Perth Amboy evening news., 1910-10-24
WILSON HAVE TO
A BUSY WEEK
viii Make First Appearance
In Eiddlesex at New
Brunswick Wednesday.
LABOR AND LEGISLATION

woodrow Wilson will make at
least n address every night this
week. His campaign engagements
Will take him tonight to Camden and
tomorrow to Salem county.
On Wednesday night he will speak
at New Brunswick and the following
day will visit Bergen county. Friday
night he will make two speeches in
Elizabeth. Saturday night he will
speak at Hoboken.
At the public school auditorium in
Newton, Sussex county, Saturday
night Mr.. Wilson vas greeted by an
audience of 1900 persons. Graft
and it's relation to control of legisla-
ton was the subject of a large part
of Mr.. Wilson's speech. He said in
part:
"We talk a great deal about graft
in our time. There are cynical per-
sons who believe that graft is pres
| ent In every walk of our life. Some
times in moments Of encouragement
it looks like it. l do not believe,
except in moments of discourage
ment, that any such thing as that is
true.
Graft is a big word. What do we
mean by it? BY graft, do you mean
bribery That is a very small pro-
portion of graft. 1t springs up and
stares US in the face occasionally in
great Investigations like that going
on in the State of New York, and we
are particularly interested to find
that men should allow themselves to
receive money to betray others. That
is, after all, not the principal part Of
| nraPt II 10 tho ooCtoot tn cton hn-
cause it is easier to prove, easier to
condemn because it is so obvious.
There are other kinds of graft that
go deeper than that. Graft in it's
most general form means taking ad-
vantage of political power for your
own benefit. That is what graft
means. Now, suppose there is no
money in the case; suppose you are
contributing considerable sums OF
money to a campaign fund or have
contributed large sums of money to a
campaign fund, and after the cam
paign is ove you find party mana
gers permitting certain items OF
legislation to go through unchal-
lenged which are hurtful to your in
terests. What are you tempted to
do? You are tempted to go to these
managers and say Didn't / contri-
butte to your campaign fund; why
are you acting against my interests
Are you not my friend, and is there
not another campaign coming some
time, and are you going to treat me
this way? Have o never heard
men expressly threatening never to
contribute anything If certain things
are done?
"You cannot tip off the voters of
this state; you cannot go to the
voters and obtain the influence you
want for your private benefit. In
| order that there should be an oppor-
tunity of that sort the control must
rest in the hands of a comparatively
small number of persons, from whom
you can 60 and give orders and the
| orders will issue to the rest. That
is why we have come to dislike a
political machine, not ecaus 1t
manages politics, but because 1t mix
es in business, because it manages
party power in the interest Of those
who are in business and for convent
ence.
"You know that we are speaking
constantly of the control which the cap
italistic classes exercise over legisla-
ton, meaning the control which they
exercise over the political machine. Has
it ever been stated, even, that organ
lied labor controlled the political ma
chineq / nave never heard it before
stated.
"Nobody has ever aver supposed that
organized labor could control the ma
chine. But why9 Can there be any
other explanation than this-that the
organizations of labor-even if they had
the purpose to do these things-they
have never shown the purpose-do not
command the resources which are the
real bottom of graft. l mean that where
the money is, there is the control, in
plain language. And the fact that there
has-neyer been even suspected an al
lance between organized labor and the
machine shows that organized labor is
more in need of the law, lrs Justice, its
purity, its integrity and It's protection
than the capitalistic classes are.
"Again, [ want to say that nobody
representing the true principles of or
ganized labor would desire an advan-
tage, an unfair advantage; [ am talk
ing Of fairness, equality and protection.
4 tell you frankly that the classes that
need protection most are the classes that
can exercise the wrong kind of influence
least. That is what l mean by saying
the law should regard itself, and those
who make it should regard it, as pri-
marily the poor mans buttress and
friend. If I am trying to accommodate
interests, it is not very difficult to find
out what the interests are of those
who do the most of the talking, but it
is difficult to find out what the inter
ests are of those who are to make a
study of adjustment of the law ought
to be the study of the silent and un-
protected classes; and this whole strug-
gle to overcome control is the struggle
to effect, to re-establish the levels of
the law, to see that the law fits the av-
erage man, that it fits the average con
ditions, that it fits those things that can
be expressed in the terms of whole
communities and whole bodies. That is
the reason that it hes become very
striking and important, that in this
very day of ours it is these very voices
that are beginning to be heard. These
are the voices of the people as against
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