Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-08-07

K
Irience during the many yesAs in which.
under many and varied conditions, q
have striven and toiled with men. 1 be-
lieve in larger use of the government
tai power to help remedy industrial
wrongs. because 1t has been borne in on
me by actual experience that without
the exercise of such power many of the
wrongs Will go unremedied. | believe in
"a larger opportunity for the people them
selves directly to participate in govern
ment and to control their governmental
agents. because long experience has
taught me that without such control
many of their agents will represent them
badly. By actual experience in office /
have found that, as a rule. l could se-
cure the triumph of the causes in which
1 most believed, not from the politicians
and the men who claim an exceptional
right 10 speak IN business and govern.
ment. but by going over their heads and
appealing directly to the people them
selves. am not under the slightest de-
fusion as to any power that during my
political career | have at any time pos
sessed. Whatever of power l at any
time had, l obtained from the people. L
could exercise it only so long as, and to
believed in me, but heartily backed me
up. Whatever | did as President l was
able to do only because had the back
ing of the people. When on any point l
did not have that backing, when on any
point l differed from the people. it mat
tered not whether | was right or wheth-
er l was wrong, my power vanished. |
tried my best to lead the people to adj
IN taf1 fHay5 fhotlV1ft
was right; if necessary, | never hesi-
tated to tell them what / thought they
ought to hear, even though | thought 1t
would be unpleasant for them to hear it;
but recognized that my task was to
try to lead them ana not to drive them,
to take them into my confidence, to try
to show them that | was right. and then
Loyalty and in good faith to accept their
decision. will do anything for the peo-
pie except what my conscience tells me
is wrong, and that | can do for no man
and no set of men; l hold that a man
cannot serve the people well unless he
serves his conscience: but l hold also
that where his conscience bids him refuse
to do what the people desire be should
not try to continue in Office against their
will. Our government system should be
he cannot conscientiously carry out the
wishes of the people, shall at their de-
sire leave his office and not msrepresent
them in office and / hold that the pub
lie servant can by so doing. better than
in any other way, serve both them and
his conscience.
"Surely there never was a fight better
worth making than the one in which we
hat he.
falls any one of us who for the time
being stand in the forefront of the bat
tie l hope we shall win, and / believe
that if we can wake the people to what
the fight. really means we shall win.
But. win or lose. we shall not falter.
Whatever fate may at the moment over
take any of US, the movement itself will
not stop Our cause is based on the
eternal principles of righteousness; and
even though we who now lead may for
the time fail, in the end the cause itself
shall triumph six weeks ago, here in
.Chieago L spoke to the honest represen-
tatives of convention which, was not
dominated by honest men: u convention
wherein sat, alasi a majority of men,
who. with sneering indifference to every
principle of right. so acted as to bring
to shameful end a party which had
been founded over half a century ago
by men in whose souls burned the fire
of lofty endeavor. Now to you men who,
in your turn, have come together to
spend and be spent in the endless cru
SADIE against wrong, to you who face
the future resolute and confident, to you
who strive in spirit of brotherhood for
the betterment of our nation, to you
4.