WHY I BECOME A CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT
Follette, Robert M. La
Why I Became a Candidate for President FIRST ARTICLE: President Taft's Unavailability.-- A Complete History of Roosevelt's Course After His Return from Africa,- Formation of the Organized...
...My own mail, and that, I think of other Progressive Senators and Representatives, was filled with urgent appeals from Progressives, east as well as west, that some action be taken at once to place a candidate in the field...
...This cannonading, first in one direction and then in another, filled the air with noise and smoke, which confused and obscured the line of action, and, when the battle "The integrity and perpetuity of the Progressive cause demanded that it should present a candidate who represented its principles for the support of Progressive Republicans throughout the country...
...He would seize upon some ancient and accepted precept—as, "Honesty is the best policy,"—and treat it with a spirit and energy that made him seem the original doctrinaire...
...but upon the recall his mind was definitely made up, at least, in so far as it related to the recall of judges...
...He discussed these matters strikingly and with vigor, investing every utterance with his unique personality...
...He halted to take account of stock...
...He was absent from the country until June, 1911...
...A Visit With Roosevelt UPON the twenty-seventh of June, 1910, on invitation which came to me through Gilson Gardner, close personal friend of Roosevelt, and Washington Correspondent of the Scripps papers, I visited him at Oyster Bay...
...Before the close of the session in March, 1911, he had caused it to be made known to the Progressives in Washington, however, through a number of his close personal friends who sustained intimate relations with the Progressive group in Washington, that he was at last hostile to Taft, though not in favor of opposing his re-nomination...
...For many years I had addressed great audiences throughout those states, beginning while I was governor of Wisconsin and continuing the work after I came to the Senate in the recesses between sessions of Congress...
...the revision of the tariff in the interest of the producer and consumer...
...and four years counts in the life of a man turned fifty-three...
...It was evident that the Taft administration was losing ground day by day...
...His mind was dwelling upon immediate political victory or defeat...
...While Roosevelt was President, his public utterances through state papers, addresses, and the press, were highly colored with rhetorical radicalism...
...Indeed, scarcely a day passed when the subject was not informally discussed between the Progressive Senators and Members of the House, as they met from time to time...
...He led the campaign for Stimson and the New York platform in the election of 1910,—making it his own fight—and was overwhelmingly defeated...
...He soon made his appearance, dressed in linen knickerbockers, and after a cordial greeting said that he had just come in from pitching hay, confirming his statement by removing a rather liberal quantity of timothy from his person...
...Taft's openly reactionary course on legislation during the first two sessions of Congress following his inauguration, welded together the Progressive strength of the country, and sharpened and clearly defined the issues...
...Roosevelt was still looking to 1916, and as the political situation developed in the following year, in his political philosophy, which is always personal, Taft's renomination and defeat in 1912 fitted admirably into his plan...
...Roosevelt co-operated with Aldrich and Cannon on legislation...
...BY THE CLOSE of the extra session convened on the fifteenth of March, 1909, President Taft's course upon the tariff legislation raised in the mind of every real Progressive, doubts as to his availability as a candidate to succeed himself...
...This is evidenced by the long struggle to secure laws but partially effective for the control of railway rates and services...
...Obviously he left a copy of his tariff views with the Outlook before leaving for his western tour...
...At this time the invariable answer to any question touching this subject was that he did not believe there should be a candidate at all...
...On the twenty-fourth of March, 1909, Roosevelt sailed for Africa...
...The object of the League is the promotion of popular government and progressive legislation...
...The public has waited for nine years for relief from Congress, to restore to the Interstate Commerce Commission some measure of the power of which they had been deprived by a Supreme Court decision in 1897...
...a world of things may happen in four -years...
...Would he ally himself with Taft or would he stand with the Progressive movement, which had by that time become a concrete and well understood political entity...
...Incredible as it may seem, it is nevertheless a fact in political history, that Roosevelt planned and consummated Taft's succession to the presidency...
