesm with which it started on it, career
It left Republicans who prefer pr grcssivisn tc Re-
pubicanisn alternative but to get out Of the party
1t has vindcated the action Of those Republicans who
renowned their aleoif on the day Taft was NOM
mated md who have seen any sufficient reason
for renewing it.