Perth Amboy evening news., 1911-04-14
WILSON GETS A
GREAT OVATION
Continued from page IL

NtOuliuuSo lIom phS6 Ii
ment to achievement in a free exer-
else of their powers.
These things were embodied in
kind, and in the rugged Jackson,
Jefferson, the thoughtful, p~hilosoph-
ical, penetrating thinker for man.
who seemed to cut his way toward
the right by rought instinct and the
mere energy of an honest, indomita-
bic nature; and so we see embodied
in them the two sides of Democracy,
its thoughtfulness, Its vision of
hope, its confidence in the progress
and liberation of mankind, and link
ed with these it's force as of the COM
mon people, its Astounding energy
outside as well as within the field Of
cultivated thought. Democracy is
not a mere theory of government. 1t
is an energy of life dwelling In the
rank and file, interpreted nee and
again by great leaders, but not col
fined to their private cult and under
standing. It's blood Is the blood Of
the people. Its purposes are the
purposes shared by all mankind. It's
hopes are the hopes of all rational
civilization.
"This is the day upon which we ut
ter our creed and renew our vows. 1t
behooyes US to ask ourselves what our
creed is, and to answer the question,
without subtlety or sophist1eation, in
the plain terms of everyday life. We
must state our creed in the concrete,
not in the abstract. Our thoughts run
back, of course, to the great Declare
ton of Independence, whi"'l Jefferson
gave us, but we cannot stop with that.
The Declaration of Independence did
not mention the questions of our day.
1t is a mere starting point for our
thoughts. It is of no consequence to
US unless we can translate its general
terms into examples of the present day
and substitute them in some vital way
for the examples it itself gives-so con
crete, SO intimately involved in the
circumstances of the day in which it
was conceived and written. 1t is an
Neminently practical document, meant
for the use of practical men; not a
thesis for philosophers, but q whip for
tyrants; not a theory Of government,
but a program Of action. Unless we
can translate it into the questions Of
our own day we are not worthy of it,
we are not sons of tho sires who acted
in response to its challenge.
Eve say we are againstaprivilaeA
and for the rights of the people, but
privilege has worn many forms. What
is the especial form of privilege we
now fight? How does 1t endanger the
rights of the people, and what do we
mean to do, in order to make our con-
test against it effectual7 What are
to be the items of our new declaration
of independence
"By privilege, as we now fight it,
we mean control of the law, Of legisla-
ton and of adjudication, by o%rganiza-
lions which do not represent the peo-
pie, by means which are private and
selfish, and worthy of all condemna-
ton. 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 organ
ize it's 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 in
fuences cease to'be representative gov
ernments, cease to be governments, rep
resentative of the people, and become
governments representative of the spec
ial interests, controlled by machines
which in their turn are not controlled
by the people.
awe are not attacking men, we are
attacking a system. The men are, most
of them, honest. The great majority
of them believe that in serving their
own they are serving the interests of
the country at large. Their conception
of prosperity is that it will best pro-
coed and gather under their manage
ment. They are willing, indeed, they
are anxious, that the people should
share in it, but it must originate with
them, and be under their experienced
control. They stand at the wrong point
of view; they seek their objects, not
by public argument, but by private
management and arrangement; by in
fuence, not by open political process.
"They are serving, served and assist
ed, not only by the political machines
that is, by the political organizations
which put men into Office and into our
legislatures-but also by our present
methods of legislation. Legislation as
we nowadays conduct it, is not con
Quoted in the open. 1t is not thresh'
ed out in open debate upon the floors
of our assemblies. 1t Is, OF the con
trary, framed, digested and concluded
in committee rooms. 1t is in commit
tee rooms that legislation not desired
by the interests dies. 1t is committee
rooms that legislation desired by the
is framed and brought forth.
There is not enough debate of 1t In
open house, in most cases, to discover
the real meaning of the proposals made.
Clauses lie quietly undiscovered in our
statutes which contain the whole gist
and purpose of the act; qualifying
phrases which escape the public atten-
ton, casual definitions which do not at
tract attention, elassiheations SO tech
meal as not to be generally under
stood and which every one most init
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 beneheiaries are
then safe behind their bulwarks.
"Of course, the chief triumph of
committee work, Of covert phrase and
unexplained classification, is the tariff
law. Ever since the passage Of the out
rageous Payne-Aldrich tariff law, ouC
people have been discovering the con-
cealed meanings and purposes which
lay hidden in it. They are discover
ing item by item how deeply and de-
liherat eJy they were cheated and decaiy-