The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-04-14

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and the footing all men are accus-
toned to who reflect at all on their
lives and the lives of their neighbors
and compatriots He was holding up
for the illumination of the things of
which he spoke a light which he had
received out of the hands of old philos-
ophers. But the rays of that light
as he held it fell upon actual American
life; they did not lose themselves
vaguely in space; they were for the
guidance of mems feet every day.
Would Act on Facts,
1--WE may be sure, therefore, that
had Jefferson lived in our time he
would have acted upon the facts as
they are. In the first place, because
he would have seen them as they
actually are, and in the second place
because he would have been interested
in theory only as he could adjust it
ITO the reality of the life about him
He would not have been content with
a philosophy which he could fit to-
gether only within the walls Of his
study.
ITO determine what Jefferson would
have done, therefore, requires only
that we should ourselves clearly see
the facts of our time as they are,
whether in the field of government
or in the field of our economic life
and that we should see how Jefferson's
principle of the rule and authority
of the people stands related to those
facts. We are constantly quoting
Jefferson's fundamental thought; it
was that no policy could last whose
foundation is narrow, based upon the
privileges and authority of few. but
that it's foundations must be as broad
as the interests of all the men and
families and neighborhoods that live
under it. Monopoly, private control
the authority of privilege, the con-
cealed mastery of few men cunning
enough to rule without showing their
power-he would have at once pro-
ncunced the rank weeds which were
sure to choke out all wholesome life
in the fair garden of affairs. If we
can detect these things in our time;
il we can see them and describe them
and touch them as they are, then we
know what Jefferson would have
done. He would have moved against
them, sometimes directly, sometimes
indirectly, sometimes openly, some
times subtly; but whether he merely
dDOuI QlI6CIlY
at them, he would have set systematic
war against them at the front of all
his purpose.
Corrupt Use of Money.
AS regards the real influences that
control our government, he would have
| asked first of all: are they determined
by the direct and open contacts of
opinion? He would have found that
they We're not; that, on the contrary,
I i 4
has supplied secret influences with a
hundred coverts and ambushes; that
the opinion of the nation makes little
noise in the committee rooms of leg
| 1slatures; that it is certain large, spe-
cfal interests and not the people who
maintain the lobby; that the argument
| OF the lobby is oftentines louder and
more potent than the argument of the
hastings and the floor of the repre-
sentative body. He would have found.
moreover, that until very recent years
opinion had had very difficult access,
| If any at all, in most seasons, of the
private conferences in which candi-
dates for Office were chosen, candidates
for both administrative and legislative
office and that in the private confer
ences where it was determined who
course, who should be elected the
same influences had established them
selves which ruled in the legislative
lobby. That money, the money that
kept the whole organization together,
! flowed in, not from the general body
| OF the people, but from those who
! wished to determine in their own pri-
! vate interest what governors and leg
islators should and should not do
| 1T is plain, in such circumstances,
! what he would have insisted. as we
Z InSiSfiy1pr No haf
/ be found no means by which the au-
/ thority and purpose of the people could
! break into these private places and
establish their rule again, if the jungle
/ proved too thick for the common
/ thought to explore. if the coverts
where the real power lurked We're too
| difficult to find, the forces of genuine
| democracy must move around them
! instead OF through them, must sur
round and beleager them, must estab-
/ lish a force outside of them by which
I they can be dominated or overawed.
/ il is with the discussion of just such
affairs that the public mind is now
/ preoccupied and engrossed. Debate is
busy with them from one end of the
land to the other.
The Tariff Question.
4 LAS regards the economic policy OF
the country it is perfectly plain that
Mr.. Jefferson would have insisted
4 upon tariff fitted to actual condi-
ticns. by which he would have meant
not the interests of the few men who
y find access to the hearings Of the
ways and means committee of the
house and the finance committee of
the senate, but the interests of the
+ men and manufacturers and farmers
and workers and professional men of
every kind and class. He would have
insisted that the schedules should be
/ turned wrong side out and every item
OF their contents subjected to the
\ general scrutiny of all concerned. 1t
( is plain also, that he would have
/ insisted upon a currency system
/ elastic indeed and suited to the vary