The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1924-07-05
THE THROWING OF BOB'S HAT

T1HE PROGRESSIVE conference at Cleveland started off
l with a reading of that most radical of all American State
papers, the Declaration of independence.
That was the paper in which our fathers said that whenever
a government fails to protect the life and liberty of all its citi-
zens equally and promote the happiness Of all, equally, ''it is the
right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new
governments"
The declaration recited the wrongs suffered at the hands of
King George. Those were failure to enact laws for the protec-
ton of the people: Obstructing justice and law enforcement, I'M
just taxation, interference with foreign and domestic trade and
general perversion of government into a cruel master instead of
a faithful servant of the people.
Then Senator La Follette's address to the convention was
read. La Toilette sketched the political history of the country
the last thirty years and his recitation of the wrongs sounded
strangely like the recitation in the Declaration of independence.
He holds that while there are many issues all are the chill
dren of a single underlying fault. That is that the Government
has been taken from the people and is under control of selfish
interests who operate it as an adjunct of big business.
''To break the power of private monopoly over the political
and economy life of the American people is the one paramount
Issue of the 1924 campaign he said, and continued;
1.-The supreme issue is not railroad control. 1t is not the
tariff, banking or taxation. These and other questions are but
manifestations of one great struggle.
1.-The supreme issue, involving all others is the e1croach-
ment of the powerful few upon the rights of many. This great
power has come between the people and their Government. We
must, with craftsmanship and construction legislation, meet
these problems, or we shall pass them on, with all the posabii-
ties of all violent conflict and chaos, to our children.
Democracy cannot live side by side in any country with
control of government by private monopoly. We must choose
on the one hand between representative Government, with its
guarantee Of peace, liberty and economic freedom and pros
perity for all the people, and on The other war, tyranny and the
impoverishment of the many for the enrichment of the favored
few.
Upon this issue, I 81 ready to enlist with you to wage I'M
ceasing warfare until the American people have been restored
20 the full enjoyment of their political and economic rights.
Every great political advance in America has come from
the efforts of tie common people of this country. 1t was upon
them and nc. upon the privileged classes of society, that Jefer-
son, jackson and Lincoln relied.
w shall be falsely accused of advocating radical and de-
struegive policies even while we alone are fighting for the old
Agrinciples upon which this Government achieved it's greatness.
Popular Government cannot long endure in this country
without an aggressively progressive party, said the Senator,
but he went on to say that this was no time to attempt to start
a new political party. He holds that political parties are born
after and not before national campaigns, and they have come
from the people not from the proclamations of individual
leaders.
If the hour is at hand for the birth of a new political party,
he said, the American people next November will register their
will and their united purpose by a vote of such magnitude that
a new political party will be inevitable, if the people in this
campaign repudiate the presidential candidates of the Repub-
ican and Democratic parties, as in the providence of God [ trust
and believe they wil-we shall witness the birth Of a new party
and the beginning of a new era in the life of the people.
Il shall submit my name as an independent progressive
candidate for President, together with the names of duly quail
fed candidates for electors for filing on the ballots in every
State in the Union. My appeal will be addressed to every class
Of the people and to every section of the country.
Il am a candidate upon the basis of my public record as a
member of the House of Representatives, as Governor of Wis
eonin and as member of the United States Senate"
Saying that it is time the Wisconsin platform is a declara-
ton of program and principles, he went on to say: Gin the
course of campaign I shall give frank expression to my views
on every political issue of recognized Importance. The people
have a right to know the position of every candidate upon the
questions which are of vital moment to them. l have never
avoided or evaded issues. shall not do so now"
And so La Folletteis hat is in the ring.