Volume 14 , Issue 28

100 Years Ago Today - 9 July 1912

One hundred years ago today, in The Democratic Banner, Mt. Vernon, Ohio, Tuesday, July 9, 1912, we find the headlines, August 5 Is The Date for the "Bull Moose" convention in Chicago, Illinois. Back one hundred years ago political issues were calling for a third party convention as the doors were thrown open to all.

This was a time when voters of country, without regard to previous party affiliations, who believed time for retirement of political boss was at hand, when all were invited to attend gathering in Chicago, August 5, 1912. James R. Garfield signed the call for the Roosevelt following in Ohio.

New York, July 8, 1912 -- "signed by (Teddy) Roosevelt leaders in 40 states and addressed To the people of the United States, without regard to past political differences, the call for the Roosevelt third party to a convention to be held in Chicago, Aug. 5, 1912) was issued through Senator Joseph M. Dixon of Montana.

"The party will probably be called the Progressive National party. The convention will decide as to that. Eight states -- Maine, North Carolina, Delaware, South Carolina, aRkansas, Mississipi, Idaho and Nevada -- are pot represented in the provisional committee which signed the call for the convention. Senator Dixon explained that in all these states the Roosevelt faction controls or has a chance to control the regular Republican organization, hence the omission. The call is as follows:

Addressed To People

"To the people of the United States, without regard to past political differences, who through repeated betrayals realize that today the power of the crooked political bosses and of the privileged classes behind them is so strong in the two old party organizations that no helpful government in the real interests of our county can come out of either;

"Who believe that the time has come for a national progressive movement, a nation-wide movement, on non sectional lines, so that the people may be served in sincerity and truth by an organization unfettered by obligation to conflicting interests;

"Who believe that the government by the few tends to become and has in fact become government by the sordid influences that control the few;

"Who believe that only through the movement proposed can we obtain in the nation and the several states the legislation demanded by the modern industrial evolution; legislation which shall favor honest business and yet control the great agencies of modern business so as to insure their being used int he interest of the whole people; legislation which shall promote prosperity and at the same time secure the better and more equitable diffusion of prosperity; legislation which shall promote the economic well being of the honest farmer, wage worker, professional man and business man alike, but which shall at the same time strike in efficient fashion -- and not merely pretend to strike -- at the roots of privilege in the world of industry no less than in the world of politics;

"Who believe that only this type of wise industrial evolution will avert industrial revolution;

To Favor Honest Business

"Who believe that wholesome party government can come only if there is wholesome party management in a spirit of service tot he whole county, and who hold that the commandment delivered at Sinai, 'Thou shalt not steal,' applies to politics as well as to business. "To all in accord with these views a call is hereby issued by the provisional committee under the resolution of the mass meeting held in Chicago on June 22, 1912, last to send from each state a number of delegates, whose votes in the convention shall count for as many votes as the state shall have senators and representatives in congress, to meet in mass convention at Chicago on the fifth day of August, 1912, for the purpose of nominating candidates to be supported for the positions of president and vice president of the United States."   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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