The river press., 1913-03-12
WILSON'S VIEWS
GIVEN TO NATION
InaugWa! Address Of the New
President.
Defines The PEOPLES DUTY

ciety Sound by Sanitary and Pure
Food Statutes and Measures Deter
mining Conditions Of Labor-Task
Not Merely One Of Politics.
Washington, March 4.-The inaugu-
raj address of President Woodrow
Wilson is as follows:
There has been a change of gov
ernment. 1t began two years ago,
when the house of representatives be-
came Democratic by a decisive ma
jority. 1t has now been completed.
The senate about to assemble will
also be Democratic. The offices of
president and vice president have
been put into the hands of Democrats.
What does the change mean? That
is the question that is uppermost in
our minds today. That is the ques-
tion l am going to try to answer, in
order, if l may, to interpret the oc-
casion.
1t means much more than the
mere success of a party. The sue
cess of a party means little ex-
cept when the nation is using that
party for a large and definite pur-
pose. No one can mistake the pur-
pose for which the nation now seeks
to use the Democratic party. It
seeks to use it to interpret a change
in it's own plans and point of view.
Some old things with which we had
grown familiar and which had be-
gun to creep into the very habit of
our thought and of our lives have
altered their aspect as we have lat.
terly looked critically upon them
with fresh, awakened eyes; have
dropped their disguises and shown
themselves alien and sinister. Some
new things as we look frankly upon
them, willing to comprehend their
real character, have come to assume
the aspect of things long believed
in and familiar, stuff of our own con-
victions. We have been refreshed
by new insight into our own life.
Our Model Government.
We see that in many things life
is very great. 1t is incomparably
great in it's material aspects, in its
body of wealth, in the diversity and
sweep of its energy, in the industries
which have been conceived and built
up by the genius of individual men
and the limitless enterprise of groups
of men. 1t is great also, very great,
in its moral force. Nowhere else in
the world have noble men and wo-
men exhibited in more striking forms
the beauty and the energy of SYM
pathy and helpfulness and counsel in
their efforts to rectify wrong, allevi-
ate suffering and set the weak in
the way OF strength and hope. We
tenn of government, which has stood
through long age as in many re-
spects a model for those who seek
to set liberty upon foundations that
will endure against fortuitous change,
against storm and accident. Our life
contains every great thing and con-
tains 1t in rich abundance.
But the evil has come with the
good, and much fine gold has been
corroded. With riches has come in.
excusable waste. We have squan.
dered great part of what we might
have used and have not stopped to
conserve the exceeding bounty of ma.
ture without which our genius for en-.
terprise would have been worthless
and impOtent, scOrning to be careful
shamefully prodigal as we'll as admir-
ably efficient. We have been proud
of our industrial achievements, but
we have not hitherto stopped thought
the cost of lives snuffed out, of ener.
gies overtaxed and broken, the fear
full physical and spiritual cost to the
men and women and children upon
whom the dead weight and burden OF
it all has fallen ptlessly the years
through. The groans and agony of il
all had not yet reached our ears, the
solemn, moving undertone of our life
coming up out of the mines and fac
tories and out of every home where
the struggle had it's intimate and ia
miliar seat. With the great govern
ment went many deep secret things
which we too long delayed to look into
and scrutinize with candid, fearless
eyes. The great government we
loved has too often been made use OF
for private and selfish purposes, and
those who used it had forgotten the
people.
Duty Of Americans Outlined.
At last a vision has been vOuch
safed us of our life as whole. We
see the bad with the good, the de
based and decadent with the sound
and vital. With this vision we ap
proach new affairs. Our duty is tC
cleanse, to reconsider, to restore, tC
correct the evil without impairine
the good. to purify and humanize every
process of our common life without