The Sentinel=record., 1913-01-05
BREACHES HIS OWN POLITICAL SERMON AND GIVES OTHER
 PARTIES SOME ADVICE.
STILL LOVES HIS COUNTRY
Says Cure-aIl for Every Social III Cannot Be Produced Through Government Pays Compli-
 ments to Roosevelt.

New York, Jan 4-President HaD presided here tonight at what ~he styled his own political wake. He made the funeral oration over his
 political corpse; asked modest praise for the deeds that he did while he lived in the White House, recited at length the causes that led to his ''demise" and attacked the enemies
 he held responsible for his taking off.
 The president did this in speaking
 at the Republican reorganization dinner given at the Waldorf-Astoria
 to more than 1000 republicans from
 all sover the country. He spoke for
 more than an hour His defense of his administration was the legisla-
 tive results it has produced; his re- ply to personal criticism was that he 1 had been more misunderstood thas blameworthy. His attacks upon his political pponents-confined almost exclusively to the progressives-Wa not bitter, but sorrowful.
 In spite of all the misrepresenta- ton the unrest, the present day for change. the president said he saw in l the future a return to the old ideas 1 of government, the awakening or the people to an understanding that so- leial changes must be made. SLOWLY and with sure steps. He closed With an appeal to republicans who left the party to return and join hands with
 the millions who remained faithful. In the course of his speech the president made his first public refer ence to Col. Roosevelt since the close
 of the campaign, asserting that prob ably a million voters, normally re- publican. cast their ballots for MT Wilson" in order to avert the dang CT of MT. Roosevelt's election"
 The president said iii part;
 "ft is usual for the deceased to give very full expression to his fees- ings at the wake; .but l remember l that in one of BoNoicault's Irish dramas the corpse was sufficiently revived to partake of the liquid re- | freshment and became the chief par ticipant in the festivities. few l opening remarks directed to the
 character of tine deceased and the
 manner of his taking off may not, l therefore be inappropriate.
 What was the political disease ot which I died? I am hopeful that when historians conduct their post
 mortems it may be found that my | demise was due to circumstances over which I had no great control
 and to a political cataclysm which l could hardly have anticipated or
 avoided. but whether this be true or
 not, even friendly critics are able to point out personal reasons why
 1t was that. though l went in, l also went out with large majorities
 Tt has been charged against me
 that 1 am an aristocrat, and that l rave no sympathy with the common people Now I don't think 1t IS l true. l think 1 am as sympathetic
 with the common people, as earnest | ly desirous of their happiness, as
 anxious to see that they have jus
 tice as any one believe most pro
 foundly that popular government is l the best government and l am great l ly concerned that it shall continue and be successful in giving to -tihe people at large the best measure of 1 individual liberty, on the one hand and the greatest practical efficiently l in government on the other It may be that in my earnest desire to make l government efficient l have not al- ways explained that 1 believed that
 to make government efficient is to
 work directly in the interest of the
 common people.
 My administration has come and gone in a period of unrest and agita- l tion for something intangible which | it is difficult definitely to describe. l We have lived during the last four | years and are living now in an at. mosphere of strenuous denunciations
 of certain evils and loud aspirations l for an ideal state in which the com mon people are to become happier, the poor and the oppressed are to ac- quire property and cease suffering,
 and much or all of the change is to
 be accomplished through the agency of government
 "1'he accumulation of swollen for tunes during the two decades pre- 1 eeding and many of them by viola tion of the antitrust law. or the anti rebate law. aroused feeling of just indignation and set the tune to pub lie addresses Dcnunciations of tie malefaetors of wealth and promises
 of rectlfying such inequalities by gay ernmental means rang pleasantly in t4t. 41.. ftsl. 1..