The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-05-12
BY Associated Press.

BY Associated Press.
Kansas City, Mo. May 6.-Goyernor
Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey was
the guest of the Knife and Fork club
at its banquet last evening. He said
in part:
There can be no mistaking the fact
that we are now face to face with po-
ntical changes which may have
very profound effect upon our politi-
cal life. Those who do not under
stand the impending cnange are afraid
of it. Those who do understand it
know that it is not process of reyolu-
tion, but process of restoration, rath-
er, in which there is as much healing
as hurt. There are strain and peril, on
doubt, in every process of change. but
the chief peril comes from undertake
ing it i'm the wrong temper. 1t lies not
in the change itself so much as in the
method of some of those who promote
it, 1t is a noteworthy circumstance
that in proportion as the people of the
country come to recognize what it is
that renders them uneasy and what it
is that is proposed by way of reforma-
tion they lose their fear and take on
certain irresistible enthusiasm.
The American people are naturally
a conservative people They do not
wish to touch the stable foundations of
their life: they have a reverence for
the rights of property and the rights
of contract which is based upon a long
experience in a free life in which they
have been at liberty TO acquire prop
erty as they pleased and bind them
selves by such contracts as suited
them, No other people have ever had
such freedom in the establishment of
personal relationships or property
rights. They do not mean to lose this
freedom or to impair any rights at all,
but they do feel that great many
things in their economic life and in
their political action are out of gear.
They have been cheated by their own
political machinery They have been
dominated by the very instrumentali-
ties which they themselves created in
the field of industrial action The lib
erty of the individual is hampered and
impaired They desire, therefore, not
a revolution. not cutting loose from
any part of their past, but a readjust-
ment of the elements of their life,
reconsideration of what it is just to
do and equitable to arrange in order
that they may be indeed free, may in
deed make their own choice and live
their own life undominated, unafraid
unususpicious, confident that they will
be served by their public men and that
the open processes of their government
will bring to them justice and timely
reform.
What we are witnessing now is not
so much conflict of parties as a con-
test of ideals, struggle between those
who. because they do not understand
what is happening, blindly hold on to
what is and those who, because they
do see the real questions of the pres
ent and of the future in a clear reveal
ing light, know that there must be
sober change; know that progress.
none the less active and determined
because it is sober and just. is neces-
sary for the maintenance of our insti-
tutions and the rectifcation of our life.
In both the great national parties
there are men who feel this ardor of
progress and of reform and in both
parties there are men who hold back,
who struggle to restrain change. who
do not understand it or who have rea-
son to fear it. Undoubtedly the pres
.ent moment offers a greater and lar
ger opportunity to the democratic par
ty tha nto the republican party. but
this is not because there are not men
in the republican party who have de-
voted their whole intelligence and en-
ergy to necessary reform. but because
the democratic party as a whole is
freer to move and to act than the re-
publican is and is held back by a
smaller and weaker body of represent
atives of the things that are and have
been.
We generally sum up what we mean
by the reaetionary forces by speaking
of them as embodied in the interests.
BY that We do not mean the legitimate
but the illegitimate interests. those
which have not adjusted themselves
to the public interest. those which are
clinging to their vested rights as
bulwark against the adjustment which