THIRD-PARTY IDEOLOGIES 35 1 



After the elections, the progressive movement appeared in two forms. 

 One, headed by William E. Borah of Idaho, sought to block the passage 

 of the ship-subsidy bill. Borah had also warned that a third party would 

 sweep the nation unless the Republicans mended their ways, and George 

 Norris of Nebraska seconded him. A second group, consisting of two 

 wings of the progressive factions, in and out of Congress, planned con- 

 ferences for December to formulate plans for political action. 20 



On December i, progressives met in Washington. La Follette, the chair- 

 man of the People's Legislative Service, called this meeting. The feeling 

 on the part of many prior to the conference was that the meeting would 

 be torn asunder by rival ambitions. La Follette, it is claimed, avoided the 

 danger by limiting it to organizational matters and to the discussion of 

 general issues. Specific issues were left to special committees chosen from 

 all progressive factions. The plan was to use the long vacation of Congress, 

 following the short session, to study the questions on which legislation 

 was sought. 21 



On December u, the Conference for Progressive Political Action as- 

 sembled in Cleveland for its second meeting that year. This group had 

 held its first convention in Chicago on February 20-21, to gear the progres- 

 sives for the congressional elections that fall. It was attended by represent- 

 atives of agriculture and labor and liberals and progressives of various 

 stripes who had resolved to elect senators, congressmen, and state and local 

 officials who were pledged to "the principles of genuine democracy in 

 agriculture, industry and government." This conference had also appointed 

 a committee of fifteen to call a meeting after the elections to mobilize the 

 progressives for political action. The avowed purpose of this next con- 

 ference was to perfect plans to wrest the government from those who 

 would establish "an absolute tyranny and plutocratic dictatorship" and 

 restore it to the people to whom it rightfully belonged. 22 



The tools and the equipment that were necessary for the building of 

 a new third party were available when the second Conference for Progres- 

 sive Political Action met; but the delegates, it appeared to one observer, 

 were not sure whether they wanted to build "a church or a pig-sty." Un- 



20. Christian Science Monitor, November 15, 1922. 



21. John W. Owens, "The Progressives," New Republic, XXXIV (March 14, 

 1923), pp. 61-62; The Nation, CXV (November 29, 1922), p. 565. 



22. The American Labor Yearbool(, 1923-24, p. 149. 



