The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1911-05-20
Proposed Democratic Doctrine
Woodrow Wilson Favors the Initiative, Referendum and
Recall to Hold Public Officers Responsible to the
People for Their Acts While in Office.

sou, of New Jersey, was the orator
of the evening at the meeting of
the City Club at the Auditorium.
He said in part:
1t must be evident to every one
that party lines are being very
much obscured; that more and
more men are holding themselves
free to follow this leader or that
according as their own perception
of the public interest dictates.
And SO great many new terms
have come into our politics. 1t is
amusing to note their variety and
the way in which men are seeking
labels for themselves and for their
opponents. The classification
most in fashion is that of "pro-
gressives" and "reactionaries" !;
and | dare say those terms will
serve as we'll as any others to ex-
press the real contrasts which now
begin to show themselves in our
political action.
1t is interesting to me as DEM
ocrat to note that while we have
heard a great deal of talk about
insurgent Republicans we have
heard veiy little about insurgent
Democrats. Insurgents are those
who throw off authority. 1t must
be that the insurgent Republicans
are throwing off the authority of
the major portion of their party,
while Democrats are free to be
progressives without being insur-
gents. 1t would seem that to be
progressive is not to defy the gen.
eral authority of their party COL
leagues. 1 should like to believe
that this meant that the Demo-
cratic party as a whole is natural
.ly progressive, and that it is easier
through the instrumentality of
that party, to accomplish the new
purposes of the day than through
the fundamentally of the Repub-
lican party.
1t is important to note that the
word progressive means some
thing much more than mere i'm
pulse or inclination. 1t means, if
l understand it correctly, con-
centration upon actual problems
aud upon the means of solving
them.
1t is the sober business of the
progressive to understand and to
act 1t is his business to know a
great deal more than that some
thing is wrong. He must know
lust what it is that is wrong, and
when he sees it he must daily rec
ognize his duty to act and to act
along definite lines of reform. We
have passed the time of excite
ment, of general complaint, of I'M
discriminating condemnation, and
have come to day when men are
inclined to take politics more seri-
ously than they have taken it in
earlier generations.
The first and most important
thing is an apprehension of the
actual facts. A perception of the
facts is as important as compre-
hension of the remedies; and the
facts cannot be stated too plainly
for our purpose.
For example, a great deal OF
discussion is now concentrated up
on proposed methods of reform
which great many people inter
pret as meaning that we are i'm
patient of orr long-established in
stitutions: that we wish to substi-
tute for representative government
that great system which has had
SO long and so admirableab history
and which has seemed the CHIEF
instrument of liberty Throughout,
many centuries, some more direct
less organic system of action Oh