The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-05-12
WOODROW WILSON TELLS Or
CHANGE IN CONDITIONS

America is not the life it was twenty
years ago. 1t is not the life it was ten
years ago 1t is not the life 1t was ten
years ago. We have changed our eco
nomic conditions from top to bottom,
and with our economic conditions has
changed also the organization of our
life. The old party formulas do not fit
the present problems The old cries
of the stump sound as if they belong
ed to past age which men have al
most forgotten. The things which
used to be put into the party platforms
of ten years ago would sound antiqua1-
ed now. You will note, moreover, that
the political audiences which nova
days gather together are not partisan
audiences. They are made up of all
elements and come together, noS TO
hear parties denounced or praised, but
to hear the interests of the nation dis
oussed in new terms-the terms of the
present moment.
We have so complicated our ma
ehinery of government, we have made
it so difficult, so full of ambushes and
hiding places, so indirect, that instead
of having true representative govern
ment we have great inextricable
jungle of organization intervening be-
tween the people and the processes of
their government, so that by stages,
without intending it, without being
aware of it, we have lost the purity
and directness of representative gov
ernment. What we must devote our
selves to now is not to upsetting our
institutions, but to restoring them
Undobtedly we should avoid excite
ment and should silence the dema-
gogue. The man with power but
without scnscience, could, with an elo-
quent tongue, if he cared for nothing
but his own power, put this whole
country into a flame, because the
whole country believes that something
is wrong and is eager to follow those
who profess to be able to lead it away
from its difficulties. But it is all the
more necessary that we should be
careful who are our guides. The pro-
cesses we are engaged in are funda-
mentally conservative processes. II
your tree is diseased it is no revoln-
ton to restore to it the purity of its
sap, to renew the soil that sustans it,
to re-establish the conditions of its
health. That is process OF life. of
renewal, of redemption.
There is no ground for alarm, there.
fore. We are bent upon a perfectly
definite program, which is one of
health and renewal
Let us ask ourselves very frankly
what it is that needs to be corrected.
To sum it all up in one sentence. il
is the control of politics and or our life
by great combinations of wealth. Men
sometimes talk as if it were wealth
we were afraid Of as if we were jeal.
Gus of the accumulation of great fer
tunes. Nothing of the kind is true.
America has not the slightest jealousy
of the legitimate accumulation OF
wealth. Everybody knows that there
are hundreds and thousands of men
of large means and large economic
power who have come by it all per-
fectly legitimately not only, but in a
way that deserves tho thanks and adj
miration of the communities they have
served and developed. But everybody
knows also that some of the men who
control the wealth and have built up
the industry of the country seek to
control politics and also to dominate
the life of common men in a way in
which no man should be permitted TO
dominate.
In the first place, there is the motor
ious operation of the bipartisan polit-
ical machine; | mean the machine
which does not represent party princi-
pie of any kind, but which is willing
to enter into any combination, with
whatever group of persons or of poll
ticians, to control the offices of local
tiles and of states and of the nation it
self in order to MAINTAIN the powe: o.
those who direct it. This machine IS
supplied with its funds by the men
who use t in order to protect them
selves against legislation which they
do not desire and in order to obtain
the Legislation which S necessary for
the prosecution of their purposes.
The methods of our legislatures
make the operation of such machines
easy and convenient, for very little of
our legislation is formed and effected
by open debate upon the floor. Most
all of it is framed in lawyers Offices,
discussed in committee rooms, passed