The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-08-08

of the building of an adequate merchant
marine, and the opening Of every highway
and facility and the seding up of every
safeguard needed by great industrious,
expanding Nation.
NEED NEW POINT OF VIEW.
These are all great matters upon which
everybody should be heard We have
got into trouble IT. recent years chiefly
because these large things, which ought
to have been handled by taking counsel
with as large a number of persons as
possible, because they touched every in
terest and the life of every class and re-
gion, have in fact been too often handled
in private conference They have been
settled by very small, and often deliber-
ately exclusive, groups of men who under
took to speak for the whole Nation. or.
rather, for themselves in the terms OF
the whole Nation-very honestly 1t may
be, but very ignorantly sometimes, and
very shortsightedly too-a poor substitute
for genuine common counsel. No group
Of directors, economic or political, can
speak for people. They have neither the
point of view nor the knowledge. Our
difficulty is not that wicked and designing
men have plotted against US, but that our
common affairs have been determined
upon too narrow a view, and by too pri-
vate an initiative. Our task now is to
effect a great readjustment and get the
forces of the whole people once more into
play We need no revolution; we need
no excited change; we need only new
point of view and new method and spirit
Of counsel.
we are servants Of the people, the
whole neopIe. The Nation has been un-
necessarily, unreasonabfy at war within
itself. Interest has clashed with interest
when there were common principles OF
right and of fair dealing which might
and should have bound them all together,
not as rivals, but as partners. AS the
servants of all we are pound to under
take the great duty OF accommodates
We cannot undertakes It except in q
spirit which some find it hard to under
stand. Some people only smile when YOU
speak Of yourself as a servant OF the
people; 1t seems to them like anectatior
or mere demagoguery, They ask VIVA
theunthinking crowd knows or conpre
bends of great complicated matters o.
government. They shrug tnelr snou!aerS
and lift their eyebrows when you speaF
as II you really believed in presidential
primaries. in the direct election OF unitec
| States senators, and in an utter publicity
about everything that concerns govern
ment, from the sources OF campaigr
funds to the intimate debate of tht
| highest affairs Of state.
They do not. or win not, comprehend
| the solemn thing that is in your thought
! You know as well as they do that there
| are all sorts and conditions Of men-tht
unthinking mixed with the wise, the feck
| less with the prudent, the unscrupuIou
| with the fair and honest-and you know
what they sometimes forget, that ever!
| class, without exception, affords sampl
| of the mixture, the learned and the for
/ tunate no less than the uneducated ant
| the struggling mass. But you see NOR
| than they do. You see that these multi
tudes Of men, mixed of every kind ant
| quality constitute somehow an organl
| and noble whole, single people ant
that they have interests which no NAL
| can privately determine without thef
| knowledge and counsel. That is tn
| meaning Of representative government
| itself. Representative government i
| n
| give voice to this great body through
| spokesman chosen out OIL every grade ant
| class
off into a general disquisition that hai
little to do with the business in hand
but am not. This Is business-ousines
/ Of the deepest sort. It will solve gu
/ difficulties If you will but take 1t a
/ business.
TARIFF QUESTION BEEN POLITICS.
| See how it makes business out OF tn
! tariff question. The tariff question, a
dealt with in our time at any rate, ha
not been business, 1t has been politics
Tariff schedules have peen made up 70
the purpose Of keeping as large mum
Der as possible Of the rich and Influential
manufacturers Of the country in goot
humor with the Republican party, whicl
desired their constant financial support
. The tariff has become a system of favors
/ which the phraseolOgy Of the schedul
was often deliberately contrived TO con
ceal It becomes a matter Of business
OF legitimate business, only when tn
partnership and understanding it repre-
sents is between the leaders Of congress
and the whole people Of the Unite
States, instead Of between the leaders o
. congress and small groups Of manufac
turers demanding special recognition an
considerations. That is why the genera
idea OF representative government be
/ comes a necessary part of the tariff ques
ton. Who, when you come down to tn
hard facts of the matter, have been repre-
scented in recent years when our TART
! schedules were being discussed and de
termined. not on the floor Of congress
for that is not where they have bee
determined, but in the committee room
and conferences? That is the heart o
the whole affair. Will you, can you, brin
the whole people into the partnership o
not? No one is discon tented with repre-
! sentative government; it falls under ques
ton only when IL ceases to be repre-
sentative. 1t is at bottom question @
4 good faith and morals.
How does the present tariff look in tn
light of it? I say nothing for the momen