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Goodwin's Weekly I
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VOL. XXI. Eleventh Year SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, OCTOBER 12, 1912 5 Cents the Copy No. 26 H
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The Goodwin's Weekly Publishing
Comunny.
BURL ARMSTRONG .... Editor
GET HONORABLE LEADERS.
IT has been the misfortune of tho
Utah section of the Progressive
party to find Its lpadership in trick
ery. The honest Progressives in thi3
state deserve an honest leadership
here, but they have not found it.
When the Progressive party in the
nation became an established fact, a
number of gentlemen set up a tory
leadership in this state, having no gen
ius for compromise, no instinct for fair
play, no ability to understand popular
doctrines; resorted to dishonorable
methods that have maintained the su
premacy of a self-constituted machine
which today dictates the destiny of
the Progressive party in Utah.
A party thus tormented is in the
throes of dissolution. The independ
ent members of the Progressive party,
who are the very backbone of that
party, will serve their own interests
if they seek honest leadership and
insist upon having it.
The Weekly blieves that the most
effective method of bringing about the
social, industrial and economic re
forms so much needed today is
through the election of Theodore
Roosevelt to tho presidency of the
United States. But we are unable to
see a similarity between the Impelling
motive of tho national Propressive
party and that whioh Inspires the pres
ent organization In the state of Utah.
Emerson said: "The strongest usurper
is quickly got rid of; they who build
on Ideas build for eternity; the form
of government which prevails is the
expression of what cultivation exists
in the population which permits it."
A leadership honorably formed and
submissive to majorities can be di
gested, but trickery and knavery can
not bo assimilated.
Liberalism will not light its way
with the disadvantage of a kedge of
political opportunities and advantures
impeding Its progress.
All Independent political movements
are primarily a protest against organ
ized political tyranny; so firmly ln-
trenched does fraud and trickery be
come that the popular will is defeated
and ultimately there is no hope for
honest legislation.
The honest men and women of the
United States who voiced their protest
against the coterie of political tyrants
in the Republican national convention
at Chicago who upset the will of the
people by defeating the people's choice
for president were convinced that jus
tice and fair play could not be pro
cured within the Republican party.
And, certain that the principles of
progressive action for which they
stood would be stifled within this or
ganization by virtue of the corruption
at Its head, they went outside, found
the instrument with which to make
the fight and formed for the attack
from an angle that is as old as revolu
tion itself.
One of the basic principles of this
movement was the demand for the
overthrow of boBsism. The danger
ous tendency of the Republican party
aroused the people to the necessity
for effecting a l trn of public rule
to the first unit of government and it
Was in holy protest that the cause of
Progresslvism swept from ocean to
ocean. ,
Here in Utah there was sufficient
Progressive sentiment to form the nu
cleus for a now party within the
state, but this sentiment was not spon
taneous. A movement of the people
is difficult to bring to a head; it is
slow to focus ita strength. Taking
advantage of the people's willingness
to be led, a number of gentlemen
whose time is divided between a long
ing for power and a criticism of tho
"ins," ca'me to the front and gave some
semblance of an organization to the
new movement.
The self-appointed leaders called
themselves a "provisional" commit
tee. Most of them were and still are
political adventurers, the impelling mo
tive of whose Interest Is to wreck the
Republican party which has been a
little over-conservative In Its bestowal
of favors upon them. Others who
jumped to the forefront of the new
movement are 'men who were Inspired
by the righteousness of It and who
desired to lend their active support to
an open protest against tho bosses.
They are moved by a laudable purpose
and while they do not deny, as wo do
not, that the Progressive party Is In
business to wreck the Republican
party, as one part of the program,
they hold, as we do, that is not the
sole purpose of the movement, us has
been charged by the Republicans. It
La likewise true that t'he Progressives
hope to destroy the Democratic party
as well.
The honest men who identified them
selves with the leadership of the party
were not ambitious for themselves,
but they were in the company of pro
fessional office-seekers and empty
stomached individuals who were. With
a genius born of hunger the dishonest
element at the head of the new move
ment swung Into the saddle. To keep
themselves from being unhorsed It has
required no end of strategy; the ad
vantage of tho position they hold may
be judged by the tenacity with which
they cling to it.