...and as to himself, it was not to be thought of On one occasion, I remember, it was stated by Gardner that the Colonel, referring to the 1910 election in New York as a Roosevelt defeat, said that he would be literally eaten up if he were to become a candidate, and that he could not consider such a thing...
...Roosevelt's course in the Saratoga Convention was a staggering blow to Progressive Republicans throughout the middle and western states where press and people alike condemned him...
...This was largely due to the fact that Taft's course was the more direct, Roosevelt's the more devious...
...The peculiarly close relation of these men to Roosevelt, and their active co-operation was a source of special encouragement to the Progressive group in Washington...
...Taft had long been considered by the leaders of that element of the party, and with the beginning of the new year, 1911, many conferences were held on that subject...
...Though the press of the country, which derived a special advantage from the proposed agreement, denounced all opposition to the President's program, the agricultural interests were so solidly arrayed against it that Roosevelt and his friends ceased to advocate the President's policy for this legislation and later, as I shall show, when it became politically expedient, Roosevelt took a positive stand against reciprocity...
...He said: "I am not sure whether the recall should be applied to public officials generally, but I have been so disappointed in many of the judges commissioned during my administration that it is perfectly clear to me that the recall should be established and enforced as to judges, and particularly federal judges appointed for life...
...While this was the attitude of Roosevelt toward a Progressive candidacy, I cannot too strongly emphasize the fact that the progressives in Washington, indeed all over the country, were of one mind—that there should be a progressive candidate...
...The first national forest reservation was established in 1891...
...To this end it advocates: (1) The election of United States Senators by direct vote of the people...
...But this 1911 trip restored his self-confidence in a marked degree...
...The question of Roosevelt's attitude toward such a candidacy, was, of course, a matter of much concern, and the possibility of his coming into the field himself as a candidate was often raised in our interviews with these men, both in casual meetings and in our more or less formal conferences...
...None of the men whose availability as candidates was discussed, manifested any eagerness to undertake the contest, though all were agreed that Progressive Republicans were in duty bound to oppose the renomination of President Taft...
...Roosevelt is deserving of credit for his appeals made from time to time for higher ethical standards, social decency, and civic honesty...
...The Outlook editorial above quoted was a portion of a more extended reference to the tariff in the "The Roosevelt Administration came to a close on the fourth of March, 1909, without leaving to its credit a definite Progressive national movement with a clearly defined body of issues...
...Quarter was neither sought nor given between the progressive and stand-pat forces...
...Roosevelt clearly saw them...
...that, therefore, he would prefer to see Taft renominated without opposition, and beaten at the polls...
...Taft co-operated with Cannon and Aldrich on legislation...
...This naturally resulted in bitterness and hostility to the whole movement on the part of many people in those states whose prosperity depended chiefly upon the development of their agricultural lands...
...But the fact remains that the Roosevelt administration came to a close on the fourth of March, 1909, without leaving to its credit a definite Progressive national movement with a clearly defined body of issues...
...Why not put forth another man, and feel out the Taft strength...
...The organization was effected at a meeting held at my residence, 1864 Wyoming Avenue, Washington, D. C, on the twenty-first day of January, 1911...
...He began to think of 1912 for himself...
...It fired his blood...
...He was deadly hostile to Taft, but still felt that he could not be beaten in the convention, and that he should be allowed to take the nomination without contest and then be given a beating at the polls...
...4) Amendment to state constitutions providing for the Initiative, Referendum and Recall...
...He could not afford to become a candidate against Taft and fail...
...Pinchot followed his letter abroad, to supplement it with verbal explanation and personal persuasion...
...Among those who saw him often in New York, and constituted the medium of communication with Progressives in Washington, were Gifford Pinchot, E. A. Van Valkenberg, manager of the Philadelphia North American, and Gilson Gardner...
