Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1912-08-08

Quesuons OF conservation and of de-
veIopment, 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 be 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 1t may be, but very ignorant
ly sometimes. and very enthusiastically,
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
revolutions: 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 as rivals,
but as partners. As the servants of
all we are bound to undertake the
great duty Of accommodation and ad-
justment.
We cannot undertake it except in
spirit which some find 1t hard to I'M
derstand. Some people only smile
when you speak of yourself as a serv-
ant Of the people; 1t seems to them
like affectation 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 as If you
really believed in presidential prima-
ries. in the direct election of United
States senators and In an utter pub
iicity about everything that concerns
government. from the sources of cam
paign funds to the intimate debate of
the highest affairs of state.
The Public a 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-
lions of men-the unthinking mixed
with the wise, the reckless with the
prudent, the INSCRIPTIONS 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 is the meaning Of
representative government itself.
You may think that am wandering
of into general disquistion that has
little to do with the business In hand,
but am not. This is business-busi-
ness Of the deepest sort. 1t will solve
our difficulties If you will but take it
as business.
The Tariff.
See how 1t makes business out Of the
tariff question. The tariff question as
dealt with in our time Mt any rate has
not been business. 1t has been politics.
Tariff schedules have been made up
for the purpose of keeping as large a
number as possible Of the rich and in
duentlal manufacturers Of the country
In good humor with the Republican
party, which desired their constant
financial support. The tariff has be-
come system Of favors, which the
phraseology Of the schedule was often
deliberately cOntrived to conceal. 1t
becomes a matter Of business, Of legiti-
mate business. only when the partner
ship and understanding 1t represents
nre between the leaders of congress and
the whole people Of the United States
instead Of between the leaders of con-
gress and small groups of manufac-
turers demanding special recognition
and consideration. That is why the
general idea of representative govern
ment becomes a necessary part of the
! tariff question. Who when you come
down to the hard facts Of the matter
have been represented in recent years
when our tariff schedules were being
discussed and determined not on the
door Of congress. for that is not where
they have been determined, but in the
committee rooms and conferences?
| That IL the heart Of the whole affair.
Will you. can you, bring the whole
People into the partnership or not?
| No one IL discontinued with representa-
tive government. 1t falls under qucs-
ton only when 1t ceases to be repre-
sentative. 1t ia Mt bottom question of
good faith and morals
How does the present tariff look in
| the light Of 1t? I say nothing for the
moment about the policy Of protection
conceived and carried out as a disin-
| terested statesman might conceive it.
Our own clear conviction as Demo-
crafts IL that in the last analysis the
only safe and legitimate object Of tariff