UC-NRLF 
 
 2357 
 1915 
 
 Ms 
 
 CO 
 
 NO 
 
 o 
 
The Reorganization 
 
 of the 
 
 Republican Party 
 
 by 
 
 MARTIN S. VILAS, A. M n 
 
 Member of the 
 Bars of California, Vermont and Washington. 
 
 Copyrighted 1915 by 
 MAKTIN SAMUEL VILA.B 
 
The Reorganization 
 
 of the 
 
 Republican Party 
 
 by 
 
 MAKTIX S. VILAS, A. M., 
 
 f 
 
 Member of the 
 Bars of California, Vermont and Washington. 
 
 Copyrighted 1915 by 
 MARTIN SAMUEL VILAS 
 
23 
 
 5? 
 
 
THE REORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, 
 
 I. 
 
 (1) The above in one form or another has been the subject 
 of much printed discussion during the last year and a half. Men 
 of high political and official prominence in the United States 
 have ably contributed to this discussion and given much of value 
 to the public. 
 
 The serious consideration of the subject as an active, posi- 
 tive proposition carries with it an admission of the weakness 
 of the present organization of the Republican party. Nothing 
 needs reorganization if its present organization be worthy, fitting 
 and adequate. Prima facie, then, that so many men prominent 
 in the Republican party itself have contributed to this discussion 
 seems to make the case against the present organization of this 
 party. Probably the most notable of such contributions are the 
 recent articles in the Saturday Evening Post by Ex-President 
 William II. Taft and by United States Senator Albert B. Cum- 
 mins. 
 
 Aside from the party weakness revealed in these articles, 
 that a political party, since 1860, easily the most conspicuous 
 and most meritorious in America in shaping the policies and in 
 carrying out the myriad of measures which have so greatly aided 
 in building up the power and prosperity of the United States, 
 and a party nationally supreme in 1908 with abundant majorities, 
 should descend to third place in 1912, be able to carry only two 
 small states for its presidential candidates and to poll approxi- 
 mately 3,500,000 votes from an estimated 9,000,000 of Republi- 
 can voters is presumptive evidence of a fundamental weakness 
 of organization or management in this great party. 
 
 (2) However this political situation is viewed, the writer 
 is very confident it is not begging the question by assuming a 
 condition from a given state of facts, possibly unjustified, if 
 the query is made, why this great change in conditions, this 
 revulsion, or revolution. JjiJ)ijJ^lie.s^uiiment? The greater num- 
 
ber of articles written have assumed that some other method of 
 representation in Republican national conventions is the essential 
 feature. Several have painted in vivid colors upon the canvas of 
 the public press the apparent injustice of permitting the 
 southern states, having in a number of them only a modicum of 
 Republican strength, a representation often greater than that 
 of strong Republican states of the north. 
 
 Senator Cummins in his article in the Saturday Evening 
 Post, date of November 15th, 1913, wrote/ 'How did it happen 
 that the outcome of the convention both as to platform and as to 
 nominations did not fairly represent the opinions and desires of 
 the majority of the millions who composed the Republican party ? 
 There is no need to seek long or far for an answer. It is known 
 to all men. It springs right at you. The Convention of 1912 
 was not a representative body in any just sense. It could not 
 and did not speak for these millions of Republicans. In times 
 like these, at any rate, if nine or ten millions of men are to be 
 held together by a bond of common purpose, the very least re- 
 quirement is that the purpose shall be declared by a majority 
 and each voter must feel that he has had a fair chance, which 
 means an equal voice in the council in which his representative 
 sits. * * * These facts have been stated not for the purpose of 
 censuring anybody, for the basis now condemned was adopted 
 by Republicans who have long since passed away and on account 
 of conditions which have long since disappeared. It is not 
 material to inquire into the motives of the men responsible for 
 it, or the sufficiency of the reasons which led them to their con- 
 clusion, nor need we recite the efforts that have been made in 
 various conventions to bring about a change. The vital thing 
 is to know thoroughly and feel deeply that such injustice must 
 cease and that a successful party under such a system is im- 
 possible. 
 
