Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1911-12-21
WOODROW WILSON'S
APPEAL FOR PENSION
WANTS TO GET FIXED BEFORE
THE ELECTION
New York, Dec. 15:--

New York, Dec. 15:--
The New York Journal, leading
light of democracy, declares that
no man is fit for the presidency of
this country who will appeal to An
drew Carnagie, the great steel trust
magnate, and "the incarnation OF
the trust evil" for pension. Prof.
Wilson, now Governor Wilson, and
otherwise known as Woodrow Will
son, has asked Mr.. Carnagie for a
pension on the following grounds:
hat man who goes into politics puts
his family and all who may be de-
pendent upon him for support, at the
mercy of the wheel of fortune, and
Gov. Wilson told Mr.. Carnagie he de-
sires to provide against such risks.
The New York Journal adds:
There is not the slightest doubt
that the ordinary American citizen
could find many presidential candi-
dates that would suit him better than
a man pensioned by Carnagie or try
ing quietly to get a Carnagie pen
sion. If Mr.. Wilson had been an
old broken down teacher, retired be-
cause of age or feebleness, and fac
ing poverty after life we'll spent,
no one would criticise his applying
to Mr.. Carnagie for money to keep
him alive.
But that was not Mr.. Wilson's sit
uation.
He was president of Princeton
and could have kept his job If he i,
had not wanted better one.
He abandoned the work which he :
was doing, made himself a candi-
date for governor and put himself
on the public payroll at very good
salary.
Drawing that salary, he has devot-
ed much time in journeying about
the land to promote his own POLITICAL
interests and to secure the presiden-
cy-a position that carries a big sal
ary.
The ordinary hard-headed Ameri-
can citizen, Of whom at least ninety
nine out of one hundred would be-
very lucky if they got half the salary
that Mr.. Wilson gets now, or half
that he got as president of Princeton;-
or fraction of the salary that he is:
trying to get as president of the
United States, will be enlightened
as to Mr.. Wilson's character by his ,
request for pension from Carnagie.
Mr.. Wilson, we believe, has ex-
pressed horror at the extravaganza
of the United States government
pension system, and thinks that:
many pensioners get too much.
Perhaps they do. But Mr.. VIII
son appears to be about the first no..
bic soldier that ever asked for a pen
sion before he started out to war.
The usual pensioner went to the :"
war because he thought he ought to,
fight. When his leg or his health,
or both, were gone he got the pen
sion, If he could, and small blame to-
him, especially as 1t is about $50 a.
month ordinarily. The pension that
Mr.. Wilson requested from Mr.. Car
magic was of different size.
Mr.. Wilson tells us that he could
serve the people as few and probably
none other could. His very request
to Andrew Carnagie for life pen
sion was accompanied by the diffid-,
ent statement that he had practically.
a monopoly Of purity In politics.
There is something in the Bimle
about the gentlemen who congratu-.
lated himself on being holier than
anybody else.
How many things Mr.. Wilson will
learn between now and next sum-
mer:
He will probably have nothing i'm
pressed upon him 80 emphatically,
however, as the fact that when the
Americans pick out man for honor
and confidence they want a man
willing to take his chance as other
men take them; a man believing
that the average American citizen is
about as good as himself, and man
free from the notion that an Andrew,
Carnagie pension is the first step in,
race for the presidency of the Unit
ed States.
nr,r,>,c uao r,r,r a arrxyro r>y H,rHDmue
DAKOTA
VIM. ]. Burns, the now famous de-
tectiye. has q nepheN who has been1