Gloucester County Democrat., 1912-08-08
eal welfare affects the soundness

| cal welfare affects the soundness
the whole nation. We shall never 3
very far in the settlement of thf
vital matters so long as we regard
everything done for the workingman,
by law or by private agreement, as a.
concession yielded to keep him from
agitation and disturbance of our
peace Here again the sense of uni
versal partnership must come into
play if we are to act like statesmen,
nation.
The working people Of America-if
they must be distinguished from the
minority that constitutes the rest of
it-are, of course, the backbone of the
| nation No law that safeguards their
life, that improves the physical and
/, moral conditions under which they
| live, that makes their hours of labor
rational and tolerable, that gives
| them freedom to act in their own in
terest and that protects them where
| they cannot protect themselves can
properly be regarded as class legisla-
tion or as anything but as a measure
taken in the interest Of the whole
people, whose partnership in right ac-
tion we are trying to establish and
make real and practical. 1t is in this
spirit that we shall act if we are genu-
| inc spokesmen of the whole country.
Currency Laws.
| AS our program is disclosed-for no
man can forecast it ready made and
| before counsel is taken of every one
concerned-this must be its measure
and standard, the interest of all con-
| cerned For example, in dealing with
the complicated and difficult question
Of the reform of our banking and cur
rency laws it is plain that we ought
| to consult very many persons besides
the bankers, not because we distrust
the bankers but because they do not
necessarily comprehend the business
of the country, notwithstanding they
are Indispensable servants Of it and
may do vast deal to make it hard or
easy No mere bankers plan will
meet the requirements, no matter how
honestly conceived. 1t should be a
merchants and farmers plan as well.
| elastic in the hands of those who use
it as an indispensable part of their
daily business.
! In dealing with the Philippines we
should not allow ourselves to stand
upon any mere point of pride as if, in
| order to keep our countenance in the
families of nations, it were necessary
for US to make the same blunders of
selfishness that other nations have
made We are not the owners of the
Philippine Islands. We hold them in
trust for the people who live in them.
| They are theirs for the uses of their
life. We are not even their partners.
1t is our duty as trustees to make
whatever arrangement of government
| will be most serviceable to their free
dom and development. Here again we
are to set up the rule of justice and Of
right.
Presidential Primaries.
The rule of the people is no idle
| phrase. Those who believe in it-as
| who does not that has caught the re;l
| spirit of America believe that there
| can be no rule of right without tt;
| that right in politics is made up Of
| the interests of everybody, and every
body should take part in the action
that is to determine it. We have been
keen for presidential primaries and
| the direct election of United States
senators because we wanted the ac-
| ton of the government to be determin-
| ed by persons whom the people had
| actually designated as men whom they
were ready to trust and follow. We
have been anxious that all campaign
contributions and expenditures should
| be disclosed to the public in fullest
/ detail because we regarded the infiu-
ences which govern campaigns to be
as much part of the peoples BUSH
ness as anything else connected with
| their government. We are working
toward a very definite object, the unis
| versal partnership in public affairs
| upon which the purity of politics and
its aim and spirit depend.
| do moi know any greater question