PUT PRINCIPLE ABOVE PARTY

...The Real Fight We are bound to elect Democrats in many states over reactionaries and we ought to...

...I believe it is a part of the duty of the hour for Democrats to put principle above party...

...Uphold the Tried and True We have the experience in the fight now on in the Senate and Congressional districts in many states where Republican Insurgents have won at the conventions or primaries, of Democratic organizations taking advantage of the enmity and opposition created by an Insurgent Republican within his own party merely for the purpose of winning a temporary party victory...

...As a party man, therefore, as a Democrat, and as a citizen of this Republic, looking at the thing broadly, in view of the struggle mentioned, that within the parties rather than as between the parties, I can wish for nothing better in California than the election of men like Kent, in Wisconsin for the election of men like La Follette, and in Indiana for the election of men like Beveridge and in Kansas for the election of men like Stubbs and Murdock...

...This is one reason why I am doing all I can as a progressive Democrat to bring about the success of Insurgent Republicans in different parts of the United States...

...but in those Republican districts where an Insurgent Republican has secured the nomination and his success is jeopardized by the confusions, deals, and appeals by reactionaries to party prejudice and mere party advantage, it is far more important to the cause of real democracy that Democrats should have before them during the next two years the example of the people standing faithfully by the men who stood by them, than that they should defeat such a man for the sake of thereby gaining a mere temporary party advantage...

...It is rather between the men in those parties who are standing by the cause of the people as against the aggressions of Privilege...

...Put Principle Above Party By JUDGE BEN B. LINDSEY IN THE struggle going on in this country between the people and Special Privilege, where Insurgent Republicans have made a brave stand against the "powers" in their own party and succeeded in overthrowing those "powers" in conventions or at primaries, a Progressive Democrat, in my judgment, is false to his principles if he permits the powers of Privilege to defeat such a Republican after he has won such a victory, unless he is absolutely certain that the Democratic candidate as completely represents the same principle...

...This fight is not between the Demo-cratic and Republican party as such...

...I am perfectly confident that the defeat of shining marks in this progressive movement like the type of men I have described in the Republican party would be held up even to Democrats of the same type all over the country, as showing them that the people would not stand by a man who has conspicuously stood by them...

...The Cost of Victory No man who pretends to be a good Democrat would care to win temporary party advantage at such a price to good government as would be the defeat of men like Kent in California, La Follette in Wisconsin, Stubbs in Kansas, Bever-idge in Indiana and some others who have become shining marks for defeat by the privileged interests that are trying to use both parties...

...And, as I have frequently stated in this campaign, I believe it is the duty of a progressive Democrat to support an Insurgent Republican like Senator Beveridge of Indiana or Senator La Fol-lette of Wisconsin, who is already in Congress and has stood against Aldrich-ism,—even if that Insurgent is opposed by a progressive Demorat who pretends to stand for precisely the same thing...

...On the other hand, the triumph and election of Insurgent Republicans of the type I have mentioned will put back-bone into the heart of every other real progressive Democrat who has the best interests of the people at heart and who is making a real genuine fight...

...In such a case the election of a Democratic candidate, however good it might be, would, in my judgment, make the Democratic advantage come at a fearful cost to the progressive movement all over the United States...

...to respond to the appeal of patriotism rather than the appeal of party by so voting and working during the present campaign as to make impossible the defeat by the Special Interests of Insurgent Republicans like those I have mentioned...

...In many such cases the Democratic candidate does not as truly represent progressive principles and is often supported by the stand-pat or reactionary Republicans to whom he is sometimes bound by political deals or by feelings of obligation to Special Interests that destroy his usefulness in the fight for real democracy...