The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-11-02
RALLY DAY MESSAGE
FROM WOODROW WILSON TO THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE
fore the Nation are to- he Worked
Out In the Next Four Years


whole course OF our national life and |
our individual fortunes throughout |
the next generation. We must make |
that decision on the 5th of November. |
IL cannot be postponed. We cannot |
vote without making it and if We do |
not vote those who do will make it for
us. The next four years will deter
mine how We are TO solve the question /
OF the tariff, the question of the !
trusts, the question of the reforma- !
tion of our whole banking and cur
rency system, the conservation of our
natural resources and of the health |
and vigOr Of our people, the develop |
ment of our means of transportation, |
the right application of our scientific
knowledge to the work and healthful
prosperity of our whole population,
whether in the fields or in the fac
tories or in the mines, the firm estab- |
lishment of a foreign policy based
upon justice and good will rather
than upon mere commercial exploita
ton and the selfish interests of a mar
row circle of financiers extending
their enterprises to the ends of the
earth, and the extension of the as
sistance Of the government to those
many programs of uplift and better
ment to which some of the best minds
Of our age have turned with wise hope
and ardor.
There is much to be done, and it
must be done in the right spirit and
in the right way, or it will deepen our
troubles, not relieve them. The tariff
question must be solved in the inter
est of those who work and spend and
plan and struggle, those who are find
ing a foothold and working out a ca
reer, those who touch the sources of
strength and are quick with the pulse
of a common life, for the sake of "the
power that tills the fields and builds
the cities" and not for the sake of
special groups of men who dominate
and control their fellows and regard
the toll of millions of men merely as
an opportunity to make use of their
established advantage. 1t must be
handled very prudently, so that no
honest toll may be interrupted, no
honorable or useful enterprise dis
turbed; must be dealt with by slow
stages of well considered change
change whose object shall be to re-
store and broaden opportunity, and
tn h,,t o1 ixyi-
lege and unwholesome control. Those
who handle it, therefore, must be
men who understand the general in
terest and have devoted themselves
to serving it without fear or favor
The trust question must be dealt
with in the same way with this dis
tinct and single program, to destroy
monopoly and to leave business in
tact, to give those who conduct en-
terprise no advantage except that
which comes by efficiency, energy
and sagacity, those only fountains of
honorable wealth, every man reward
ed according to his insight and enter
prise and service, his mastery in an
open field Currency and banking
questions must be discussed and set
tied in the interest of those who use
credit, produce the crops, manufac-
ture the goods, and quicken the COM
merce of the nation, rather than in
the interest of the banker and the
promoter and the captain of finance,
who if set off by themselves in the
management of such things, too cas-
lily lose sight eyen Of their own inti-
mate and inseparable relation to the
general needs and interests of the
rank and file. Forests must be re-
newed, and mines and water courses
must be husbanded and preserved, as
if we were trustees for all genera
tions, not merely for our own, for the
sake Of communities and nations and
not merely for the immediate use of
those who hasten to enlarge their en-
terprises and think only of their own
profits. The government must en-
ploy it's powers and spend its money
to develop a whole people and a
"hOlS COlllhSLC, dlth at luS llllS
keep them free and alert and unham-
pered. it's eye always on the COM
mon use and purpose, its thought con-
stantly of what will happen to the
average man and of what will be pre-
pared for the next generation.
We must consider our foreign pol
icy upon the same high principle. We
have become a powerful member of
the great family of nations. The ma
tions look to us for standards and
policies worthy of America. We must
shape our course of action by the
maxims of justice and liberality and
good will, think of the progress of
mankind rather than of the progress
of this or that investment of the pro-
lection of American honor and the
advancement of American ideals rath-
er than always of American contracts,
and lift our diplomacy TO the levels
of what the best minds have planned
for mankind. We must devote the
power of the government to the SER
vice of the race and think at every
turn of men and women and children,
of the moral life and physical force