National Affairs: Progressives Flayed

The leading article in the April American Mercury was a bitter denunciation of the “Progressives” of the Senate written by a person who, to insure his future comfort in Washington, D. C., signed himself simply “A Washington Correspondent.”

Excerpts from the article:

“With the exception of Norris of Nebraska, now dejected and despondent over the hopelessness of his long struggle, and Tom Walsh of Montana, an able man but always vain and sometimes sentimental, the so-called Progressives in the United States Senate are a sorry bunch of weaklings and timeservers. The Liberals of America are always getting fooled, but never have they been worse fooled than by this small, forlorn and measly gang of false leaders.

“Brookhart, Blaine, Borah, Frazier, Howell, Johnson, Dill, La Folle”?. Shipstead, Nye, Wheeler, all come within the category. There is little intellectual or moral fibre in any of them. They pother, trim and hedge. . . .”

La Follette−”affects the hirsute adornment of a drug-store yahoo and practises the political disingenuousness of a Jim Watson.”

Blaine−”is peerless in blatancy. . . . On a heavy gold chain across his paunch he sports a large Elk’s molar, a gift from admiring lodge brothers.”

Frazier−”looks like a boss butcher.”

Brookhart−”simple man that he is, glories in the resultant public attention.”

Wheeler−”devotes himself wholly to pot-shooting. … In a floor fight he is a total loss.”

Shipstead−”His paucity of achievement, his colossal bombast, his lack of aggressiveness, his ardent playing of the political and social game, are a complete summary of the worth and role of the entire Progressive group, with exception of Norris.”

Borah−”The biggest sham of them all is the principle-peddler from Idaho, the Great God Borah.”