Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1912-03-01
With Magnetic EIOQuence Great Pro-
; gressive Points Means Of Reform
WOULD CONSERVE, NOT DESTROY
Points the Pernicious Circle Of Big
.. Business-WouId Get the Man
Behind the Corporation
Lauds Mr.. Bryan.


ly impressed the country and which has
= brought him strongly into prominence
before the people of Kansas as a man
possessing fine ideals and the capacity
to express them. The governor talked
TO an audience that packed the great
hall of the Masonic Temple to suffO-
cation.
Drawing upon the constructive
phase of the career Of Washington
as a thinker for posterity, Governor
Wilson proceeded to apply the moral
inferred to the problem Of today. He
declared that the Republicans lave
preached the doctrine that it was
first necessary to take care OF the big
business of the country and then big
business would take care of the rest
of the country; that the only safe
way to obtain prosperity was to favor
those chiefly responsible for the great
material undertakings. He said, in
part:
Now l am Democrat because |
absolutely dissent from that theory.
! believe, because / have read his.
tory, that the only strength of peo-
pie comes out Of the body of it. That
Ct is fed from the bottom and not
from the top. That it is renewed
out of the ranks of other men. That
its sap does not run down from the
flower TO the root but up from the
root 10 the flower | do not trust the
Judgment of the men at the Top be-
cause they are at the top. If you
want to know what is going on in
America, ask the men who are in the
thick of the struggle and who have
not yet made their place in the world
Of economic rivalry. They know
Nha! the defects are; they know the
strength OF the stream because they
are swimming against it, Don't ask
the man who has run the stream into
his sluice and Is sitting comfortably
IN the Office Of the mill which it
drives. Don't ask the man who has
got the captaincy of the great forces
mat are making America, but ask
The men who constitute the great
forces of America. | want their judy
ment as to what is going on, and |
want it not only because | have read
history and been taught these things
ever since was lad, and learned
9 them for myself by observation, but
because have felt them. | have my
self found that it was misleading to
follow the judgment of the interests"
Of America-the little groups of men
who are now conducting the great
enterprises of America. | look now
ct gentlemen who are engaged in a
very nice piece of business-who are
engaged in nothing else than organic
ing the common judgment of America
to take charge of the affairs of
America And it is no childs play.
1t is no matter that will be &C
complished merely by zeal and
spirit. 1t is matter that will be
accomplished by the most thinking,
BY the most uncompromising truth
fulness in the analysis of the existing
situations. : =
Democrats Must Show Cause.
1t is true that this country has
ceased trusting the Republican party,
but it is not true yet that it has
made up its mind very certainly that
1t can trust the Democratic party. |
believe We are going to show cause
why it should, but We have got to
show cause. Il is very encouraging
TO see Democrats multiplying in Kan
Sas where you are constantly remind
ing yourselves you were once so few.
You are not as bad of as a man |
was talking to in New York, who
said, 81 have been a Democrat ever
since they hunted them with dogs.
- New some decades have
passed since the Democrats began to
excite the uneasiness Of the business
men Of this country. Nothing ex-
cites anybody like the truth. ="
/ went along very happily in my
political career, until one day shall
always remember, in the city of Har.
riSburg, happened to meet a Repub.
lcan and | said the greatest trust in
this country was the Credit Trust
and the minute that was mentioned
the trouble began We are conduct.
ing the great credit trust, and that,
gentlemen, must be put out of bust.
ness. | knew, though | might not
have been able to prove it a. the
time, that what | had said was true
Men vince when you touch them on
the raw, they don't vince when you
touch them where the flesh is sound
and if you want to know if what YOU
are saying is true, just wait and see
them vince.
The Functions of the Reformer.
Now there are many things that
ought to be said about the present
situation in the Democratic party
only some of which L shall venture
TO detain you to say, but there is one
thing that ought to be said in every
Democratic company: There are many
functions to be performed in setting
forward reforms. One of the frs
functions is to set up and proclaim
the truth when almost nobody agrees
With you, and then to 60 on pro
claiming the truth and keeping oul
hearts untainted and perfectly SOUND
year after year and decade aftel
decade, keeping your faith and wha
you understand to be the truth, anC
what you understand to be the inter
ests Of the people. and allowing nj
man to make an alliance with you, II
anything except what you believe t.
be the cause Of freedom and Of truth