A STATE OF FLUX

Ten years ago the Bull Moose, T. Roosevelt up, took a second in the Presidential sweepstakes, leaving the former ribbon holder, the Elephant to finish a bad third. Shortly afterwards the Moose left the Grand Circuit for his more familiar woods, and little has been heard from him since. Some commentators have had him dead and others considered his species extinct; but now comes a persistent rumor that he is to return, groomed and fit, the "dark horse" of the next Presidential Derby in 1924. Who will ride him is not announced and the logical man for the job, Senator Borah of Idaho has done his best publicly to disclaim the honor.

The third Party Question is, as always, of great interest and the cause of much speculation. The Progressives of 1912 rallied entirely about the standard raised by Roosevelt and their temporary success was due to Roosevelt's personality. On his withdrawal the party, as such, vanished from active politics. But it left its mark on the policies of both the Democratic and Republican leaders, and it left its name as a permanent bogie to be dragged forth again and again as a warning or a threat.

In the passing of ten years the bogie has lost some of its effectiveness. Yesterday's elections were for the most part contested between the Republican Old Guard and the Democratic Reactionaries over a wide and empty No Man's Land.

The absence of issues as a decisive force is striking. In Massachusetts the candidates of both great parties have maintained the same attitude on the more outstanding questions. In New Jersey a prominent "wet" was the Republican candidate for governor on a "dry" ticket and his Democratic rival, a teetotalier, was politically a "wet." All over the country conditions have been much the same--a blurring of issues and comparative stagnation in both great camps.

Such is the stage set for the entrance into the field of a third party. In Senator Borah's words, the people want progress, action, and reform. If they cannot bring it about within the present parties, they want a new party. Whether the third entry will prove a temporary one like the Progressives of 1912, or will come into the field for a long stay, like the Republicans, rising from the ruins of the Whigs in 1856, is an open conjecture. But the stage is set for a political turn-over, and the new party, temporary or permanent, will be an encouraging sign of reawakening interest from the present political inertia. First of all, it must justify its inherited title of "Progressive".