And in reality, Mr. Hoover is as conservative as
Mr. Harding himself, being a large capitalist with all the
conservatism of the capitalist class.
A little while ago, Mr. Roosevelt had made it unfashionable to
admit that you were conservative. You wished it to be understood
that you were open-minded--"forward looking," as Mr. Wilson, who
turned reactionary at the test, called it; that you were broad,
sympathetic, free from mean prejudices, progressive, in short. Our
very best reactionaries of to-day all used to call themselves
progressive. Some still do.
The young editor of a metropolitan newspaper, born to great wealth,
and imbibing all the narrowness of the second generation, once
asked me in those bright days when everybody was thrilling over his
"liberality," "Would you call me a radical, or just a progressive?"
He was "just a progressive." In a somewhat similar sense, Mr.
Hoover was quite unconsciously "just a progressive"--a belated
follower of a pleasant fashion, having lived abroad too long when
he made his announcement to note the subtle changes that had taken
place in our thinking--the rude shock that Russia had given to our
"liberality."
But living abroad, it is only fair to add, has created a difference
between his conservatism and that, let us say, of Judge Gary. He
has grown used to labor unions and even to labor parties, so that
they do not frighten him.
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