Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1912-03-21

to the People True Democratic Gov
ernment-Real Conservatism Is BE-.
ing Pressed to the Front, and Rule by
the People Themselves Is the End De-
sired by Real Reformers.
At banquet of the Knife and Fork
club of Kansas City. Mo-, on May of
last year, Governor Wilson spoke on
the topic, 1.-THE Issues, of Reform" He
said:
There can be no installing the fact
that we are now face to face with po-
litical changes which may have very
profound effect upon our political life.
Those who do not understand the i'm
pending change are afraid Of it. Those
who do understand it know that it is
not process of revolution, but proc
ess of restoration, rather, in which
there is as much healing as hurt.
There are strain and peril. no doubt,
in every process of change, but the
chief peril comes from undertaking 1t
in the wrong temper. 1t lies not in the
change itself so much as in the method
of some of those who promote it. 1t is
a noteworthy circumstance that in pro-
portion as the people of the country
come to recognize what it is that rem
ders them uneasy and what it is that
Is proposed by way of reformation
they lose their fear and take on GER
tain irresistible enthusiasm.
"The American people are naturally
a conservative people They do not
wish to touch the stable foundations
of their life They have reverence
for the rights of property and the
rights of contract which is based upon
a long experience in a free life in
which they have been at liberty to ac
quire property as they pleased and
bind themselves by such contracts as
suited them. No other people have
ever had such freedom in the establish
ment of personal relationships or prop
erty rights. They do not mean to lose
this freedom or to impair any rights
at all, but they do feel that great
many things In their economic life and
in their political action are out of gear.
They have been cheated by their own
political machinery. They have been
dominated by the very instrumentali-
ties which they themselvs created in
the field of industrial action. The lib
erty of the individual is hampered and
impaired. They desire therefore not
: revolution, not a cutting loose from
any part of their past, but readjust-
ment of the elements of their life. a
reconsideration of what it is just to do
and equitable to arrange in order that
they may be indeed free, may indeed
make their own choices and live their
own life undominated, unafraid, unsus-
picious, confident that they will be
served by their public men and that
the open processes of their government
will bring to them justice and timely
reform.
Contest of Ideals.
what we are witnessing now is not
80 much conflict of parties as con-
test of ideals, a struggle between those
who because they do not understand
what is happening blindly hold on tc
what is and those who because they
do see the real questions of the present
and OF the future in clear, revealing
light know that there must be sober
change; know that progress, none the
less eactive and determined because 1t
is sober and just, is necessary for the
maintenance of our institutions and
the rectification of our life In both
the great national parties there are
men who feel this ardor of progress
and of reform, and in both parties
there are men who hold back, who
struggle to restrain change, who do not
understand it or who have reason to
fear it. Undoubtedly the present mo-
ment offers greater and larger oppor-
tunity to the Democratic party than
to the Republican party. But this is
not because there are not men in the
Republican party who have devoted
their whole intelligence and energy to
necessary reform. but because the
Democratic party as a whole is freer
to move and to act than the Republic
an is and is held back by smaller and
weaker body of representatives Of the
things that are and have been.
1--WE generally sum up what we mean
by the reactionary forces by speaking
OF them as embodied in the interests.
BY that we do not mean the legitimate.
but the Legitimate interests, those
which have not adjusted themselves
to the public interest, those which ART
clinging to their vested rights as a bull
wark against the adjustment which is
absolutely necessary If they are to be
servants and not masters of the pub