Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1920 — COX AND THE PROGRESSIVES [ARTICLE]

COX AND THE PROGRESSIVES

The appeal of Mr. Roosevelt and Governor Cox to the progressive Republican voters seems to be bearing fruit. Governor Cox In an endeavor to differentiate bis camjpaign from that of Senator Harding said: The leaders opposed to Democfellfa promise to put the country ' s, ‘baclo«> normal.” This can only mean the socalled normal of former reaction-

ary administrations, the outstanding feature of which was a pittance for farm produce and a small wage for a long day of labor. My vision does not turn backward to the “normal” desired by the senatorial oligarchy, but to a future in which all shall have a normal opportunity to cultivate a higher stature amidst better environment than that of the past. Our view is toward the sunrise of tomorrow, with its progress and its eternal promise of better things. The opposition stands In the skyline of the setting sun, looking backward to the old days of reaction. Thursday, Harold L. Ickles of Chicago, who stood for the beet leadership In the Progressive party and a close friend of Theodore Roosevelt, announced his intention to support Governor Cox after mature deliberation. Mr. Ickles In his statement said; What Senator Harding believes in is not party government, but boss control. He has the Mark Hanna conception of party. He looks upon the Republican senate cabal as the Republican hosts and deceives himself that when Senators Smoot and Watson and Lodge, Murray .Crane, James Hemenway and Colonel Harvey met privately in a room in the Blackstone hotel at 2 o’clock in morning to decide upon him as the candidate and to determine his policies the Republican party was assembled together for solemn deliberation. There is nothing in the record and personality of the Republican candidate to attract the independent and progressive voter. He repels the thinking liberal in every test. Governor Cox’s record Is a distinctly progressive record. That record proves that he looks upon public office as an opportunity for public service. He Is standing In this campaign upon what he has achieved along progressive lines for the public welfare. Holding as I do that my duties and obligations as a citizen are paramount to my duties and obliga-

tions as a party man, I have concluded to support the Democratic national ticket in this campaign. In this connection the Springfield (Mass.) Republican has this to say editorially: Governor Cox’s speeches seem to indicate not only a sense of the political strategy dictated by the situation, but a more sincerely liberal view than It was feared, in some quarters, he might reveal. The governor’s stand on the league of nations is already winning him significant support. Word comes from a particularly well-posted quarter In Illinois that many men, particularly among those who belonged to the Bull Moose party and who are for a league, are now swinging to Cox, having been “repelled by Harding’s speech of acceptance and attracted by the forthrightness of Cox.” Illinois will bear watching in the near future.