...So uncertain were the Progressive leaders in the Senate and House as to the position which Roosevelt would take upon progressive issues after his return from Africa, that it was almost daily a matter of discussion among them...
...He straddled...
...Roosevelt's Attitude BUT TO RESUME my narrative...
...In all that we heard from Roosevelt, through these near friends of his, the continued upbuilding of the Progressive Movement for the restoration of representative government was not a subject which he was considering at all...
...His administrative policies as set forth in his recommendations to Congress were vigorously and picturesquely presented, but characterized by an absence of definite economic conception...
...Looking To 1916 U P TO THIS TIME there had been no change in his opinion regarding opposition to Taft's renomination, as the Progressives in Washington were advised from time to time through these friends of his who kept us informed...
...the remarkable growth of La Follette's candidacy...
...They could not be coerced by the administration, through the use of patronage, into supporting measures not in the public interest...
...and second, 1912 would be a Democratic year and no Republican, Progressive or Reactionary, could be elected President...
...statutes dealing with trusts and combinations, based on sound economic principles, as applied to modern industrial and commercial conditions...
...It was a time in the life of the Progressive movement when his support would have been a tremendous gain...
...His only comment upon Taft was that "sometimes a man made a very good lieutenant but a poor captain...
...The Progressives in both houses of Congress quite generally opposed the pact with Canada, upon the ground that it was not a fairly reciprocal agreement—that it discriminated against the agricultural interests of this country and in favor of the already over-protected trusts and combinations...
...At the outset in an address at Boston he lauded Aldrich as the greatest statesman of his time...
...every phrase denouncing "bad"' trusts was deftly balanced with praise for "good" trusts...
...THEN CAME this tour in the spring of 1911...
...Just in proportion as popular government has, in certain states superseded the delegate convention system, and the people have assumed control of the machinery of government, has government become responsive to the popular will, and progressive legislation been secured...
...Why I Became a Candidate for President FIRST ARTICLE: President Taft's Unavailability.-- A Complete History of Roosevelt's Course After His Return from Africa,- Formation of the Organized Progressive Movement.-- Pressure for a Real Progressive Candidate.- Reasons...
...Indeed, so uncertain were even his close personal friends, some of whom had fallen out with the administration, that they were anxious to get his ear first as he turned his face homeward, in order to forestall, if possible, any announcement from him favorable to the Taft administration...
...One trait was always pronounced...
...But political sentiment, however strong, unsupported by organization, and the finances with which to meet the necessary expenses of a campaign, cannot withstand the assault of a compact, well-disciplined, well-managed federal machine, directed by one trained in the arts of modern political campaigning...
...Why Not 1912...
...To the credit of his administration it may justly be said, however, in large measure belongs the more recent progress of the conservation movement...
...Nor was it strange that he approved the Emergency Currency Law—which was but another ragged patch upon our makeshift monetary system, placed there through the powerful influence of the speculative banking interest—and commended it as a "wholesome, progressive law...
...I think that it is fair to say that the activities of this League resulted in the enactment of the presidential preference laws in the several states during the legislative sessions of 1912...
...The New York Platform also contained this further declaration : "We enthusiastically endorse the progressive and statesmanlike leadership of William Howard Taft, and declare our pride in the achievements of his first eighteen months as President of the United States...
...At the capital of the nation and throughout the country, the line of battle had been drawn, and there was no faltering on either side...
...In his campaign for election he had interpreted the platform as a pledge for tariff revision downward...
...They especially were the bearers of frequent messages, and the accepted spokesmen of Roosevelt in published interviews regarding Taft's administration...
...At the close of the interview I left with him some speeches bearing upon the tariff and railroad bills which he said he would read with care...
...None of these men who reported Roosevelt's position at that time agreed fully with him...
...It offered an excellent opportunity to try out public sentiment to determine whether time had in some measure restored him to the popular favor, which he had sacrificed as a result of his course in the Saratoga Convention, and the crushing defeat of his candidate in the New York election...
