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Show Hl J DIVISION IN PARTY A GOOD THING. H Charles If. Russell, a member of the Republican club of the city H of New York, lately wrote Senator Jonathan Bourne of Oregon a H caustic letter o'n the Progressive Republicans, to which tho senator Hi made this vigorous re pi': H "I have received your letter of June 19, saying that you .are a H' lifelong and devoted Republican and deeply regret the division that H exists between the members of our party in congress. It is amazing H, to me that any man who believes in progress could regret a division Hi in opinion, either within or without the ranks of any party. Please H tell me how there can be anj progress whatever in science or gov H ernment or in any human activity unless some few people first take H advanced ground and augment their forces until they have secured B the adoption of methods and the establishment of conditions better M J - than that which has gone before. If there were to be no division iHi' in th ranks of the Republican party, then we would bo today exactly ex-actly where we were when the Republican party was first founded. "If you believe it is unwise to have division in the ranks of M ( the Republican party, then you also believo it to be unwise to have H division in the ranks -of the Democratic party. You would have ' each party remain, year after year, advocating the same principles, H presenting the same methods, electing and re-electing the same can- M r didatcs. ( I "If it is wrong to have division of opinion among members of H' ' a P'iriy, it is also inadvisable to have division of opinion among H members of any progession. Pursuing your line of reasoning to its ' necessarv conclusion, you would have tho doctors and the lawyers M ngree as to the principles and methods each should recognize and H j you would discourage ony of them from taking advanced grounds Hjt' and creating divisions and discussions as to tho best methods to be Hli pursued. Hjij "You ask whether tho so-called progressive organization exists Hj to promote the personal ambitions of men, and, without hesitation. '1 i I answer you in tho negative. You would know this without asking li if yon had taken the trouble to read the declaration of principles Hjij of tho organization, a copy of which I enclose herewith. This or- H ganizatiou was formed to promoto tho adoption of five principles of H ? ' legislation, and as you will observe it is expressly forbidden to enter H j . upon any other activity. r, M . "You ask whether the progressive organization has turned its F' I back on the Republican party because it cannot make tho majority. KJ bend to its will. Tho majority of the members of the Republican HTj ( party, by a tremendously overwhelming number, are already iT sym- Hj pathy "with the principles and policies for which the league stands. H Tho difficulty is that a minority, being in control of the party ma B) chinery, prevents that majority from writing its opinions into tho i party platform and nominating party candidates. "Wo have turned B our backs upon tho past and our faces to the future. You are still Hi gazing in adoration upon the past. "We are striving for the accom- Hj ' plishment of something better in the future than this country has H enjoyed in the years that are gone. H The principal trouble with you is that yon cannot distinguish M between the party and tho party machinery. The Republican party B j is made, up of seven and a half million individual members through- B, out the United States. The party machinery is composed of a few fl individuals who, by methods well known to you, even if you will not f admit it, perpetuate themselves in party control, dictating elections 1 of delegates to national conventions, making' that body misrepre- H sentative of popular will and subordinating general welfare to sel- 1 , fish interests. This was done in the last convention when there 1 was voted down a plank indorsing popular election of United j States senators in which an overwhelming majority of tho mem- H bcrs believed. H J "Believing, as I do, that the Republican party is made up of H the individual members thereof, I advocate a popular vote for tho 1 i selection of party candidates for president and vice president. My f bill drawn for that purpose was adopted by the people of Oregon M last November, and has since been made a law in Nebraska, New Jeree, "Wisconsin and Xortli Dakota. Republicans in tbese five states will hnvt" an opportunity next spring to express their choice for candidates for president and vice president I presume you do not approve of this plan You probably think that only delegates chosen by steam roller methods are competent to express a choice for president and vice president. In my opinion 99 per cent of the members of the Republican party are capable of expressing an intelligent in-telligent and honest choice as between any two men whose prominence promi-nence in public affairs makes them probabilities as presidential candidates. can-didates. You may feel entirely free to publish this letter if you so desire." The men within the Republican party today who are opposing the Progressives arc, as Mr. Bourne says,1 the machine politicians and their masters who demand special privilege. The great body of the Republican party is made up of citizens in harmony with the principles enunciated by Senator Bourne. This will be demonstrated demonstrat-ed in the coming presidential campaign Those wfto continue to cling to tricky politics will be marooned by the floodYwaters of pub-lie pub-lie sentiment sweeping the Progressives on to victqry. |