 Representation so unequal would have ended in disaster, 
 even though every question relating to the title of delegates to 
 seats in national conventions had been decided with the highest 
 judicial impartiality; but the fairness of courts is not to be 
 expected in the stress and storm of political campaigns and so 
 it has happened that in many conventions, and especially in the 
 
last one, the claims of contesting delegates have been adjudged 
 mainly with reference to their views respecting the candidates for 
 the presidential nomination. * ' The tremendous mistake that 
 a very considerable number of good men have made, and are mak- 
 ing, is in their assumption that the well-known differences in the 
 political views of certain distinguished and semi-distinguished 
 Republicans who have heretofore been somewhat conspicuous in 
 the affairs of the country are conclusive proof that there are like 
 differences in the rank and file of the party. The thing to do 
 is to submit all these questions to the Convention of 1916, a 
 convention that must be brought together under such rules as 
 not only will insure a decent equality of representation, but will 
 guarantee that the delegates chosen by the Republicans of a state 
 shall actually take part in the convention to which they are ac- 
 credited; rules that will respect the primary laws of the states 
 that have them, and for the states that have none, provide a 
 better, fairer method of settling contests." 
 
 It is commonly accepted that the only present, adequate 
 method of expression for a national party as a party on matters 
 political is through its representatives at its national conventions. 
 If this representation be inadequate, incomplete or unjust, dis- 
 satisfaction, and maybe disruption in the party, are sure to 
 follow. A kind of "taxation without representation" spirit will 
 pervade the members. The spirit of freedom, of justice and of 
 progress essential to success in a great party will be lacking in 
 connection with its work. 
 
 But a great party is not what any one man or group of men 
 declares it to be. It may not be what the national platform 
 of the party declares it to be. It is what the majority of the 
 rank and file of the party all over the country declare it to be 
 on those occasions when they may express themselves. Under a 
 national primary law, the work of national conventions will be 
 considerably taken from them. 
 
 Query; Is an alteration, however radical, of the method, 
 or manner, of electing and seating delegates to the national con- 
 ventions of a political party a "reorganization" of that party? 
 Possibly, but probably not. At any rate, the changes suggested 
 by Senator Cummins and by all others that have publicly ex- 
 
pressed themselves upon this subject so far as known to the 
 writer of this article are not in his opinion sufficiently profound 
 and fundamental to be characterized accurately as ' * a reorganiza- 
 tion of the Republican party. ' ' 
 
 II. 
 
 The question of importance here is not how such changes as 
 have been suggested and named shall be classified, which is 
 merely a play upon words ; but rather do these proposed changes 
 reach the fundamental causes which in particular have produced 
 the startling transformation in the condition of this great party f 
 
 Granted that, as the writer believes was the case, the Re- 
 publican National Convention of 1912 was not made up on a 
 basis of representation, accurate or just, and that the contested 
 seats were usually filled not on the merits as to right in the body 
 of that convention but rather on the question as to how delegates 
 would vote for candidates for president in case they should reach 
 the body of the convention. Great as is the impropriety and in- 
 justice entailed in this kind of representation and in this man- 
 ner of seating delegates and great as was the national dissatis- 
 faction resulting from the action of this now historic convention, 
 first, do these justify the members of that party in administer- 
 ing upon its own all along its notably strong lines a defeat sting- 
 ing and humiliating and in rejecting in toto its party tenets, 
 hitherto regarded by many with a respect that almost touches 
 the border-land of veneration? Second, whether the action of 
 this convention upon disputed seats therein was justified or not. 
 and whether it was rightly constituted or not, was the formation 
 and manner of seating delegations of the Convention of 
 1912 the actual reason for the trailing in the dust of the banner 
 of Republicanism? Especially because it is remembered that 
 the manner of electing delegates to Republican National Con- 
 ventions has been unchanged for many years, the writer un- 
 hesitatingly answers the first query in the negative. To the 
 second query, the same answer is given. 
 