...This was the construction which he himself put upon the situation...
...Then followed his Winona speech in which he declared the Payne-Aldrich Bill to be the best tariff bill ever enacted, and in effect, challenged the Progressives in Congress who had voted against the measure, and the progressive judgment of the country, which had already condemned it...
...Scarcely a day passed when I did not receive calls from strong men identified with the Progressive movement, who came to Washington on other missions, but made it a part of their business to press this matter to early action...
...The session of 1910, preceding the congressional elections, had intensified the differences, widened the breach...
...But so far as reported to our group in Washington, the idea of a Progressive candidate for the presidency, even if defeated in the convention, as a means of holding together an advance Progressive movement, seemed to have no place in his political thinking...
...and still the former President had nothing to say...
...In this way he won approval, both from the radicals and the conservatives...
...During the succeeding sessions of Congress, President Taft's sponsorship for the Administration railroad bill, with its commerce court, its repeal of the anti-trust act in its application to railroads and its legalizing of all watered railroad capitalization...
...A throng of American newspaper correspondents crossed the ocean to get some word from Roosevelt which could be cabled back to enlighten the people on the momentous question as to whether Roosevelt, when he finally landed in America, would ally himself with the Progressives or with the Taft administration...
...The President convened Congress in extra session on the 15th of April, 1911, for the consideration of the so-called "reciprocity" agreement with Canada, which had been defeated in the closing days of the previous session...
...Not only because of the division which had arisen in the Republican party upon principle was it conceded that his nomination must be opposed, but whatever the outcome, the integrity and perpetuity of the Progressive cause demanded that it should present a candidate who represented its principles for the support of Progressive Republicans throughout the country...
...Every question with which they dealt placed progressive issues more clearly and definitely before the public, as the most fundamentally important political movement in a generation of time...
...Roosevelt's clever work there to prevent the endorsement...
...For nearly a year, the formation of a national league to promote progressive legislation in the different states had been under discussion among a few of the Progressive Senators and Members of the House...
...He returned from Africa to find that many changes had taken place: the Progressive movement he found far in advance of him...
...Neither the foregoing statement, nor anything akin to it, however, was made in Roosevelt's speeches upon his tour in the months of August and early September in the west, where public sentiment was very pronouncedly against the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Law...
...I was, therefore, not a little surprised to find, less than three months later, a Roosevelt editorial in the Outlook, under date of September 17, 1910, in which he commented upon the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Law as follows: "I think that the present tariff is better than the last, and considerably better than the one before the last...
...Steam Roller To Be Reckoned With I T WAS well understood, owing to the peculiar conditions existing in the south, which made it certain that the administration through patronage could control the selection of practically all delegates from that section of the country, that Mr...
...This trip was arranged pursuant to invitations to deliver addresses in several states which he received during the preceding months...
...As we drew on toward the close of 1910, word was frequently brought to the Progressive leaders in Washington by some of Roosevelt's close personal friends, that he had been chastened by his recent experience and enlightened by a better understanding of public opinion...
...While I do not now recall that either of those men quoted Roosevelt as being in accord with them on this legislation, he was nevertheless strongly in favor of the Canadian Pact, as will appear later in this narrative...
...Thus Roosevelt smeared the issue, but caught the imagination of the younger men of the country by his dash and mock heroics...
...Roosevelt's Course as President IT WAS for these reasons, that, after a service of seven and one-half years as President of the United States, he left no great constructive statute as an enduring record of his service...
...This was the beginning of conservation which was further promoted by a more elaborate treatment of the subject by the National Academy of Sciences in 1897...
...And it was in this department of the public service that Roosevelt made a distinctly progressive record, due in large degree to the zeal and activity of Chief Forester Pinchot...
...Jonathan Bourne was elected President...
...In the event of failure Pinchot then, and afterward, urged that he would like to see such candidate lead a third party fight upon Taft, should he secure the nomination...
