Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1912-08-07
WILSON ACCEPTS s
PARTY LEADERSHIP
Insists That Whole People Should be Consulted IN
Government Affa;rs-Says Tariff Has Become
System of Favors and Should be Reduced
High Schedules Held Responsible for
Trusts and Cost of Liu;ng.

each Of the great mattefs that must be
taken up by the next congress and the
next administration?
What is there to dot It u hard to
sum the great task up, but apparently
this 10 the sum of the matter: There
are two great things to do. One is to
Get up the rule Of justice and Of right
in such matters a. the tariff. the regu-
lation - Tho trusts and the prevention
Of monopoly, the adaptation Of our
banking and currency laws to the
varied uses to which our people must
put them. tho treatment of those who
do the daily labor In our factories and
mines and throughout all our great In
dustrial and commercial undertakings,
and the political life Of the people Of
the Philippines, for WHOM we hold
governmental power in trust, for their
service, not our own. The other, the
additional duty is the great task OF
protecting our people and our resources
and Of keeping open to the whole PEG.
pie the doors Of opportunity through
which they must, generation by gener-
alton, pass II they are to make con.
quest Of their fortunes In health. In
freedom, in peace and In contentnent
In the performance Of this second
great duty we are face to face with
questions Of conservation and Of de-
velopment, questions Of forests and
water powers and mines and water
ways, Of the building OF an adequate
merchant marine. and the opening OF
every highway and facility. and the
setting up Of every safeguard needed
by an industrious, expanding nation.
In Partnership With the People.
These are all great matters upon
which everybody should DO heard. We
have got into trouble in recent years
chiefly because these large things,
which ought to have been handled by
taking counsel with as large num-
Der of persons as possible. because
they touched every interest and the
life OF every class and region. have
In fact been too often handled In
private conference They have been
settled by: very small and often de-
liberately exclusive groups Of men
who undertook to speak for the whole
nation, or, rather, for Themselves in
the terms of the whole nation-very
honestly It may be, but very ignorant
" sometimes, and very shortsightedly.
too-a poor substitute for genuine COM
mon counsel. No group Of directors.
economic or political. can speak for
people. They have neither the point
Of view nor the knowledge. We need no
revolution: we need no excited change;
we need only new point Of view and
a new method and spirit Of counsel.
We are servants Of the people. the
whole people. The nation has been
unnecessarily, unreasonably at war
within itself. Interest has clashed
with interest when there were COM
mon principles Of right and OF fair
dealing which might and should have
bound them all together. not al rivals.
but M mariners. As the servants OF
all we are bound to undertake the
great duty OF accommodation and ad-
justment.
We cannot undertake 1t except in
spirit which some fnd It hard to un-
derstand. Some people only smile
when you speak Of yourself as serv-
ant Of the people; it seems to them
like afYectation or mere demagogy.
They ask what the unthinking crowd
knows or comprehends Of great COM
plicated matters of government. They
shrug their shoulders and lift their
eyebrows when you speak AZ II you
really believed in presidential prima-
ries, in the direct election Of United
States senator's and In an utter pub
licity about everything that concerns
government, from the sources Of cam
pai9n funds to the intimate debate OF
the highest affairs Of state.
The Public Noble Whole.
They do not or will not compre.
bend the solemn thing that is in your
thought. You know as well as they
do that there are all sorts and condi-
tons Of men-the unthinking mixed
with the wise, the reckless with the
prudent, the interruptions with the
fair and honest-and you know. what
they sometimes forget, that every
class, without exception, affords
sample Of the mixture, the learned and
the fortunate no less than the unedu-
Gated and the struggling mass. But
you see more than they do. You see
that these multitudes Of men. mixed.
Of every kind and quality, constitute
somehow an organic and noble whole.
a single people, and that they have In
terests which no man can privately
determine without their knowledge
and counsel. That 10 the meaning Of
representative government itself.
You may think that am wandering
of into q general disquisition that has
little to do with the business In hand.
but am not. This II business-busi-
ness Of the deepest sort. It will solve
our difficulties IL you win but take It
The Tariff.
Sec how 1t makes business out Of the
tariff question. The tariff question az
dealt with in our time at any rate has
not been business It has bean politics.
Tariff schedules have been made up
for the purpose Of keeping % large .
number a. possible Of the rich and In
nuential manufacturers Of The country
in q good humor With The Republican
party, which desired tAelr constant
financial support The tariff has b.