The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1911-08-18
WILSON, MAN
OF COURAGE
Woodrow Wilson'S StaunCh Atti-
tude on Public Questions
HIS IDEAS OF REFORM
Extracts From Various Speeches Made
During the Past Few Months are Index
to Ills Theories

We wish that every right minded
American citizen could find time to read
the series of public utterances made by
Governor Woodrow Wilson during the
few months that have passed since he
won his single handed victory for pOpu-
lar government in regenerated New
JERSEY g memorable session of the state
Legislature.
Entirely apart from politics, present
and future, we countit no exaggeration
to declare our opinion that no other
American has approached more nearly
to Jefferson and Lincoln in wonderfl |
facility and felicity of stating the pro-
blems which touch real Americanism
from every angle.
The people will hear much privilege
inspired censuse of Woodrow Wilson
as demagogue, an ambitious selfseek-
er and all the like worn out methods of
attack, UNMARRIED from the days of the
Gracchi to those of Roosevelt and La
Toilette, whenever a formidable advo-
vate of popular rights and exponent of
popular aspiration has risen.
In advance of such certain misrep-
reservations we have taken the liberty
of depicting Woodrow Wilson, the man
and his ideals and purposes, in his own
words. We have endeavored to do this
BY grouping scattered extracts from
fifteen of his public addresses, as fol-
lows:
eve, the people, have not free &C
cess enough to our own agents or d.
rect enough control over them. There
are barriers to break down and pro-
cesses to simplify, which we liberals
believe we know how to get at. We
mean, by one change or another, to
make our government genuinely popu-
lar and representative again"
"We are cutting away anomalies, not
institutions. We are clearing away
the jungle and letting in the pure light
and air, not destroying the wholesome
forest or creating waste places where
there was productive growth. "
'Such tasks are typically American:
1t has always been our privilege and
our happy capacity to show how they
can be done without revolution, with
out strife or hatred or injustice, with
out the necessity of drawing, in De-
Tocquevile's memorable phrase, a
single tear or a single drop of blood
from mankind.
"The man object of what we are at
tempting, both in state and nation, is
to establish close connection, very
sensitive connection, between the peo-
pie and their government, both in the
states and in the nation, in order that
we may restore in such wise as will
satisfy US again the liberty and the
opportunity in whose interests our gov
srnments were conceived.
but some men put false interpre-
tation upon this. There is a certain
unreasonable fear in the air, as if the
process we have been going through
were, in some degree, Vindlctlve, as II
there had been bitter feeling in 1t and
the intention to discredit those who
opposed it y
1.-THE crash of political organizations
has been the only crash of those that
did not comprehend, but resisted when
there was no right reason for resisting,
and forgot that their very reason for
being was that they might serve opinion
and the movements of the peoples Will.
If any systems of polical practice
have collapsed, only those have col
lapsed which were insult lble to the
object which they professed to
serve"
eve are no longer in the temper of
attack. We are ready for remedy and
adjustment, and begin to see where to
begin and in what direction to move.
A promise of craftsmanship follows a
threat of revolution. There can be no
installing this. Programs are taking
the place of philippines; and programs
can be soberly examined and assessed,
as unqualified criticism and denuncla-
ton cannot be.
"We look beneath the label to the
man and his thought. Whichever party
proves most fit to conceive and put
through wise progressive program
will become the liberal party OF the
nation. Tories will be welcome to re-
sort to the other and enjoy the privi-
lege of minority
TWhat is necessary in order to rec
tify the whole mass of business OF this
kind 1.-THE trusts is that those who con-
troll it should entirely change their point
of view. They are trustees, not mas
tiers of private property, not only be-
cause their power is derived from a
multitude of men, but also because in
its investments it affects multitude
of men. 1t determines the develop
ment or decay of communities. 1t is
the means of lifting or depressing the
life of the whole country. They must
regard themselves as representatives
of a public power. There can be no
reason able jealousy of public regulation
a, n.o-o cl