...he neither understood it, nor was he in sympathy with its manifest purposes, in so far as he comprehended them...
...If it became apparent that Taft could not be beaten for the nomination, a contest would nevertheless weaken him and make his defeat in the election the more certain...
...It would help, sooner or later, to place him in open opposition to the Taft administration...
...I received the statement with some expression of surprise, suggesting as my viewpoint that if the recall were applied to the judiciary, the percentage of petitioners demanding recall should be fixed at a much higher rate than was commonly accepted as a proper basis for recall of legislative and other public officials...
...The reason why the portion quoted above and published as a Roosevelt editorial, was not delivered as a part of any of his addresses on the tariff in the west, was due to the fact that one of the Progressive Senators who rode with him on his special train during part of the trip, and to whom he submitted the speech which he proposed to deliver, directed his attention to the fact that the utterance was almost identical with that made the year before by Taft at Winona which had called down upon the President the fiercest sort of denunciation...
...Frederic C. Howe, Secretary...
...wise, comprehensive and impartial reconstruction of banking and monetary laws...
...And during the holiday recess in the last days of December, 1910, I drafted a Declaration of Principles and form of constitution for the organization of such a league, and submitted the same to Senators Bourne and Bristow...
...The Forestry Bureau in the Department of Agriculture was established as a result of a memorial presented by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1873, re-inforced by another memorial of the Association in 1890...
...By increasing the duties on some luxuries and articles not of ordinary use, making, however, no increases on any common food product, it turned a national deficit into a surplus...
...Each succeeding month since his inauguration has confirmed the nation in its high estimate of his greatness of character, intellectual ability, sturdy common sense, extraordinary patience and perseverance, broad and statesmanlike comprehension of public questions, and unfaltering and unswerving adherence to duty...
...It left him awkwardly stranded in the election of 1910...
...While Taft made some effort at reconciliation, he was not willing wholly to subordinate himself to his former chief...
...Following is the Declaration of Principles adopted: We, the undersigned, associate ourselves together as The National Progressive Republican League...
...To that end Gifford Pinchot who had been removed by Taft as Chief Forester—and had become an active Progressive, as early as December 31st, had written an extended letter to Roosevelt which would meet him at the African border, and give his mind the right slant on the political situation...
...I had received much encouragement particularly from that portion of the country, in support of my own candidacy for the Republican nomination months prior to the meeting of the convention in 1908...
...Roosevelt's the more "progressive...
...The campaign of 1912 witnessed the publication by Roosevelt of a letter written to him by President Taft shortly after his inauguration which contained this startling acknowledgment: "I can never forget the power I now exercise was voluntarily transferred from you to me, and that 1 am under obligation to you to see that your judgment in selecting me as your successor and bringing about the succession shall be vindicated according to the standards which you and I in conversation have always formulated...
...Even in the northern states the federal machine is a powerful factor in the election of delegates, and though the candidate may be personally weak, or even obnoxious, the power of the President's steam roller had been demonstrated so thoroughly in the previous convention that every one familiar with that campaign accepted it as a tremendous force to be reckoned with...
...The Progressives in the Senate and House of Representatives held steadily to their course...
...There was no mistaking the fact that the New York gubernatorial campaign of 1910, had left him in a sorry plight politically...
...Through these men we were informed that while Roosevelt was at this time, in the winter of 1911, against Taft, that he (Roosevelt) did not want to see any Progressive candidate put in the field against him...
...But adhering to his conception of a "square deal," his strongest declarations in the public interest were invariably offset with something comforting for Privilege...
...It was during this interval that the Progressive movement made its greatest progress nationally...
...But conservation did not originate with the Roosevelt administration...
...cloud drifted by and quiet was restored, it would always be found surprising that so little had really been accomplished...
...By Robert M. La Follette (Copyrighted 1912, The Robert M. La Follette Co...
...This would be very important, as it is his political habit to so state and qualify his positions that you are never quite sure of him...
