OCR Text |
Show THE CITIZEN If the Third Party is to be the one suggested by the mittee of goes some Forty-eigh- t, lightning-lik- e Com- it will not be formidable unless it undertransformations, assuming virtues or vices that it does not dream of now. A party that openly and with amazing frankness points to ! Senator LaFollette and Debs as possible presidential timber cannot gain much momentum in this campaign. There may be room for a party devoted to, radicalism, bdt if its vision is limited to LaFollette and Debs it cannot bid for a great following. Debs is already a presidential candidate, having been duly nominated by the Socialists, which means that he is bidding for the votes of Bolshevists, anarchists, communists and revolutionary socialists. And yet the with Amos Pinchot speakagents of the Committee of Forty-eigh- t, ing loudly among them, use the language of a party which has a . candidate entered in the race.. Of what practical use, even to its founders, is such a party ? It is too radical, too violent to appeal to any section of voters in either Republican or Democratic ranks. Unless it can take on a broader form and make a wider appeal, it must remain merely a , his imperial displeasure and scorn and his twaddle about pigmy minds, do not annual the constitution. The senate remains a part of the treaty-makin- g power in spite of the autocrat of the White House. In his recent interview the president said : I sincerely believe that the vast majority of gentlemen who will sit at the San Francisco convention will appreciate the necessity and permanent value of KEEPING THE WORD THAT AMERICA HAS GIVEN TO THE REST OF THE WORLD. And now Bainbridge Colby, while not venturing to the same ex- treme, says: Reservations which stultify the main purposes of the covenant are things which no man, solicitous of Americas honor, can take into the reckoning. Here again seems to be a suggestion that America has given some kind of a pledge to accept the covenant without modification. If such, a pledge exists the president will do his countrymen a favor by stating when and by whom the pledge was given. Did he give it? If so, by what right? Being only a part of the treaty-makin- g power, he can give no pledge that the people are bound constitutionally, in honor or in any other way to abide by. No pledge relating to a treaty can be complete without the consent of the senate. It is true that the president, as agent of the United States, gave the statesmen of Europe, unfamiliar as they were with our constitution, the impression that his word was binding on the United States. That, indeed, savored of dishonor. To create such a false impression when the fate of the world was involved was a deception of gigantic magnitude. The misleading of Europe was sufficiently astounding, but how much more stunning to our mental faculties is the attempt to convince the American people themselves that they are estopped by presidential pledge from obtaining a treaty of peace that will safeguard the interests of their country! campaign folly. The idea of a successful Third Party is to advocate a platform which will draw enough votes from the old parties to win a triumph for the new party in the national campaign, or, at the least, to carry some of the states. A new party that aims at less is not a party at all. And a party which, while aiming at this object, limits itself to a narrow, set of principles is sure to get nowhere. The only sign of reaching out that marks the program of the is the declaration that the party will invite the Forty-eighteof the League. On the whole, however, it is safe to say that the program, as at present outlined, is not sufficient to support a new party.' Nor can the movement look to the practical politicians of the old parties for support. Not infrequently in our presidential campaigns a third party has been financed by politicians of one or . the other of the old parties, the purpose being to create such a condition in one or more states as to bring defeat upon the party THE CAR CRISIS Forty-eightethe having the best chance of victory at the outset. That are not bidding for that kind of support is evident from The problem of production in this country never will be solved the of each to do will the fact that their platform equal damage until the railways have an adequate supply of cars. How intimately and considered be a such of old parties. Later, course, plan may this question enters into the solution of the problem of production is from the make the as to so the principles viewpoint not party, changed generally appreciated. of the Machivellian politicians, worth buying. We read with astonishment that, at a time when the whole One is constrained to the conclusion, therefore, that no program country is taking it for granted that the chief material boon needed of a successful third party has yet been prepared. Such a program is production and still more production of essentials, coal miners are must be so formulated as to gain the adhesion of really big men. going hungry for want of work. A report to that effect comes from of more than men of no is in kind First of the all, sight. Nothing Pennsylvania, but in our own state a similar condition exists. At movein third enlisted calibre are moral or mental party average one of our mines the men worked seven hours in a certain week ments at present. And those who have outlined declarations of and fifteen hours the following week. The consequence was that of character. this of men the are support repelling principles the mine organization was disrupted. Many of the men departed Another way of approach to a third party is to pick the-bifrom the field in search of employment and those who remained man first and fit the platform to him as plays are fitted to actors were in straitened, circumstances. This is a rather exceptional conand actresses. But first the big man must be caught. At this dition and is cited, not to prove that the miners generally are writing none of the notable men of either party is sufficiently disenduring distress, but to emphasize the effect of car shortage on progruntled to throw himself into such a movement. .Nor is it easy to duction. imagine a split in either party that would warrant some ambitious More than once we have pointed out how supply is conditioned man in making the plunge. It may be that, at San Francisco, the Bryan element will be so by railway rolling stock, terminal facilities and equipment. A shortof any or all of these elements of transportation amounts to a roughly used that they will bolt and form about their old leader, age shortage of supply. Production which is inadequate to meet the but Bryan is, and has always been, a party man of the most prowhen the railways cannounced type. If he could stand for Parker he can now stand demands of the country is not handle the goods. We realize this in the case of coal. Although for almost anything even Wilson. industry is halted by a fuel famine mines are idle because railway cars are lacking. AMAZING DISHONOR We are prone to assume that if production on the farms, in the mines and in the factories is increased most of our economic ills will Seemingly it is the purpose of the Wilson faction of the Democratic party to take the position at San Francisco that the United vanish. The question is not so simple. Unless our transportation States has given its pledge to accept the treaty and covenant, nego- system is expanded so that it can take care of the increased protiated 'by the president. It is such a preposterous promise that the duction we shall continue tOm have high prices, unemployment and ' normal mind hardly can grasp the audacity of its proponents. It is hard times. The federal reserve system did much to adjust our money system quite true that the president has ignored and flouted the senate, but self-appoint- rs co-operat- ion Non-partis- an . rs g . over-producti- on ed |