The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1912-09-05
WILSON SPEAKS
BEFORE FARMERS
Rank and File Fare as They May,
While Those in Power Dictate
in Great Questions-Change
of Management in
March.

me plGSluGuCN.
Addressing the farmers gathered
here for the meeting of the Pennsvl.
vania State Grange, the Democratic
nominee appealed for support upon
the tariff in his platform. He prom
ised economic reforms not only bene-
fetal TO the farmer. but to all.
Governor Wilson likened our Gov
eminent to vast partnership, with
every citizen holding a share in it.
lie declared that a great economic
change is going on and cited the pas
sage OF the farmers free list by the
last Congress as an expression of il.
Governor Wilson said in part:
1t Is strange VIC should have
put OF so long looking into our
government To see whether it is
run according to the rules we
originally laid down for it. but il
IL certain that we are now look
ing into il very sharply. indeed,
and without the least danger that
we shall be deceived again as 10
its character.
Our idea of it has been from
the first that il was genuine
partnership, and that all of us
were partners, and that there was
no ranking of junior and senior
partnCrS-that nobody had any
preference over anybody else i'm
the arrangement, but that all
were upon one footing and were
TO share alike.
But a very interesting thing
has come TO light-that is not. i'm
fact, the way the Government has
been administered i'm our time, but
something very different. 1t has
been in the hands OF ScIf-COnsti-
tutcd trustees and the partners
have seldom been allowed a real
governing voice i'm its administra-
tor.
We had supposed that we were
conducting the national business
along lines laid down by Jefferson,
but we find, as a matter of fact,
we have been conducting il along
the lines laid down by Hamilton.
Hamilton believed that the COM
mon run of men had little qualifica-
ton for such business: that il could
be really comprehended and wisely
directed only by those who led in
commercial and industrial enterprises
and owned the chief bodies of prop
erty in the country. And i'm our time
the leaders of the Republican party
have consciously or unconsciouslv
this notion.
AT any rate, whether they have
the notion on not. they have
adopted practice VIII sch exactly fitted
IT, for they have called into consulta-
ton in every vital matter only those
who had the biggest material stake
IN the economical development Of the
country. These men financed party
campaigns and were always on the
inside when party policy was to be de-
termined.
THEY DICTATED POLICIES.
Tarin schedules. the foreign
expenditures of the ssoVcrnment
everything went nS they Sua-ccSted
while the rank and file of us Jared
as we might and were happy If we
had any small share In thc pros
nerity which they organized for
themselves. They were the trus
lees. we were their wards and took
part in the common life as they
planned and directed.
"What went on fn the trustee
neeti"Es we were very seldom al
lowed tO IcnTn-VVc learned only
by conversational Investigations or
ny triniS in court, which the truS-
tees complained. sadly interfcred
with the regular course of bust
We have not vet got to the end Of the
inquiry, but we have found out enough
70 make II certain that we shall change
the whole method and spirit of con-
Quoting our government
Probably nobody has been deceived
9y the trustees, under this method Of
management which is 10 end on the
18th of March next, more than the
farmer 1t is hard TO see where his
partnership was recognized at all
The tariff on products of the soil was
not needed by the farmer and did him
no. good, and in the meantime the
produce MS crops had very heavy du-
ties laid upon them and their prices
were made sitter and sitter.
Great shame Upon Us.
IF, aai1iautoYS,6ro( N&P cmfwy % lou
This great iniQuity involves a grea [
shame upon us and an enormous dis
er surely is one of the fundamental
original partners of every government
IT is a signnificant thing that the
Bread comes first among the petitions
of the Lords Prayer
"All spiritual requests come after it,
We cannot conceive our best interests
or follow our best instincts until we
are fed, until our stOmachs are fileU.
and it would be natural to suppose that
in every wei ordered government the
farmer would at least have equal con-
sideration with everybody else in pO-
litical policy.
But the trustees OF our Govern
ment have not looked upon it so. The
present Democratic Congress ha0 the
old-fashioned idea of government.
They supposed that its benefits and
projections were to be distributed and
equally shared.
1T ought to relieve very directly
in particular the observation-disclosures DO
sition in which il found the farmer.
1t introduced and passed a bill which
became known as the farmers free list
bill.
THAT bill put many indispensable
things on the free list. Most promi-
nent among them was agricultural
implements. because the American
farmer pays more for his agricultural
implements than any other farmer in
the world.
Cheaper Across the Sea.
The American manufa cturers who
make agricultural implements sell
them much cheaper on the other side
of the water than they sell them in
America. On the other side of the
water they undersell the local manu-
facturers of agricultural implements
and prove by their eagerness for the
foreign business and their rapid ex-
pansion of it that they can afford to
do so, even with the additional cost
of the ocean freights.
But such changes did not compare
with the ideas and plans of the trus-
tees and the President vetoed the free
list. j dare say he was right from
his point of view, for he represented
the trustees and not the people.
1.-The trustees represent also
the big bankers in whose hands
our banking system lies to be
manipulated, and no Republican
administration, no Republican
Congress, has attempted TO serve
the farmer as he ought 10 be
CaRUaH in tho (E,aa ffns. or x.woItf.