...If it became clear that Taft could be beaten, in the convention and furthermore that he (Roosevelt) could win in the election against a Democrat, his restored confidence, resulting from the tour of 1911, made him reasonably certain that he could displace the candidate put out against Taft, stampede the convention, and secure the nomination for himself...
...Under existing conditions legislation in the public interest has been baffled and defeated...
...Gifford Pinchot and also his brother, Amos Pinchot, who had joined in some of the conferences before referred to, and, likewise, Van Valkenberg were very much exercised over what they termed the political mistake of the Progressives in opposing the Canadian Pact...
...Their diligence and ingenuity were rewarded with no syllable to indicate his course...
...speech which he had prepared for his trip through the west...
...and for the enactment of all legislation solely for the common good...
...Next week's article deals with Roosevelt's part in bringing out La Follette as the Progressive candidate...
...That it was passed as one might transfer the title to a house and lot makes a mockery of every principle upon which constitutional government is founded...
...The League, under the direction of its president, Senator Bourne, did, and is • continuing to do, effective work in advancing the principles to promote which it was organized...
...These gatherings were attended not only by Progressive members of the Senate and House, but by representative Progressives who visited Washington from time to time...
...his endorsement by progressives of 30 states at the Chicago conference...
...Besides, every month made it clear that the Taft administration was becoming more and more impossible...
...Excepting as to one matter which he said was definitely settled in his mind he was very guarded in his statements...
...The admission of the beneficiary of this crime against democracy, with the comment of the man who planned an executed it, should have taken both Taft and Roosevelt out of the 1912 campaign...
...his complete surrender to the legislative reactionary program of Aldrich and Cannon, and the discredited representatives of special interests who had so long managed congressional legislation, rendered it utterly impossible for the Progressive Republicans of the country to support him for re-nomination...
...Roosevelt was the exception...
...The most savage assault upon special interests was invariably offset with an equally drastic attack upon all others who were seeking to reform abuses...
...Taft assuredly had a very great advantage at the outset...
...Charles R. Crane, Treasurer...
...And finally, the Hepburn Bill was enacted as a pretended compliance with that demand...
...the activity of Roosevelt's close friends...
...Openly denouncing trusts and combinations he made concessions and compromises which tremendously strengthened these special interests...
...Speaking of the initiative and referendum, he said he had arrived at no settled conviction...
...that he was confident of two things: first, that Taft could not be beaten for nomination...
...It was, therefore, dropped out of his western views as proclaimed upon the tariff, and his utterances in Iowa, Kansas, and other western states were so generally in accord with the tariff opinions of that section of the country that it was a distinct shock to his admirers beyond the Mississippi, when, in the New York Republican State Convention, where he had such absolute control that he was able to elect himself chairman, making the keynote speech and nominating his personal friend Stimson for Governor, that he should vote for and approve a platform containing the following declaration: "The Payne-Aldrich Tariff Law reduced the average rate of all duties eleven per cent...
...Many conferences were held...
...Every citizen possessed of any conviction, had taken his stand long before, and the contest was on in every state...
...The name of a former President would give strength to the organization...
...I was in a position at that time to know definitely the public sentiment of the west and middle western states...
...Taft's messages were the more directly reactionary...
...Roosevelt Declines to Join R OOSEVELT was invited to become a member of the National Progressive Republican League, founded upon this simple declaration of elementary principles, but he had not become enough of a Progressive at that time to be willing to identify himself with the organization, and therefore declined...
...The President started on a tour across the country in September, 1909...
...3) The direct election of delegates to national conventions with opportunity for the voter to express his choice for President and Vice-President...
...As the session advanced, the strength of the progressive position on reciprocity developed markedly...
...I told him very explicitly of Taft's course upon the tariff, of his Winona speech, in which he declared the Payne-Aldrich Bill the best bill ever enacted by a Republican Congress...
