The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-08-15
A MAN AND THE UTTERANCE.

"A MAN AND lHE OIlEtANSE.
Woodrow Wilson's acceptance ad-
dress shows that he recognizes the
stage which has been reached by
the new democratic movement in
American society and knows the kind
of leadership it demands.
A decade ago the American
people needed to be awakened to the
facts of social injustice, to the en-
croachment of privileges and the
disuse of certain powers of free gov
eminent. Now waking up is not a
logical process; it is rather a physi-
cal one; an alarm clock is better
than a reason. Courage and right
sympathy were the great requisites.
The work has been done, and
done we'll. The people are awake.
They are demanding an end of an
cient wrongs, of the kind of oppor-
tunity for the few that means the
wronging Of the many. They have
outgrown leadership which-like
that of Theodore Roosevelt in his
younger and better days-simply de-
nounces and proclaims.
In this hour of readiness to at
tack great problems of political and
social reconstruction this nation
needs guidance OF a peculiar sort.
We cannot trust the man who knows
everything, who has the whole pro-
gramme ready for us. That we
must make for ourselves. 1t is too
great for any one intellect, for any
one experience.
What we do need is help in work
ing out explanations and fundamen-
tai principles. We need not only
to react against evils and injustices
as evil but to understand the nature
and origin of abuses. We need to
come to an agreement as to working
principles as we go on to the future.
We need a man who has not only
who can help to guide a nation s
thought.
In his acceptance address Wood
row Wilson shows himself the man
| for this hour. He wastes no time
| in mere denuciation of evils on
whose character we all agree. He
wholly lacks the omniscient tones
of the quack doctor of society's ills,
| with his formula of laws and rules,
| warranted to cure everything, from
panics to the San Jose scale. He
does not thunder or to impress u.s.
He pays us the compliment of TAX
| ing it for granted that our earnest
ness is as deep as his own He starts
newly realized needs as one who
would point out just why the ma
chinery of government has in certain
parts run heavily and broken down
and just what principles must be
borne in mind as we all seek to find
out how far it may be restored and
how far it must be changed or re-
constructed.
In this address Gov. Wilson shows
that he understands two things: men
and the opportunity of a President.
We have been told by his repub-
lican detractors that he was "a mere
schoolmaster used to lecturing to
boys" lacking the patience and the
sense of others right to their opin-
ions necessary to leader of men.
This address effectually spikes that
particular gun of the hostile critics
Anything further from the tonee%ot
the intellectual. dictator, impatient
of interruption and disagreement
the literature of recent political ut
terance does not contain.
The force of his argument is not
in any assumption of the reasoner;
it is in the universal validity of the
principles he appeals to and the ex-
act correspondence of his character
izations with the reality of things,
When Gov. Wilson looks forward
to the time when the tariff shall
be so revised and supplemented
that every part of our laws of tax
alton shall have been transformed
into a system of just and reasonable
charges, which shall fall where
they will create the least burden
every listener recognizes the voice OF
the discerning historian and the
level-headed economist. When he
finds fault with that definition OF
prosperity which finds it in vast
wealth, no matter how distributed"
the thinking manhood of America
cannot fail to respond.
These very sayings of his and the
tone of the whole address indicates
that the speaker understands the
opportunity and the limitations of
the presidency. An American presl-
dent is not drafter of acts, maker
of legislation. He is, in a peculiar
way, a sort of pilot of the political
thinking of Congress and the great
body of citizens. His touch on the
wheel has power in determining not
SO much what we shall do as how we
shall regard things. Woodrow Will
son cannot become President for
yet many a long month, but the
kind of guidance of the political
thinking of Americans which is a
Presidents peculiar province he has
begun to supply already.-Republic.
NOT WORTH FIGHTING FOR?