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Show I ( Why I Am a Progressvie fe ,' By MARY AUSTIN j? , Author of "Th0 Arrow Maker" "A w V '; ( er' A Woman of Genius," Etc., Etc. II Austin, author of "The Arrow Maker '"'w7 be "an,?d rry Whatever slid wiles "w wS. i T of Gcnius. etc- f publication was "Th lMX ' ,H? ? she has written "The Basket Wo 'Wro' T.TF n !- -f "fiinra Lupin," nnrl ir o- T i Y, . U, -tsmro, 1 Jie Mock,' f o th mer can Sdinn li'? PdCrS" 7'le Arrow MakT" a aia I 1911 an ludlnn luc' was Produced by the New Theater in WHY I AM A PROGRESSIVE 1 (.By Mary Austin.) J I am a Progressive in the first place ; 1ccause I can't help it. I was born - ; pretty well over the Missouri lino of 3" ; r social consciousness; when it comes I to a question of human conduct you I i have to show mo. It the thing has - ; Veen worked out anywhere let us turn i ; back the pages and find the answer If if it hasn't been worked out lot us turn over a new page and try it 1 . ; i believe In freo social esperimcriUition: f, nothing of any moment to tho race J has ever been decided by arguing J about it Now, a number of things which the ) -T L ggK:WJJfcJU,aggJfB, """'f III! II Progressive party stands for are things which have been worked out cither here or in other lands, and nothing hut Inertia and vicious neglect neg-lect of the old parties prevents their being carried out to a fruitful finish. Take the issue of woman suffrage which is personally of prime importance impor-tance to mo ;it Is already with us, it is here to stay, it has passed tho stage of experimentation and the heavens have not fallen. Whatever objection even its opposers may have had against it, they have stultified bv calling can't you hear them, "Como down off your pedestals, you dear angelic an-gelic creatures, and help to elect Mo" calling on women for holn which t -io cajung on women for help which they publicly declare women Incompetent Incompe-tent to render and damaging to them when done. If political actlvltv in bad for women, then Candidates" Wilson and Taft are a pair of the most brazen corrupters of womanhood and the homo which the country haa ever known, and the word which describes men who profit by what they believe to bo te degradation of women Is not nice even for a suffragette to use. But in fnct, they are not so bad as they sound they arc merely talklnq the indent hpyocritlcal twaddle because rhev have got In the habit of It and can't help it But a man who has habits Hko that for president! Whether the Progressive party can immediately procure woman suffrage I t being a matter of state's rights, they havo at least rid themselves of the necessity of a lot of foolish talk about It, Then there is the business of conservation con-servation Ever since tho time of Tammcrlane Europe has been learning he utter wasteful stupidity of forest 'enudatlon. and still our own means 'or preventing a repetition of that folly fol-ly are ridiculously Inadequate. What 's true of forests is also true in a less conspicuous and dramatic way of mineral min-eral and other resources. The difference between the policies of the Progressive and the old parties is Just the difference between owning your own melon patch and trying to regulate the size of the melons that other people might raise in it. Another thing, it is time to istop talking about, is child labor. When it hasn't argumcntatlvely a leg to stand on, to Ignore it as the Republican Repub-lican party does or to talk of regulating regulat-ing it with the Democrats, Is to choose between being grossly indifferent or merely ineffectual. One might as woll tie a str'ng about a sick man's leg and say that the blood poisoning shall ?oine no further up. Wo are either rich enough a3 a nation to support all our children or we are not, and if not, it is time to rind out why. It Is till-, ability of the Progressive party 'o recognlzo lusty and crying actualities actuali-ties Hko these, which makes hopeful Mio prospect of being allowed to deal with them. At tho worst it cannot fall so far short of its opportunity as one which does not even see If I don't go into more items of the prevention of occupational diseases, dis-eases, of minimum standards and wages, it is because there are others to do it with more authority. All I am trying to make clear Is that It Is primarily the attitude of tho party which calls for my active common-p common-p dation. Between tho words "prohi-' "prohi-' bit ' and "prevent" as used by the ' Progressives and "safeguard" and I "limit' as appenring In tho platforms j of tho old-lino parties. I discover the i dlfferpnce between the sound of tho j breaking of eggs for the political omelette and the preliminary clucking cluck-ing over an egg that is yet to be laid. The truth is that there actually is enough tabulnted, reliable knowledge in the world to effectively settle a great mcasnro of our social and l economic difficulty; what lacks is a little doing. And secondly, I am a Progressive because of the things to which the party is not yet committed. For there are a number of things about which no conclusions may be reached reach-ed without further experimentation This is especially true in the department depart-ment of social and economic justice. Tho greatest objection to tho other oth-er parties who approach this question ques-tion in a spirit of active sincerity (I refor to the two wings of the Socialist So-cialist partv in particular) Jb that they loan ahead, sot a mark and say it ends there. But the spirit of true progresslvo-ness progresslvo-ness is not compatible with a limit sot ahead. Wo must go forward, and forward, and then some. The man doesn't exist who knows what complete com-plete economic justice is, no matter what he asserts about it; the least I wo can learn bv the proceos of the I years Is that thero are several things j which are rank injustices, to be excised ex-cised aB gangrenous flesh In the social so-cial organism. It Is the presence of festering poisons that by the very I Irritation which thoy set , up may plunge us In economic disnster, J against which much of the Progre3-' Progre3-' slve effort is directed. A very cas- 1 ual reading of the platform will re- veal the significant fact that its limitations lim-itations are set up, not before us. but behind, bars about pits of ipnoranco and injustice into which wo discredit our intelligence again to fall And all these measures, though they are measures of relief, may be had without with-out committing the ultimate social judgment of the principals. It is a suro way to stop an aching tooth to - jump out of an eleventh-story window win-dow with It, but It is not reallv a good way When wo havo pulled a few of the ulcerated and torturing fangs of labor we shall have a right to expect a more dlspaFslonatc consideration con-sideration of tho next move and tho i next, and to prevent tho imminent catastrophe of tho noxt move being - tho last. The bcHt thing about the Progressive party is that one may go H forward with it without sacrificing A one's private opinion about its ulti-a ulti-a mato goal. 2 And, by all means, let us get for- 3 ward. |