The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1911-04-21
DEMOCRACY BASED ON THE
RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE.

JIG OOJ0CIS Oh Inc HarJY, ana
Declares That the Fight Must
be Made Against Special Priv.
ileges, "The Control of the Law
OF Legislation and of Adiudi-
cation" for Private and Selfish
Ends.
Urging the Democratic party to state
its creed in the concrete and define
clearly the especial forms of privileges
1t declares against, in a general cam
paign for the rights of the people, -
Governor Woodrow Wilson, of New
Jersey, in an address to the National
League of the Democratic Clubs at In
dianapolis, Indiana, recently, set forth
the objects of the party as he believed
that they exist and should be stated.
Governor Wilson said in part:
I'VE are fond of speaking of ourselves
as the party Of Jefferson and Jackson,
not because we are party of old men,
reminiscent of things gone by and in
love with what has been, but because
we are party touched with the ideals
which made these men great and whose
names we recall with such reverence
and enthusiasm because the very breath
of our party's life is its utter faith in the
principles of Democracy. 1t is its de-
votion to the rights of the people. of
whatever class or degree, as against all
claims of privilege, as against all selfish
vested interests which seek to control
instead of freely serving the life and de-
velopment of the nation
ut is so far from being a party of
mere Renaissance, a party which tries
to draw the country to the policies
which belong to another time. to the
circumstances of another age, that it is,
above all other things, young mans
party.
These things are embodied in IefIer-
son, the thoughtful, philosophical. pene-
trating thinker for mankind and in the
rugged Jackson, who seemed to cut his
way towards the right by rough instinct
and the mere energy of an honest, IN.
domitable nature; and SO we see EN-
bodied in them the two sides of De-
mocracy, its thoughtfulness, its vision of
hope its confidence in the progress and
the liberation of mankind, and linked
with these its force, as of the common
people, its Astounding energy outside as
well as within the field of cultivated
thought
Democracy is not a mere theory of
/ government. 1t is the energy of life
that is dwelling in the rank and file,
interpreted once and again by our great
leaders, but not confined to their private
cult and understanding. It's blood is
the blood Of the people, and its purposes
are the purposes shared by all mankind.
Its hopes are the hopes of all rational
civilization.
This is the day upon which we utter
our creed and renew our views. 1t be-
hooves us to ask ourselves what our
creed is, and to answer the question
without subtlety or sophistication, in the
plain terms of every day life.
1T is OF no consequence TO us unless
we can translate IFS general terms into
examples OF the present day and substi-
tute them in some vital way for the ex-
ampes that 1t itself gives, SO concrete,
and SO intimately involved in the circum-
stances of the day in which it was con-
ceived and written. 1t is an eminently
practical document. meant for the use
of practical men; not thesis for philos-
ophers, but whip for truants; not a
theory Of government, but a program of
action.
I'VE say that we are against privilege
and for the rights of the people, but piv
ilege has worn many forms. What is the
especial form of privilege that we are
now fighting?
by privilege, as we now fight it, we
mean control of the law, of legislation,
and of adjudication, by organizations,
which do not represent the people, by
means which are private and selfish and
worthy of all condemnation. We mean
| specifically the conduct of our affairs
and the shaping of our legislation in the
interest OF special bodies of capital and
those who organize their use. We mean
the alliance for this purpose of political
machines with the captains of organized
industry. We mean the exploitation Of
the people by legal and political means
We have seen our governments under
these influences cease to be represent
alive of the special interests. controlled
by machines, which in their turn are not
controlled by the people.
I'VE are not attacking men, but we
are attacking system. The men, at
least the most of them, are honest The
great majority oil them believe that in
serving their own they are serving the
country at large Their conception
OF prosperity is that it will best proceed
and gather under their management
Legislation, as we nowadays conduct
it, is not conducted in the open. 1t is
not thrashed out in open debate upon
the floors of our assemblies. 1t is, on
the contrary, framed, digested and con
cluded in the committee rooms. 1t is
in the committee rooms that the legisla-
ton not desired by the special interests
dies
Clauses lie quietly undiscovered on
our statute books which contain the
whole gist and purpose of the act; quail
flying phrases which escape the public
attention and casual definitions which do
not attract attention, classification so
technical as not to be generally under
stood and which everyone most init
mately concerned is careful not to ex-
plain or expound, contain the whole
purpose of the law. Only after it has
been enacted and has come to adjudi-
cation in the courts is its scheme as a
whole divulged. The benefciaries are
tken safe behind their bulwarks.
'Of course the chief triumph of com.
mittee work, of covert phrase and unex-
planned classification, is the tariff law.
Ever since the passage of the outrageous
Payne Aldrich Tariff Law our people
have been discovering the concealed
meanings and pusposes which lay hidden
in il They are discovering item by
item how deeply and deliberately they
were deceived and cheated
IL