Out over the state there were a
great many people who called them
selves Progressives. They weren't
sure of their ground and they were
willing to follow any one who would
lead them Into the mass formation of
an organization. So they came to
look to the self-appointed Progressive
state chairman for guidance.
Into those communities where there
seemed to flourish a deBlre for organ
ization the provisional state commit
tee sent literature outlining the plan
of action. This program provided for
the formation of a provisional com
mittee, then the calling of a county
convention to nominate a county ticket
and to name a permanent campaign
committee to take the place of the
provisional committee. The provision
al committee was voluntary in each
county of the state, as It was in Salt
Lake county, and as It was In the
state. In Salt Lake county the con
vention call provided for the naming
of a permanent committee to take the
place of the provisional committee.
And this action was taken in Salt
Lake county, as well as in most of
the other counties of tho state.
But what did the provisional state
committee do?
The state chairman, self-appointed,
Blgned a call for the state convention
to be held at Ogden and there was
NO REFERENCE IN THE CALL TO
THE FORMATION OF A NEW
STATE COMMITTEE.
It may be Inferred that the state
chairman didn't want to take any
chances on his job by referring it to
I he people of the new party.
The practice of letting the conven
tion which selects the candidates also
select tho committee to manage their
campaign Is an old as politics in
America. The provisional state com
mittee, self-appointed, Indorsed this
practice by urging It upon each of the
twenty-seven counties. But they did
not urge It upon the delegates to the
state convention. This convention
met and organized and nominated a
state ticket and adjourned without
forming a new state committee.
It may be that the people would
have indorsed the present state organ
ization that Was their right and
should have been their privilege If
they felt so disposed. But they were
mmmwmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmrmmmmm'
not given a chance to express them- H
selVeB. M
So well was the new Progressive M
machine in this state oiled that tho H
people themselves had no'voice in the jH
selection of candidates, except to in- m
dorse those men who had first been M
passed and O. K.'d by the provisional M
committee sitting in a little room at H
the Wilson hotel. 1
No action was permitted by this
state committee which would in any M
sense jeopardize the position held by H
the "provisional" machine. IH
It does not require more than ordl-
nary vision to discern the close politi- H
cal corporation which is running the H
Progressive party in the state of Utah. H
the "leaders" In this state are crea- H
tures of selfishness, Inspired solely by H
a desire to wreck the Republican H
party. They are out of touch with a H
movement which is of the ijeoplo and jH
for the people. M
H
The Weekly has not grown excited H
over the political' situation in Utah, H
nor has it been swayed by the false H
pretense that there is similarity be- H
tween the Progressive party in the na- H
tion and the movement In this state. H
We have consistently fought against H
bossism In politics and were willing to H
accept the Progressive movement in H
Utah as a protest against boss rule, H
whereas it has developed a sentiment H
quite the reverse and has generated a H
boss power that runs quite true to the H
form established by a coterie of Re- H
publican politicians whioh has doml H
nated the political situation in Utah H
for ten yeais. H
How vastly different is the Progres- jH
sive movement in Utah from the senti- H
ment which culminated in the noml- jH
nation of Governor William Spry for H
a second term. Singled out as' a tar- H
get by a number of very influential H
gentlemen who directed the. destinies H
of tho Republican party in Utah, he jH
was mnrked for slaughter not long H
after his administration was begun. jH
For three years an internal war was H
waged against him and yet he emerged H
triumphant and received a renomina- H
tion without the slightest opposition. H
Tho answer to tho Spry question Is H
that the people of the state of Utah H
wanted him. It cannot be said, with H
any degree of truth, that tho peoplo H
of this state had the slightest part in H
the selection of his opponent either on !
the Democratic or Progressive tickets.
This campaign has gone far enough B
for tho people to learn all tho points H
of criticism there may be against Gov- H
ernor Spry's administration of state af- H
fairs, but the most intrepid stump H
speakers in either of the opposing HI
parties have not gone so far as to dis- H
close a reasonable ground for criti- H
cism. They have attributed most of H
the ills of the Republican party of the H
