Perth Amboy evening news., 1912-05-03
GREAT SPEECH
ON JEFFERSON
Gov. Wilson's Strong Exposi'
ton of a Great Man.

AItbiDAH ioA -
Son made a great address at the JEFF
rerson day banquet in New York city
In his response to the toast, What JEFF
ferson Would DO Today" He said in
part:
I'VE may be sure ti.at had Jefferson
lived in our time he would have acted
upon the facts rs they are, because he
would have seen them as they actual
iy are. To determine what Jefferson
would have done, therefore, requires
only that we should ourselves clearly
zee the facts of our times as they are
and that we should see how Jefferson's
principle of the rule and authority of
the people stands related to those
facts. Monopoly, private control, the
authority of privilege, the concealed
mastery of a few men cunning enough
to rule without showing their power
he would have at once removed the
rank weeds which were sure to choke
out all wholesome life in the fair gar
den of affairs.
IF we can detect these things in our
time, If 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
ties subtly, but whether he merely
minded about them or struck directly
at them he would have set systematic
war against them at the front of all
his purpose.
Jefferson would have found that our
government as 1t has developed has
Supplied secret influences with a hun
dred coverts and ambushes; hat the
opinion of the nation makes little noise
y In the committee rooms of legislatures;
that 1t is certain large, special inter
~sts and not the people who maintain
the lobby; that the argument of the
lobby is oftentimes louder and more
potent than the argument of the hust-
tngs and the floor of the representative
body.
'He would have found, moreover,
that until very recent years public
r opinion had very difficult access, If any
at all, to the private conferences in
which candidates for office were chO-
sen; that in these private conferences
where 1t was determined who should
be nominated the same Influences had
established themselves which ruled In
the legislative lobby; that money, the
money that kept the whole organiza-
ton together, flowed in, not from the
general body of the people, but from
those who wished to determine in their
own private interest what governors
and legislators should aLtl should
not do.
ut is plain, in such circumstances,
Jefferson would have insisted, as we
are insisting now, that If there could
be found no means by which the au-
thority and purpose of the people could
break into these private places and es-
.tablish their rule again, If the jungle
proved too thick for common thought
! to explore, IL the coverts whore the
real power lurked We're too difficult to
rnd, the forces of genuine democracy
must move around them instead Of
through them. must surround and be-
Lacquer them, must establish q force
outside of them by which they can be
Sominated or overawed.
Jefferson would have insisted upon
= tariff fitted to actual conditions, by
which he would have meant not the In
tereSts Of the few men who find access
to the bearings of the ways and means
committee of the house and the finance
committee of the senate, but the inter
ests of the business men and manufac-
turers and farmers and workers and
nrnfprsiono1 {, ,P a,orv lyi,I and
class. He would have insisted upon a
currency system elastic indeed and
suited to the varying circumstances of
the money market in a great INDUS
trial and trading nation, but absolutely
forfeited and secured against a central
control, the influence of ~coterles and
leagues of banks to which it is now In
constant danger of being subjected.
In the general field of business he
would have gone about to establish
freedom, TO throw business opportunity
open at every point to new men, to de
stroy the process of monopoly, to ex-
clude the poison Of special ~favors, to
see that, whether big or little, business
was not dominated by anything but
the law itself and that law was made
in the interest Of plain, unprivileged
men every where.
1--WE as Democrats are particularly
bound at this season of expectation
and of confidence to remember that il
~ only in this spirit that we can ever
serve either the nation or ourselves.
As we approach the time when we are
to pick out a president-for l believe
that is to be our p~rivilege-we should
FIX our thought on this one great fact,
= that no man is big enough or great
enough to be president alone. He will
be no stronger than his party. His
strength will lie in the counsel Of his
comrades. His success will spring out
Df the union and energy n unself1sh
cooperation Of his party, and his party
must be more than half the nation. 1t
must include, and genuinely include,
men of every class and race and dispo-
aition. II he be indeed the representa-
live of his people there may be vouch-
Bafed TO him through them something
Of the vision TO conceive what Jener-
nop conceived and understood"