The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1913-02-06
WALL STREET AND WILSON,

Under the headline, Wall Street
\ and Wilson, the Johnstown (Pa.
Democrat prints the following edi,
torial: Among the Wall street or
gans of big business none is more
troubled in spirit over the unruliness
Of Woodrow Wilson than the New
York Herald. 1t was among those
great journalistic champions OF
things as they are which laid the
I. catering JUNCTION of their souls that
the New Jersey governors platform
q was designed to get in on not to
stand on; and now it finds that Gov
ernor Wilson is taking his pledges
4 and promises seriously and is de-
termineG to have others take them
seriously the Herald enters a roar of
anguish which would do credit to
the Sun itself In an editorial
charging that the president-elect is
under the banetul influence Of w.
j. Bryan, the esteemed Herald says:
when Mr.. Wilson was elected to
the presidency there was no thought
that he was to be Bryan. He said
that none of the reforms presented
by him in indefinite terms and be-
lieved to be academic would be car
ried out in such a way as to cause
business disturbance. The country
took him at his word and he went in
as minority president, but it saw
to it that his plurality was sufficient
to give him majority Of the cleo
toral college.
yet the public is now realizing
that Mr.. Wilson is under the in
huence of Mr.. Bryan and his utter
ances have breathed such hostile
spirit toward business, have demon
strated such a hectoring tone and
generally have shown such spirit
of tolerance that confidence has been
shaken and the outlook is not salts
factory 1t is almost as if Bryan
were president-elec
"Mr Wilson can easily break him.
self by pursuing his present course.
But that isn't very important COM
pared with breaking the country.
But what part of the "country' is
Governor Wilson breaking or
threatening to break" And in
what particular does his present
course differ from his course in the
past? Is he proposing anything to-
day that he was not proposing year
or even two years ago? IS not what
he is saying in 1913 wholly consis-
tent with what he said when he first
came before the country as presi
Dental possibility?
All, but Mr.. Wilson is ''under the
influence of Mr.. Bryan That is to
say, he is not under the influence Of
Mr. Morgan, Mr.. Belmont or Mr..
Ryan. Were he under an influence
so benign as theirs this would be a
happy land indeed and Wall street
might pull it's silken robes about it
and lapse back into its golden
dreams. But with Bryan influence
.betraying itself it promises to gibbet
the Morgans and the BelmOnts and
the Ryans as high as Haman if they
Join in conspiracy to wreck the
country in spirit Of mad revenge,
the situation becomes alarming in
deed and the Herald is quite justi-
fed in sounding the tocsin.
Still matters might be worse, con-
sidered from the standpoint of field
and forge, for apparently the dis
tress which racks the soul of Wall
street is not shared by the hewers OF
wood and the drawers of water.
The plain people seem to be fairly
we'll satisfied with Governor Wilson
and the influences which he appears
to court and so far from his course
having a tendency to "break the
country" it seems to be quite the
other way about, the country show
ing little sign of alarm and manifest
ing daily an increasing confidence in
the lofty courage and the high pur-
pose of the gentleman whom Wall
street has come so thoroughly to dis
trust.
The country indeed took Governor
Wilson at his word and he is now
Keeping faith with the country by
making it clear that his word was
not lightly given and that it is not
lightly broken. The people were not
fooled in Wilson. But Wall street
made the mistake Of fooling itself
into the belief that he didn't mean
What he said.-The Commoner.