Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1912-10-31
Woodrow Wilson's Message to the American People

Sea cirt, N. j., oct. 10, 1919.
To the Voters of America:
an glad to have an opportunity TO state VERT
simply and directly why I am seeking TO be elect
cd President Of the United States. feel very
deeply that this is not an ambition man should
ent ertein for HIS own sake. He must seek to
serve cause, and must know very clearly what
cause it is he is seeking to serve.
The cause 1 am enlisted In lies very plain
to my view: The GOVERNMENT OF the United
States, as now bound by the policies which have
become charact eristic Of Republican admintstra@
ton in recent years.. is not free to serve the
whole people tmpartia1ly, and 1t ought 70 be set
free. 1t has been tied up, whether deliberately
OF merely by unintent ional devel opment. With
particular interests, which have used their pow
or, both to ntrol the government and TO oon-
troll the industrial development of the country.
1t mast BIO freed Grom such entang1 ements and all
1tances. Until 1T is freed. 1T cannot serve the
people a whole. Until it is freed, 1t cannot
undertake any programme of social and economic
betterment but must be checked and thWarted at
every turn by its patrons and masters.
In practt oally every speech that make,
put at the front OF what have to say the ques-
tiou of the tariff and the question Of tho trusts
but not because of any thought of party strategy,
because l believe the solut Lon OF these ques-
lions TO lie at the very heart Of the bigger
question. whether the government shall be FREQ
or not. The government is not free because II
has grant cd ial favors to particular GLASSES
by Of the tariff. The men to whom those
special favors have been grant cd have formed
great comb mat 1ons by viii CHI to control enter
prise and determine the prices Of commodities.
They could not have done this had it not been for
the tariff. No party, therefore, which does not
propose to take away these special favors and
prevent monopoly absolutel in the markets OF the
country much the most elementary
part of the method by viii CHI the government is
10 be set free.
The control to which tariff legislation has
led, both in the field Of politics and in the
field OF business, is what has produce ed Tho most
odious feature Of our present political sttua-
tion, namely, the absolute domtnat ion Of power
ful bosses. Bosses cannot exist Without bust-.
ness alliances. With them politics is hardly
distinsui shable from business. Bosses matntatn
their control because they. are allied with men
who wish their assistance in order to'get con-
tracts, in order to obtain special legislative
edvant ages in order to prevent reforms which
Will interfere with monopoly or with their on
joyment of special exemptions. Merely as po11t-
zeal leaders, not backed by money, not supported
by securely intrenohed special interests, bosses
would be entirely manageable and comparatively
powerless. By freeing the government, there
FORE at the lime break the power Of the
boss He trades, he does not govern. He ar
ranges, he does not lead. He sets the stage for
what the people are to do; he does not act as
their agent servant, but as their director,
For him the real business Of politics is done (
under cover.
The aame means that Will set the government
free from the influences which nov constantly