...A good beginning had been made in a number of other states, and for three years I had labored in the Senate against a solid opposition, wholly unable to rely on the administration of President Roosevelt for support or co-operation...
...But President Roosevelt put his personality behind an army of federal officials and nominated him against all opposition...
...He came back quite another man...
...He replied that he had given no particular thought to the details, but that he had a settled and fixed opinion as to the importance of applying the principle to the federal judiciary...
...There was the comprehensive and well recognized Progressive movement in Wisconsin...
...A colored attendant showed me into the library, and informed me that the Colonel would see me presently...
...While able men in nearly every state in the north were active in promoting Progressive principles they seemed to look to the group in Washington to take the initiative...
...But everyone saw the uncertainties of 1912...
...Except for Section Twenty which authorized the Commission to enforce upon the Railroads a uniform system of book-keeping, the bill omitted every provision which the Interstate Commerce Commission had for nine years urged upon Congress as necessary to make it a workable statute for the protection of the public interest...
...Roosevelt's talk was generally at right angles to his legislative policy...
...In the light of subsequent events, there can be little doubt that when Roosevelt left the White House he had 1916 firmly in his mind...
...the conservation of coal, oil, gas, timber, water-powers, and other natural resources belonging to the people...
...And the tariff-protected trust beneficiaries, availing themselves of their increased rates, promptly advanced prices to the consumer...
...When given to the public by the former President, in a speech at Worcester, Massachusetts, April 26, 1912, it was with the naive comment that: "It is a bad trait to bite the hand that feeds you...
...He himself often confessed a distaste for and lack of interest in economic problems, and his want of definite conception always invited to compromise, retarding or defeating real progress...
...He deliberated for a time as to whether he would stand with the administration, supporting Taft for renomination, or seek to identify himself with the Progressives—or straddle...
...With a single exception, those who professed any interest in the Progressive cause regarded it an imperative duty to oppose the renomination of Taft with a pronounced and thoroughgoing Progressive candidate...
...Neither President took issue with the reactionary bosses of the Senate upon any legislation of national importance...
...Progressive Republican League Is Formed FOR MANY MONTHS little was heard from him...
...He asked me about the work of Congress and the new administration, and I told him frankly and definitely of the tariff and railroad legislation, and of the great advance which the Progressive movement had really made...
...that it could not be made without a Progressive candidate, and that the future of the Progressive movement demanded that such a contest be waged...
...2) Direct primaries for the nomination of elective officials...
...While injustice was done in many cases, the general result has been one of incalculable benefit to the public as a whole...
...The presidency is the people's office...
...But still the American public were left in ignorance as to the future action of the former President...
...Events were rapidly transpiring...
...his surprise and disappointment at the strength La Follette was showing...
...Taft's talk was generally in line with his legislative policy...
...Wisconsin five years before had enacted a law under which the delegates to the National Republican Convention of 1908 were elected by direct vote of the people...
...It was not strange, therefore, that he approved the Hepburn Rate Bill, and claimed it as an achievement for his administration...
...With some modifications suggested by the Senators in our conference, the declaration and constitution were prepared for signatures and copies mailed to Senators and Members who had returned to their homes for the recess, and to leading Progressives in different states...
...The enthusiasm of the Chief Forester which led him to include within forest reserves extended areas of purely agricultural lands, thus retarding agricultural development in some of the western states, resulted in building up the only well grounded opposition to conservation progress...
...He had been received with great acclaim in the old world, and likewise upon his arrival in New York...
...The interest of the Progressive cause was the controlling thought in all of those deliberations...
...his attempt to foist upon the country a sham reciprocity measure...
...He was urged to join the League for several reasons...
...He was more than half piqued at that time, because his suggestions as to appointments had been ignored by his successor...
...and, through this control of the machinery of government, dictate nominations and platforms, elect administrations, legislatures, representatives in Congress, United States Senators, and control cabinet officers...
...Roosevelt's speaking tour of the country beginning in March, 1911, lasted more than six weeks...