 III. 
 
 What was the cause, or were the causes, contributing most 
 prominently to the defeat and rejection named and what in brief 
 
is the remedy to avoid occurrences of like character in the future? 
 
 (1) The Progressive party was born in the rejection of the 
 action of the Kepublican National Convention of 1912. The 
 Progressive platform is radical, almost startlingly so in some 
 propositions, yet its national candidates received more votes 
 than those of the Republican party. Was the overwhelming de- 
 feat of the Republican party due in large degree to its lack of 
 advocacy of measures really progressive and beneficial in a time 
 and age when men and nations are moving fast in the creation 
 and adoption of almost numberless enactments genuinely of 
 great value to the public ? 
 
 Ex-President Taft in his article in the Saturday Post of 
 date February 14th, 1914, stated "The Republican party is in 
 favor of all police legislation intended to secure proper tene- 
 ments for the poor, to prevent the employment of children at too 
 early an age, to secure proper hygienic conditions for the com- ^ 
 munity and especially for wage earners as they work ; to remedy 
 any situation where circumstances have offered a temptation to 
 the employee to needless danger, to put the employee on an 
 equality of negotiation with the employer, so that through organi- 
 zation and arbitration and in other ways the employee may 
 secure equitable terms; to secure workmen's compensation in 
 rase of injury, by which the risk in dangerous occupations carried 
 on for the benefit of the public shall be borne primarily by the 
 employer as incident to his business and ultimately by the people, 
 who shall pay in the increased price of his product the equivalent 
 of such risk and, indeed, of all practical, so-called collective 
 legislation of this general character." A glance at several recent 
 national platforms of the Republican party fairly supports Mr. 
 Taft in his statement as to most, if not all, of these subjects for 
 which his party is alleged to stand. 
 
 The Progressive party spread its platform over much ground 
 and included many subjects never before comprised in a national 
 party platform. It included many subjects for national ad- 
 vocacy which must be settled by the states alone singly. Its 
 advocacy of woman's suffrage, of a recall of public officials, some- 
 what indefinite in form, of the initiative and the referendum 
 caught the fancy of the discontented, of the unsuccessful and the 
 
ultra-democratic as well as of those of the Republican party 
 dissatisfied with it. This platform appealed also to the men 
 and women everywhere regardless of condition who believe in 
 equality and justice under the law. 
 
 Some of its measures have found an enduring place in 
 American politics and American policies. Thus, woman's suf- 
 frage is to be enacted into the statutes of every state, as is some 
 form of the initiative and the referendum. The spirit of this 
 platform is not socialistic or revolutionary but rather that of the 
 sincere seeker after truth and righteousness in matters govern- 
 mental. 
 
 The great majority of those who supported Roosevelt and 
 Johnson in 1912 were not fanatics or irrationals. They were of 
 the men and women who believe that if democracy be a good 
 thing, then the more we have of it under a republican form of 
 government the better, and that, if for some it be very good, 
 pure and undefiled, then this type, so far as our form of govern- 
 ment will permit, is the kind we all need and have long sought. 
 
 (2) What is the true and correct function of government 
 has, of course, for always been a mooted question. An agency 
 should in every instance be definite, precise and well understood 
 by principal and agent. This agency, called government, which 
 we all create and establish and perpetuate at such tremendous 
 cost, we should all accurately apprehend and understand. We 
 should know what we expect from it and make it do for us all 
 that we contract. The agency must be exclusive; i. e., we can 
 have only one at any one time. The agents who act for us under 
 the contract we make with ourselves must know what we expect 
 from them and just what this contract demands of them. They 
 should be worthy of their hire and also worthy of their em- 
 ployers. Aside from whatever pay they receive, as citizens they 
 work for themselves as well as for us. We have full power to 
 extend the scope of this agency as we find it reasonable and ex- 
 pedient. 
 
