The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-04-19
By Woodrow Wilson,

the People, Net Down From Captains
Of industry.
by Woodrow Wilson,
/ What fills me with confidence in tht
future is that the world is not waiting
upon the stupidity Of politics. The
world has an awkward way of taking
things into its own hands. The life
of the people must in the long run ex
press itself in its politics, and it does
not now express itself in this country
in the politics We have been accus.
toned to in the last decade.
There are two or three theories ci
government in this country. Don't
deceive yourself by supposing all the
people believe in democratic govern.
ment, because they do not. You have
only to listen to the utterances of very
distinguished republican speakers TO
see that they do not believe and do
not pretend 10 believe in representa-
tive government. They will tell you
they do not believe the judgment of
the people can be trusted. And are
you going to take counsel from these
gentlemen as TO the preservation Of
our representative institutions when
they don't want them to represent the
great body of the people?
don't know whether l was born
so. or learned so. or what happened
to me. but l know this, that the deep
est conviction I have, arising cut of
observation and experience, is this,
that I would rather take the judgment
Of the rank and file than the judgment
of the men who have become absorb
ed and successful leaders in great uu-
dertakings.
And want TO ask these gentlemen
this query: What sustains business
in the United States? What is it that
makes the United States prosperous? =?
Is it that We have great captains of
industry What would they do with
out the cunning and skill, the musmle
and the indomitable aspiring hope of
the American people? If these peo-
pie were to find hope dying out of
their hearts, they would become dumb
driven beasts, and your enterprises
would fail for lack of the very breath
that sustains them.
If you want TO find whether a ma
tion is prosperous ask the men who
are on the make what they hope and
what they fear Go to the country
districts and ask anxious fathers, who
are looking for openings for their sons,
where they expect to get them in.
where they find doors open and where
they find doors shut. Go through the
places where men are making earn
ings and see whether they dread or
confidently look forward to the future,
and then you kill find whether Amer
lea is waxing or waning, for if these
men are confident. full of hope, if they
know they are going to get fair treat
ment wherever they go, then America
can conquer the world of enterprise in
their hope
But if you find, what you do find,
men everywhere asking themselves
whether the doors of opportunity have
not been locked in their faces, then
you will nave to take a new reckon
ing as to the future of America
If only those who are chosen at the
top have the right of way in, what is
going to happen to America? Did you
ever hear of a nation that was renew
ed fro mthe top? Did you ever hear
of a nation that was not made Grille,
that did not account for it's youth by
renewal from the bottom? Did you
ever hear of tree that drew its sap
from its flowers? Does it not draw
it from the dark and silent places of
the soil? Does not a nation draw its
power of renewal and enterprise and
all its future, fom the ranks of the
great body of unnamed men?
If you are going to discourage these
men; if you are going to put the chill
of fear in their hearts, then Ameri-
can captains of industry can whistle
for their future and they will whistle
in a wilderness.
| am the friend of American busi-
ness because I know where its founda-
tions are laid and where they are
weak.
These foundations are solid only
when laid in the confidence of the
common people.
A democrat? Why, a man does not
understand history who isn't demo-
crat. \ man doesn't understand enter
prise who isn't a democrat. And let
me say this, democracy is not merely
a matter of programs-it is a matter