The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-08-08

The platform is not a programme
A programme must consist of measures,
administrative acts and acts of legisla-
ton. The proof of the pudding Is the
eating thereof. How do we intend to
make II edible and digestible? From
this time on we shall be under inter
rogation. How do we expect to han
die each of the great matters that must
be taken up by the next Congress and
the next administration
What is there to dor 1t is hard to
sum the great task up, but apparent
" this is the sum of the matter There
| are two great things to do One is TO
set up the rule of Justice and of right
in such matters as tho tariff the regu-
lation of the trusts and the prevention
OF monopoly, the adaptation of our
banking and currency laws to the
varied uses 10 which our people must
put them, the treatment of those who
do the daily labor In our factories and
mines and throughout all our great In
dustrial and commercial undertakings.
and the political life of the people Of
the Philippines, for whom we hold
governmental power IN trust, for their
service not our own. The other, the
additional duty is the great task of
protecting our people and our resources
and of keeping open to the whole peo-
pie the doors of opportunity through
which they must, generation by gen.
GRAFTON, pass IL they are to make con-
quest of their fortunes in health, in
freedom, in peace, and in contentment.
In the performance of this second great
duty we are face to face with ques-
lions of conservation and of develop
ment, questions of forests and water
powers and mines and water ways, Of
the building of an adequate merchant
marine, and the opening of every high
way and facility and the setting up of
every safeguard needed by great in
dustrious, expanding nation.
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 handed by
taking counsel with as large a num-
her 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 con-
ference They have been settled by
very small and often deliberately ex-
elusive, groups of men who undertook
to speak for the whole nation, or, rath-
err for themselves In the terms or the
whole nation--very honestly 1T may be
true, but very ignorantly sometimes
and very shortsightedly, too-a poor
substitute for genuine common coun-
sell No group of directors, economic or
political can speak for people. They
have neither the point of view nor the
wicked and designing men have plotted
against us, but that our common al
fairs have been determined upon too
narrow a view, and by too private an
initiative. Our task now Is to erect
greater adjustment and get the forces
of the whole people once more into
play. We need no revolution; we need
no excited change. we need only new
point of view and new method and
spirit OF counsel.
Accommodation and Adjustment
| 1--WE are servants of the people, the
whole people The nation has been un-
necessarily, unreasonably at war with
in itself Interest has FLASHED with IN
terest when there were common prin-
ciples 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 ADJUST
ment.
1--WE cannot undertake 1t except in a
spirit which some find 1t hard to UNI
derstand Some people only smile when
, you speak of yourself as servant or
the people, 1t seems to them like ar
fectation or mere demagoguery. They
ask what the minimizing crowd knows
or comprehends of great complicated
matters of government They shrug
. |
when you speak as If you really be-
lieved in presidential primaries, in the
direct election of United states sena-
tors and In an utter publicity about
everything that concerns government
from the sources of campaign funds TO
the intimate debate of the highest af-
fairs of state.
"rhey do not, or will not, compre-
bend the solemn thing that is in your
i, thought You know as well as they
do that there are all sorts and con-
ditions of men--the unthinking mixed
with the wise the reckless with the
prudent, the interruptions with the fair
and honest--and you know what they
| sometimes forget, that every class,
without execution. affords a sample OF
the mixture the learned and the FOR
tunate no less than the uneducated and
the struggling mass But you see more
than they do. You see that these null
titudes of men, mixed of every KIND
and quality, CONSTITUTES somehow an OF
panic and noble whole, a single people
and that they have interests which no
man can privately determine without
their knowledge and counsel lhat Is
the meaning of representative govern
ment itself. Representative govern
ment is nothing more nor less than an
effort to give voice to this great body
throurh spokesmen chosen out of ev-
cry grade and class.
You may think that | am wander
ing off into a general disquisitlon ina,
has little to do with the business III
! hand: but l am not This is business
, -business. of the deepest sort. It VIII
. solves our ANTIQUITIES IL you will but
take II as business.
The Tariff Question
See how 1T makes business out of the
, tariff question. The tariff question, as
| dealt with in our time at any rate, has
! not been business. 1t has been pol
5 tiles Tariff schedules have been made
I tip for the purpose of keeping as large
a number as possible of the rich and
9 influential manufacturers of the coun-
e try in a good humor with the repub-
S lican party, which desired their con-
e slant financial support. The tariff has
: become a system of favors, which the
V phraseology of the schedule was often
{. | deliberately contrived to conceal. 1t be-
[ comes matter of business. of legit-
= innate business only when the partner
d shin and understanding IL represents
: is between the leaders of Congress and
+ the whole people of the United states
o Instead of between the leaders of Con-
o grss and small groups of manufacture
o ers demanding special recognition ana
d consideration. That is why the general
J. idea OF representative government be-
Il comes q necessary part of the tariff
: question Who. when you come down
4 to the hard facts of the matter, have
been represented In recent years when
. our tariff schedules were being dis