Progressive Democracy

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. No matter whether they do or do not approve of what is going on, candid commentators on American politics will presumably agree that the political development of the country has recently entered upon a novel and critical phase. Until 1912 the group of political and economic traditions and ideas which came to a head during and immediately after the Civil War, and which was associated with the Republican party, continued on the whole to prevail. Since 1912 another group of political and economic ideas and methods has clearly become of preponderant importance. No doubt, previous to 1912 the prestige of the traditional system had been steadily waning. The opposition to it had for a number of years been rapidly becoming bolder and more radical. No doubt also this traditional system has not been as completely superseded as its enemies sometimes fondly imagine. Its roots lie deeper than is often suspected and they are more intimately entangled with that which is permanently valuable in the American tradition. Still, while fully admitting that the transition may not be as abrupt as it seems, we have apparently been witnessing during the past year or two the end of one epoch and the beginning of another.