 In other phrase, the question is just what and how much 
 do we want others to do for us in matters political and govern- 
 mental. The most of us really do not know. We dread 
 changes in matters of government. We fear the cost, but most 
 
of all we fear that our agents may forget we are principals 
 and may override and oppress us, their masters, as so many times 
 h;is happened. We create a legislative innovation, then wait 
 almost in alarm for the result from our own creation. The ap- 
 parent truism here needs to be written that the true function ^ 
 of government is to give us all we can obtain of benefits through 
 this kind of agency. 
 
 We could do all the work of government individually or in 
 small groups, but there are too many of us, so we require the 
 concentrated, concerted, highly intelligent action of large num- 
 bers to obtain the results needful to a people gregarious and 
 multitudinous. Parties are formed primarily to ascertain the 
 most desirable in governmental functions, then to try to put 
 these into operation. Primarily, too, parties are for the benefit 
 of the whole people ; really, they are often a medium to further 
 the ambitions of a few. Primarily, again, and analytically, they 
 are solely a means to an end. 
 
 We often merge and confound them with the end. This is 
 because of lack of careful analysis, habitual with many. It is, 
 further, because of the habit of the centuries, which has become 
 an unfortunate, disastrous custom, to elevate matters govern- 
 mental above their correct positions. It is not many years ago 
 that an emperor of Germany stated publicly upon his accession 
 to the throne that he obtained his authority to rule from God 
 Almighty and from no one else. The people of his country were 
 solely to blame for the conditions producing this statement. But 
 they knew no better and the custom of the centuries was the child 
 of ignorance in the people and of a desire in the rulers to create 
 awe and reverance in those they wished to rule that their own 
 positions might be safer. 
 
 When Russian soldiers fight and die on the battle-field, 
 they are usually actuated not so much by patriotism, pure and 
 simple, as by the thought that the "Little Father" of Russia de- 
 mands the sacrifice and that their lives are forfeit to his will. 
 Here again, a people have almost deified that which they created. 
 They are but little wiser than the east Indian who fashions 
 the clay image, then bows down before the work of his own hands. 
 Close analysis in matters of government has been almost as rare 
 
as in matters of religion. The transitory, subservient means are 
 merged in the expected, desired *nd. There is nothing holy, 
 sacred or sanctimonious in a government. Like the clay with 
 which we make the image, we may mould and shape it as we will. 
 Nor is there anything sacred or sanctimonious in the men who 
 connect themselves with governments, usually to satisfy personal 
 ambitions. 
 
 (3) A few years ago we were beginning to place parties 
 the mere temporary association of men for expediency upon 
 an elevation dangerous to our intelligence and political safety. 
 If the mission of the Progressive party has stopped with this, 
 it has done an excellent work in teaching the members of the 
 Republican party that it was composed of men, that it lived 
 but in name and was valuable simply as it might serve those who 
 lived in the country where it had this kind of being. 
 
 More, the principles of the Progressive party, nailed auda- 
 ciously on the front door of public opinion, have moved the people 
 to demand and to have works of their public agents. The other 
 parties are zealous to be regarded as highly "progressive." No 
 candidate for a public office, but, at least in an indefinite de- 
 gree, is ' ' progressive. ' ' 
 
 The Republican party had its origin in the storm and strife 
 of impending rebellion through the demand for a party that 
 should stand in the name of the people against the political 
 theories of one section which would upbuild the aristocracy of 
 the slave owner as the type of an American citizen. It main- 
 tained that the national government had the power to control 
 slavery in the territories and that the government should prevent 
 its further extension. It stood for a protective tariff, for in- 
 ternal improvements and a system of national bank currency. It 
 was the party of the common people, of the everyday man. 
 As such it led in fighting the war of the Rebellion, in reconstruct- 
 ing the states and in reestablishing our currency on January 1st, 
 1879. The era of prosperity and development under the very 
 wise rule of the Republican party has been without parallel in 
 the history of any other country. 
 
