Introduction

A movement of public opinion, which believes itself to be and calls itself essentially progressive, has become the dominant formative influence in American political life. The best evidence of the power of progressivism is the effect which its advent has had upon the prestige and the fortunes of political leaders of both parties. For the first time attractions and repulsions born of the progressive idea, are determining lines of political association. The line of cleavage between progressives and non-progressives is fully as important as that between Democrats and Republicans. The hollowness of the conversion of official Republicanism to progressivism almost immediately developed and resulted in an outbreak of insurgency on the part of the genuine progressives in the party. Progressives who propose to eradicate or seriously to alter a system which does not admit of essential improvement must be exposed rather than merely refuted.