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Show The Progressives THE Progressives are in full evidence again, and as has been foreshadowed, they come with an ultimatum. It Is to (Republicans, "nominate "nomi-nate Theodore Roosevelt for president, or we will elect Mr. Wilson again." That was the notice served by Colonel Cecil Lyon of Texas, in 'Chicago on, Monday last. Mr. George W. Perkins gave tho delegates a banquet on Monday night. He admitted ad-mitted that as" in all great moral struggles, "We have had many discouragements." The only ob jectiont the average citizen will find to that is that he cannot see first where the moral comes in. In 1912, to begin the moral struggle, Mr. Perkins put up a stack of money to stuff the primar ies, to vote Democrats to elect (Roosevelt delegates to the Chicago convention. Arrived there, the manipulators put up a job to contest the election elec-tion of enough Republican delegates to nominate with what was left the Colonel. The rules that governed when the Colonel was nominated for vicejpresident, and four years later for president, were not good enough to govern, and when the transparent fraud failed, then the baffled conspirators con-spirators claiming they had 'been wronged, bolt-ed, bolt-ed, called a new convention, and nominated the ' , Colonel. The result was the election of Mr. Wil- ' "i k son, who has been president three years, less 4 bwo months. The administration has not suited , the progressives, least of all Colonel Roosevelt, " .fc but now another convention is on foot, and the j p- sentiment of those now gathered in Chicago, as ex- "" ' pressed above Iby Colonel Lyon of Texas, "You Republicans nominate Theodore Roosevelt, or we will give you Wloodrow Wilson for president for another four years," is evidently Colonel j Lyon's idea of how to coax the great old Republi- . ' can party to go back to Theodore. In his speech , $ at the banquet, Mr. Perkins declared that leader- J . ship was needed, leadership with vision, courage, v$$ patriotism, in order to reach a wise solution of $ the problems confronting us and that the Demo- ' , cratic party has utterly failed and that Republican statemen are speechless. Whether the Colonel has failed or not, is open to debate, but it is certainly clear that he has not been speechless. He has (been crying out most of the time since lie landed in New York after his African trip. We had a little rest while he was in South America, but he has managed in one way or another to keep the fact before liis countrymen that he was around, and always ready to sacrifice his own comfort com-fort to save the country. Mr. Perkins says that ninety per cent of those who met in 1912, were on hand in Chicago on Tuesday last. We suspect that that was true, but how about the rank and file who voted for Theodore. Theo-dore. Does the party still hold them? The great trouble about the Progressives is this: Were Col-onel Col-onel Roosevelt to die tomorrow, the party would never ibe heard from again. Whenever their leaders lead-ers meet, or speak, or proclaim in any way what they want on earth, what they hope for in heaven, it all centers in Theodore iRoosevelt, and a great many hundreds of thousands of level-headed men, have decided in their own judgment that while Theodore Roosevelt is in politics what the fly blister is in medicine, a good irritant, he is reallj a great deal like what a good old Mormon lady said about ice cream, neither fattening nor filling, fill-ing, when real statesmanship is needed. We dc not know what further sufferings a Divine Providence Provi-dence has in store for our country, but Ave are bound to say that we have never heard before of a political party that has once betrayed its country to make on the eve of another nomination, nomina-tion, an ultimatum to the party it betrayed, that if it will now be good, meet, and nominate the candidate that betrayed them, they will give them the privilege of voting for him, and the further privilege of serving under his flag for the rest of their natural lives. |