 But many of the men, prominent in the Republican party, 
 have been content to rest much upon the past. The marvelous 
 
history of the country and its progress under Republicanism, the 
 great work of the party in fighting the war and in upbuilding 
 our industries under a protective tariff have been until a few 
 years the themes of Republican orators in every campaign. The 
 vital questions of labor and of capital, of limitations on the 
 power of monopolizing corporations and of increased participa- 
 tion by the people directly in government have been too often 
 passed over by both the two great parties merely with resolutions 
 in their party platforms. 
 
 Again, the taint of official unfaithfulness has attached itself 
 to a number of men high in the ranks of Republicanism. The 
 alleged connection of Senator Foraker, of Senator Hanna. Senator 
 Penrose, Congressman Jo. Sibley of Pennsylvania and of other 
 prominent Republicans with Standard Oil in an improper man- 
 ner and the expulsion of Senator Lorimer from the United States 
 Senate for buying his way into office injured very much the 
 party to which these men belonged. The odor of suspicion con- 
 nected itself with many of the great leaders of the Republican 
 party. 
 
 The administration of President Taft intensified this. He 
 was elected under the supposition that in policy he was another 
 Roosevelt. The promises of the Republican platform of 1908 
 were not kept in the legislation of the Payne Aldrich Tariff Act 
 and in the later vetoes by President Taft of the attempted re- 
 vision by honest, progressive Republicans of the woolen schedule. 
 He repeatedly termed this schedule an "indefensible" outrage, 
 but twice in one year he stood between the people and substantial 
 relief from the oppression of these duties and finally rejected a 
 bill drawn on the protective lines advocated by the Republican 
 party in 1908. His reciprocity treaty with Canada was for the 
 benefit of the manufacturer but not for the benefit of the farmer. 
 His lack of support of Dr. Wiley in his administration of the pure 
 food law laid him open to general criticism. The alleged connec- 
 tion of Secretary of the Interior Ballinger with the Guggenheims 
 in Alaska coal deals brought considerable suspicion and censure 
 upon the administration. Also, every progressive Republican 
 seeking reelection to Congress was made to feel that the powerful 
 influence of the National administration was cast against him. 
 
These factors in the official service of President Taft served 
 to a considerable extent to overcome, or neutralize, the positive 
 excellencies of his work, notable in favor of international arbi- 
 tration, the Working Man's Liability Law, the Postal Savings 
 Bank and a Parcel Post. 
 
 Moreover, in the Middle West had arisen a new order of 
 public servants and so a new order of public service, La Follette 
 and Dolliver, Cummins and Bristow, Beveridge and Hadley. 
 Clapp, Murdock and Borah and a few others with them were 
 templars that stood always in the ring and, wearing the cross 
 of the only true faith, were ever ready to break a lance against 
 the enemies of political truth and righteousness. For them no 
 project too hazardous, no work of toil too arduous, no sacrifice 
 too great connected with the public advantage and service. 
 
 Senator La Follette has made his ' ' Weekly ' ' of wide circula- 
 tion. He advocates new measures for the public benefit constantly 
 and earnestly. His work bears the * i Guinea Stamp ' ' of an almost 
 fearful research and care. He spares neither friend nor foe in 
 his cold, pitiless analysis of conditions and men. Yet by en- 
 dowment and acquisition he possesses a sterling common sense 
 on most matters and the wisdom to know and choose aright. His 
 paper has tremendous educative power and influence, especially 
 in the central part of the United States. 
 
 A new political thought and attitude arose. Men saw that 
 these agents of the public just indicated, though of great ability 
 and industry, were not leaders of the Republican party in Con- 
 gress or out. They noted that when these representatives of 
 theirs who were senators spoke from the floor in advocacy of 
 measures of vital public importance, the Republican leaders in 
 the Senate absented themselves from attendance and that the 
 utmost of endeavor in reproof and repression was used by these 
 same leaders against the senators of the people striving to reach 
 the best for those in whose interest, they held office, worked and 
 wrought. 
 
