Senator Robert La Follette has just accepted the nomination of
the Independent Progressive Party at Cleveland, Ohio. He stands for a programme of which the Times gives the following summary :- " Its principal features include the public ownership of water power • the creation of a public super-power system ; a high supertax on incomes and heavy death and estate duties ; the
repeal of ' excessive tariff duties, especially on Trust-controlled necessities of life ' ; the introduction of laws to promote collective bargaining by farmers, industrial workers, and consumers ; the direct public control of the Federal Reserve and the Federal Fax= Loan systems ; the creation of a Government marketing corpora- tion for farmers ; common international action to promote the economic recovery of the world ; the repeal of the Transportation Act ; the public ownership of railways ; the curtailment of the power of the Courts with abolition of injunctions in Labour dis- putes ; the revision of the Treaty of Versailles ; the negotiation of treaties for outlawing war, abolishing conscription, drastically reducing armaments, and providing referendum for peace or war."
Thus it would seem that he is the only Presidential candidate willing to face real issues with real decisions, and it certainly looks as if, should the old parties go on discrediting themselves at the present rate, he might win very considerable support. If he does this, he will certainly block the chances of either the Democratic or the Republican candidate being elected President. The duties of electing a President then devolve on the House of Representatives, where almost anything fray happen. The whole of the great daily Press will be against Senator La Follette, who is regarded as a dangerous Radical. But, as we have learned on this side of the Atlantic, the influence of the Press on an election is by no means so great as it is sometimes supposed.
