The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1911-05-11
EDITORIAL NOTES
BY j. ID. WATSON

dates. for the Democratic Presidential NOM
nation, the one Of Governor Woodrow Will
son had the truest JeffersOnian ring
His application Of the Declaration of In
dependence to present day conditions was
we'll put in his expressing that, while ''the
Declaration of Independence did not men
ton the questions of our day." it is can emin-
emily practical document, meant for the use
of practical men; not thesis for philoso-
pliers, but whip for tyrants; not a theory
of government, but a program of action"
Continuing his address along the line of
letting the people rule instead of the cor
porations, Governor Wilson said
Legislation conduct it is not con-
Quoted in the open It is not threshed out in
open debate upon the floors of assemblies
1t is, on the contrary, framed, digested, and
cluded in committee rooms. 1t is in committee
rooms that legislation not desired by the interests
dies. 1t is in committee rooms that legislation
desired by the interests is framed and brought
forth. There is not enough debate of it in open
house, in most cases, to discover the real mean
ing of the proposals made. Clauses lie quietly
undiscovered in statutes which contain the
whole gist and purpose Of the act; qualifying
phrases which escape the public attention, casual
definitions which do not attract attention, CLASH
fcatiOns technical as not to be generally
understood and which every most intimately
concerned is careful not to explain eXpOund
contain the whole purpose of the law. Only
after it has been enacted and has come to adjudi-
cation in the courts is it's scheme as a whole
divulged. The benefciares then safe be-
hind their bulwarks'
ga modern joint-stock corporation can not in
any proper sense be said to base it's rights and
powers upon the principles of private property.
It's powers are wholly derived from LEGISLATION.
1t possesses them for the convenience of business
at the sufferance of the public. It's stock is
widely owned, passes from hand to hand, brings
multitudes of men into it's shifting partnerships,
and connects it with the interests and the invest
ments Of whole communities. 1t is a segment of
the public, bears no analogy to partnership
to the processes by which private property is
safeguarded and managed, and should not be
suffered to afford any cover whatever to those
who managing it, It's management is of
public and general concern, is in a very proper
sense everybOdy's business.
"Hence objects party. [ take these
objects to be to open up all the processes of
politics, open them wide to public view; to make
them accessible to every force that moves, every
opinion that prevails in the thought of the peo-
pie; to give society command of it's own economic
life again. not by revolutionary measures but by
a steady application of the principle that the
people have right to look into such matters and
to control them to safeguard our resources and
he lives of workmen and women and chill
dren, chief natural resources against the
selfishness of private and profit; to cut all
privilege and patronage and private advantage
and secret use out of fiscal legislation; to
equalize the burdens of taxation, and to throw
open the gates of opportunity to mankind
The language is scholarly, conservatives;
but an analysis shows the meaning to be rad
ical, all right.
We know too we'll that legislation is
framed, digested and concluded in committee
rooms behind closed doors, away from where
the public has chance to know what is 60
ing on, Just as we know that clauses (called
jokers) lie quietly undiscovered, until too
late to remedy the evil.
Tt is in these cunningly worded, quiet
clauses that the Trust lobbyists and tools get
IN tboir work