 The people of the country came to believe that the Republi- 
 can administration and the leaders of the party were out of 
 touch with them. The majority of the rank and file of the party 
 believed that party platforms were meaningless and deceptive 
 
and that, though many measures were enacted beneficial to the 
 people, when issue was made over a measure as between the 
 public good and the good of those, rather indefinitely character- 
 ized as "the interests," the latter almost invariably received the 
 preference. Many Republicans felt they were being betrayed by 
 the men they long had trusted and that a great party name was 
 often but a pretense to deception and fraud. 
 
 Still again, the accession of Theodore Roosevelt to the presi- 
 dency was heralded as unwelcome to the leaders of the Republi- 
 can party on the ground that he was "unsafe," yet most men 
 failed to note that this "unsafeness" consisted in anything else 
 than energy, determination and honesty in the public service. 
 During the seven years of his administration of the office the in- 
 terests of the many as opposed to the interests of the few, which 
 had been exemplified in the preceding administration in the per- 
 son of Mark Hanna, received adequate attention. The majority 
 of the people recognized that they had a man of their own at the 
 head of the nation and resolved to elect no other kind thereafter. 
 The sharp contrast between his administration and that of Presi- 
 dent Taft added to the disappointment and disaffection of Re- 
 publicans and gave further cause and occasion for the tremen- 
 dous votes in 1912 for Wilson and Marshall and for Roosevelt 
 and Johnson. 
 
 The people noted, also, that the man, who more than any 
 other dominated the Republican National Convention of 1912 and 
 the Republican National Campaign of that year, was Boss Barnes, 
 who lays tribute upon vice and crime in his own Albany, New 
 York, and makes these pay their tainted shekels into his own 
 coffers, swelled by political corruption. They saw that the man 
 who stood next to Barnes in all this was the notorious Penrose. 
 
 The citizens voted in large numbers for Roosevelt and 
 Johnson because they stood actually and honestly for clearer, 
 truer democracy than did the candidates of the Republican party, 
 because they were great leaders, men of action and of power, with 
 the people and of them. Very many regarded these leaders as 
 crusaders fighting under the banner of the faith of the free. 
 Their armor was always on and their lances at rest. Their places 
 always had been in the lists against the enemies of the common, 
 
average man. "The fierce light which beats upon a throne" had 
 not been more intense than that which for many years had been 
 turned upon them. Under this their honesty of public purpose 
 and faithfulness to duty had been determined to be without 
 stain. 
 
 (4) Yet Ex-President Taft in the article mentioned, of 
 date February 14th. 1914. wrote "We must direct our energies 
 toward the amendment of the present banking and currency act 
 that shall furnish an elastic medium automatically adjusting it- 
 self to the needs of business without giving too arbitrary control 
 to the government : a wise system for conservation of our national 
 resources; the reform of judicial procedure, eliminating its de- 
 lays and reducing its costs ; the greater supervision of the busi- 
 ness of. and the issue of securities by. corporations in interstate 
 business and the continued enforcement of the antitrust law; 
 laws providing workmen's compensation for interstate railroad 
 companies and regulating the relations between them and their 
 employees, to prevent strikes, so far as possible and to secure 
 safety in operation for the public and the employees : the taking 
 of all local Federal officers and all but department heads and 
 under secretaries out of politics by putting them in the classi- 
 fied service; the improvement of rivers and harbors by a com- 
 pleted plan and a levee system for the Mississippi : the enactment 
 of model laws for the District of Columbia, as to the control of 
 public utilities ; the maintenance of the public health, on the us- 
 of child labor, the regulation of tenement house construction, in- 
 vestigation and arbitration of labor disputes and the conduct of 
 vocational education ; of playgrounds and of charitable and penal 
 institutions; the enlargement of the Bureau of Education into a 
 means of publishing to the world the exact condition of education 
 in every state with a view to stimulating much needed progr 
 in thorough primary and vocational training ; the stimulation of 
 the merchant marine, the creation and maintenance of a perma- 
 nent tariff commission with adequate power to report the f act- 
 to the operation of the tariff: the adoption of a budget system 
 and a plan for making government administration economical 
 and efficient; the maintenance of an adequate army and navy: 
 the conferring on the Federal government power to perform our 
 
treaty obligations to aliens by punishing those who violate them; 
 the adoption and pursuit of a foreign policy that shall give us 
 influence to aid China and our American neighbors in maintain- 
 ing just and peaceful governments.' 
 
