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Show The Progressives And Their Idol M Tf'HERE never was such a political party as the H Progressives, especially the Utali Progressives. jH They are not going to merge with the Republl- H cans, they are sure the Republicans are going to H nominatn "their man," but they do not intend to H permit any of them to carry tho flag, or be drum H major or to be seen anywhere near tho front of H the procession. H And the funny feature is that were the gentle- H man who carries the purse Mr. Perkins and the H other gentleman who supplies tho gall one T. R. H to drop out, there would be no Progressive H leader except H. J. of California, and no follow- H ers anywhere. H Not one of them seems to remember that Colo- H nel Roosevelt would ever have been a Progres- H sive had he not known that he never could win H as a Republican. H Had he not known that he would have been in H the race in 1908. Tho other day he put out a H few articles of his present faith. A tariff commis- H sion which was urged while he was president, H but which at that time ho seemed indifferent to H less supervision of great industries by the states ,H and more by the federal government, which is a H reminder that what he did along those same lines H when he was president gave the country a sense H of relief when his term expired. There are some H millions of people in the country who rememoer H that when his first adviser, John Hay, died, the H colonel apparently lost his head. About the first H thing he began to denounce lwas the supreme H court of the United States. H Then a rumor, reached him that there was a ' lax of sanitary regulations in the management of H the great slaughter houses- fir,Ghicagot Kansas 'H City and other places. H Instead of having a secretary write to each of :H them, informing them of the rumor and cautioning H I HB them to be sure to give no occasion to have the H rumor repeated, he had himself interviewed and R to have published to the world what measures he H proposed to take to have those places safeguarded B against any repetition of the charge, which public H notice caused the foreign orders for preserved H meats to fall off $17000,000 that year, which loss H fell on the farmers and range men of the central fl He was on a hunting excursion on the lower J Mississippi when the panic of 1907 struck the H country. On his way back to Washington, upon reaching Memphis, he made a speech filled with H threats of what he would do when he reached the Hj capital. What lie did do was to approve the ab sorption by the great steel company of the Ten- H nessee Iron & Coal company, to bring around J which absorption the panic was brought on. Hr When he needed help and personally solicited H the support of Senator Tillman and ex-Secretary H Chandler, so soon as he got out of his trouble, he H declared that he had never sought the help of H either of them and that they were both liars. H When he went out of office only the very H strongest railroad companies could borrow money Hj enough to keep up the repairs on their roads. H He had held as personal friends for years a B gentleman and his wife. When he finally differed H1 with them he advertised them both as liars. H When ho returned from Africa a noisy mob B gave him a great ovation as he reached the pier H in New York. He was the next week "forced H against his will" to jump into New York politics, H dictate a Republican platform and defeat the H party that had every promise of winning until he B insisted upon running it. Then came 1912 which B we all know about. And now it may be that the B Republicans may nominate him next spring as the H Progressive hope, but the fact should be kept in H mind that the American people are not much in H the habit of rewarding traitors, and aside from H that while they may not love a peace at any price H president, they know that were a war to come H the people would have to fight, and they would H 'not want a president who would demoralize the H armies at the front, the navy at sea and the con- H gress at the capital. |