...It would commit him to a clear-cut and definite position upon the five propositions embodied in the Declaration of Principles...
...He could take no chance...
...This law was supplemented by the legislature of 1912 providing for a direct vote on presidential and vice-presidential candidates...
...These were indiscriminately classed as demagogues and dangerous persons...
...In that period, under the administration of President Taft, the Progressive Republican movement made greater headway than during the entire Roosevelt administration...
...Among those urging action none were more aggressive and persistent than the Pinchots, James R. Garfield, formerly a member of Roosevelt's Cabinet, Van Valkenberg, and Gardner...
...his course regarding Ballinger and the Cunningham claims, and the subterfuges resorted to by his administration in defence of Ballinger...
...It was four years better than 1916...
...Pinchot from the first was insistent that a fight should be made against Taft's nomination...
...The congressional elections of 1910 forecast disaster for the Republican party in 1912...
...The Progressive Republican League believes that popular government is fundamental to all other questions...
...The extra session of 1909 on the Tariff had been followed by the regular session of 1909-10, in which the Progressives had torn to pieces the administration railroad bill, and written the measure almost entirely anew, on the floor of the Senate...
...that he was be-coming more progressive and would eventually be found in the ranks of those who were, day by day, giving that movement its distinct place in political history...
...Every day strengthened their cause before the people...
...Popular government in America has been thwarted and progressive legislation strangled by the special interests, which control caucuses, delegates, conventions, and party organizations...
...Oregon had already adopted its statute...
...and first evidences of determination of Roosevelt's friends to "hamstring" the La Follette candidacy...
...He landed in New York, June 18th, and for weeks the daily press teemed with questioning and speculation...
...The tariff session had rent asunder the Republican party...
...North Dakota, Nebraska, California, New Jersey, Illinois, and Massachusetts enacted similar statutes, and in South Dakota steps were taken to elect delegates by direct vote under an existing primary law, though the provisions authorizing such election of delegates had not previously been invoked...
...The reason for this is obvious...
...There were the old-time crowds, the music, the cheers...
...From this time on the growth of conservation as a governmental policy was commensurate to its great importance to the public...
...He was opposed to bringing out a Progressive candidate...
...Nothing less would have satisfied Roosevelt...
...When the Progressive Movement Made Headway FORMER PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT, after the expiration of his term of office, absented himself from the country for a period of about fifteen months...
...Editors and publishers of progressive magazines and papers were heard from directly and indirectly insisting that there should be no further delay in taking formal action to the end that Progressive Republicans should be given an opportunity to support some one who could be recognized and supported as representing the Progressive movement...
...In response to the steadily growing demands, numerous withdrawals of public lands from private sale or entry, for the protection of forests, fuel supply, irrigation, and waterpowers, were made during the Roosevelt administration...
...The Need of a Progressive Candidate THAT THE Progressive Republicans should present a candidate for nomination for the presidency in opposition to Mr...
...It was plain that the Progressive movement could not be tied up with the Taft administration by anybody...
...5) A thoroughgoing corrupt practices act...
...Through the publication of a volume entitled "Lands of the Arid West," by Major J. W. Powell, Director of the Geological Survey, and as a result of the foresight and influence of Director Powell in 1888 an irrigation division of the United States Geological Survey was established, and authority conferred upon the Secretary of the Interior to withdraw from private entry reservoir sites and areas of land necessary for irrigation purposes...
...Five months after he was inaugurated he signed a bill that revised the tariff upward...
...Now, let us see how this Roosevelt psychosis fits the facts as they have transpired...
...The third session of the 61st Congress closed on the 4th of March, 1911, without any definite conclusion being reached, although it was pretty generally understood that we must take some formal action soon...
...Taft had almost no individual strength or following in 1908...
...Early in the spring of 1911, Roosevelt prepared for another tour of the country...
Vol. 4 • October 1912 • No. 40