 These are some of the constructive reforms to which the 
 Republican party will address itself when it shall secure again 
 the mandate of the people ; but before and of higher importance 
 than all of these is the rescue of the country from the serious 
 danger to which it is exposed in this attempted undermining of 
 our stable, civil liberty." 
 
 Nearly all of what Mr. Taft urges is highly desirable for 
 the United States. Place it. just as he expresses it, before the 
 national conventions of the three great political parties in the 
 United States when next they shall gather, and the vote will 
 be overwhelmingly favorable to the adoption of these as "some 
 of the constructive reforms" to which each party is to address 
 itself, as Mr. Taft is to have his party turn, after it has suffici- 
 ently "viewed with alarm" the attempt of the people of the 
 United States to obtain a purer, truer democracy. 
 
 (5) Therefore, while the new party has gone considerably 
 in advance of the two old parties in advocating constructive legis- 
 lation giving the people more direct participation in the govern- 
 ment, the causes of the overwhelming, ignominious defeat, of 
 1912. which gave the Republican presidential candidates only 
 Utah and Vermont and put the party far down the minority 
 column in Congress, were due rather to men than to party prin- 
 ciples, to the records of public agents rather than to a lack of 
 definite, adequate powers given these agents. 
 
 The writer, a progressive Republican, who with reluctance 
 supported Roosevelt and Johnson in 1912 and who has since 
 talked with many hundreds of Republicans, Progressives and 
 Democrats in all parts of the United States, suggests, though 
 it be Qiitrljjv^)^t least, desirable for the rehabilita- 
 tion of the Republican party that it be "reorganized," as several 
 and notably Sen^toiiCummins have urged, yet more than 
 this, that the tt^eof the party must be "reorganized." 
 
 An overwhelming majority of the party think right and are 
 right on matters political and governmental. This majority. 
 
under principles heretofore named, determines the character of 
 the party and for what it actually stands; a few men who by 
 political mischance get into Congress or political leadership in no 
 degree determine this. A genuine "government of the people, 
 by the people and for the people" which, like Christianity, never 
 has been tried except in spots, a majority of the Republican 
 party desire to make real and effective in the United States. 
 
 Progressive Republicanism actually means that the people 
 rule, usually through their accredited representatives, but that, 
 where experience has proven it safer or more effective to conduct 
 some part of the machinery of government by direct action of 
 the people, or by final appeal to the people, our form of govern- 
 ment was devised and intended to enable this to be done; and 
 that when our fathers framed the Constitution, they planned it to 
 be the medium for the preservation of the liberties of the people, 
 not one for the subversion of their rights under a complexity of 
 routine, behind which the invisible government lurks and con- 
 trols. 
 
 Changes in party platforms and in constitution of national 
 conventions are now but matters of paper and of promise. They 
 reach not the essence of the weakness. The suspicious distrust 
 and unbelief of the citizens of the United States have gone too 
 deep to be reached effectively by these. The voters want to see 
 men put in party prominence whose valor has been tried often 
 and often in their behalf on the great battle-fields of politics 
 and of statesmanship. 
 
 Only by the Republican party electing such men to public 
 leadership may it be "reorganized" satisfactorily to those who 
 love its history of achievement, trust its membership and have 
 hope in its future of service to the United States. So only may 
 it be "reorganized" to meet the desires of any honest American 
 citizen looking with careful scrutiny upon the record of events 
 to determine how and for whom he ought to vote at popular 
 elections. 
 San Francisco, California, May 15, J914. 
 
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