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


livered today by Gov. Woodrow Wilson
was as follows:
MIR James and Gentlemen of the Noti-
fication Committee:
Speaking for the national demo-
cratic convention, recently assembled
at Baltimore. you have notified me of
my nomination by the democratic party
for the high office of President of the
United states: Allow me to thank you
very warmly for the generous terms
in which you have, through your dis
t,nsuished chairman, conveyed the
notification, and for the thoughtful
personI courtesy, with which you have
performed your interesting and i'm
portant errand.
IT accept the nomination with
deep sense of it's unusual Significance
and of the great honor done me, and
also with a very profound sense OF
my responsibility to. the party and to
the nation. You viii expect me In
Accepting the honor to speak very
plainly the faith that Is in me. You
will expect me, in brief, to talk pol
,t,cs and open the campaign in words
whose meaning no one needsdouot. You
will expect me to speak to the coun-
try as we'll as to yourselves. ~
I'VE cannot intelligently talk pol
;t,cs unless we know to whom we are
talking and in what circumstances Inc
present circumstances are clearly uh-
usual. No previous political campaign
IN our time has disclosed anything IKE
thsm Tha audience we address Is in
no ordinary temper. 1t is no audience
~ nartisans citizens of every class
and marty and prepossession sit to-
gether, single people to learn whe'n-
or we understand their lie ana Kno"
how to afford them the counsel ana
guidance they are now keenly aware
that they stand in need Of We must
snaalx not to catch votes, but to sat
tsfv the thought and conscience OF a
neonle deeply stirred by the conviction
1hat they have come to critical turn
,,v noint in their moral and political
development
An Awakened Nation
we stand in the presence OF an
awakened nation. impatient of partisan
make -helieve The public man VINO
does not realize the fact and feel It's
stimulation must be singularly unsus-
ceptible to the influences that stir IN
every quarter about him. The nation
has awakened to a sense of neglected
ideals and neglected duties; to con-
sciousness that the rank and ME OF
her people find life very hard 10 sus-
tain, that her young men hnd oppoI
tunity embarrassed, and that her olu-
er men find business difffcult TO re-
new and maintain because of circum-
stances of privilege and private adj
vantage which have interlaced their
subtle threads throughout almost ev-
erv part of the framework OF our pres
emf law, She has awakened to the
knowledge that she has lost certain
cherished liberties and wasted price
less resources which she had solemhly
undertaken to hold in trust Tor pos
taritv and for all mankind; and to
the conviction that she stands con-
fronted with an occasion for construct
i've craftsmanship such as has not
arisen since the great days IN whlch
her government was set up.
PLAINLY, 1t is q new age me Tonic
of such a time is very exhllarauhs'
II requires self-restraint not TO at
temnt TOO much, and yet 1t would be
cowardlv to attempt too little. the
path of duty soberly and bravery trod
Is the way to service and distinction
and many adventurous feet seek TO SET
out upon It,
"-There never was a time when I'M
patience and suspicion We're more keen
~ aroused by private power seinshiy
employed; when jealousy of everything
concealed or touched with any purpose
not linked with general good, or IN
consistent with 1t, more sharply or I'M
mediately displayed itself.
Nor was the country ever more
suseeptlble to unselfish appeals or 10
the high arguments of sincere Justice'
These are the unmstaSable symptoms
~ an awakening. There is the more
need for wise counsel because the PEG.
ME are so ready to heed counsel IL
N he given honestly and In their IN
terest.
Questions of Right and Justice
SIT is in the broad light of TINS new
dav that we stand face to faee--Wlth
what? Plainly, not with questions OF
party, not with a contest for office not
with a petty struggle for adVantage
democrat against republican nperai
against conservative, progressive
against reactionary. With great ques-
tions of right and OF justice, rather
questions of national development, OF
the development of character and or
standards Of action no less than OF \
better business system, more Tree, more
equitable. more open to ordinary men,
practicable to live under, tolerable 10
work under. or a. better fiscal system
whose taxes shall not come out of the
,nockets of The many TO go into the
nockets of the few. and within whose
intricaeies special privilege may not SO
easily find covert. The forces OF lhe
nation are asserting themselves against
every form OF special privilege and
private control. and are seeking big
ger things than they have ever mere
fofore achieved They are sweeping
away what Is unrighteous in order to
. vindicafe once more the essential
rights of human life; and, what is very
serious for us. they are looking 10 us
for guidance. disnterested guidance, al
once honest and fearless.
All such time. and in the presence
of such circumstances, what is the
meaning OF our platform, and what Is
our responsibility under 1t? What are
oar duty and our purpose? The plat
form is meant to show that we kno"
What the nation is thinking about
what ii is most concerned about whai
ri wishes corrected, and what II de
eires 10 see attempted that is new an,
Constructive and intended for its Ions
iuture But for us it Is very prac
;cal document. We are not about L
SIX the people of the United states 4
don't our platform; we are about 4
? ask them 10 entrust us with o1lce ant
rover, and the guidance az their affairs
they will wish to know what sort o
men we are and OF what definite pur
nose: what translation Of action ant
OF policy we intend 10 give TO the gen
eral terms Of the platform which tn