The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-03-07

j. inee for president. +
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Washington. March 1.-The inaugural
address of President Woodrow Wilson
is as follows:
There has been n change of govern
ment, 1t began two years ago. when
the house of representatives became
Democratic by decisive majority. 1t
has now been completed. The senate
about to assemble will also be Demo
cratic. 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 question | am going to try
to answer. in order, if may. to inter-
pref the occasion.
1t means much more than the mere
success of party. The success of a
party means little except when the
nation is using that party for large
and definite purpose. No one can mis-
take the purpose for which the nation
now seeks 10 use the Democratic party.
1t seeks to use it to interpret change
in its own plans and point of view.
Some old things with which we had
grown familiar and which bad begun
to creep into the very habit of our
thought and of our lives have altered
their aspect as we have latterly looked
critically upon them with fresh. awak-
ened eyes: have dropped their DISCUSSES
aud shown themselves alien and sim
lister. Some new things rs we look
frankly upon them. willing TO compre-
hend their real character. have come
to assume the aspect Of things long be-
lieved in and familiar. stuff Of our own
convictions. 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 it's 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 linn
itless enterprise of groups of men, II
is great also. very great, in its moral
force. Nowhere else in the world have
noble men and women exhibited in
more striking forms the beauty and
the energy of sympathy and helpful
ness and counsel in their efforts TO rec
tify wrong. alleviate suffering and set
81 l. in, 4i,.> Of CT, ncrfl md
hope We have built up. moreover.
a great system of government. which
has stood through a long age rs in
many respects a model for those who
seek to set liberty upon foundations
that will endure against fortutous
change. against storm and accident
Our life contains every great thing and
contains it in rich abundance.
But the evil has come with the good,
and much fine gold has been corroded
With riches has come inexcusable
waste. We have squandered great
part of what we might have used and
have not stopped to conserve the ex-
ceeding bounty of nature without
which our genius for enterprise would
have been worthless and impotent,
ScOrning to be careful. Shamefully
prodigal as well as admirably efficient.
achievements. but we have not hith.
ertO stopped thoughtfully enough to
count the human cost, the cost of lives
snuffed out. of energies overtaxed and
broken. the fearful physical and spir-
itual cost to the men and women and
children upon whom the dead weight
and burden of it all has fallen pitileSS-
ly the years through. The grOans and
agony of it all had not yet reached
our ears the solemn. moving under
tone of our life. coming up out of the
mines and factories and out of every
home where the struggle had its init
mate and familiar seat. With the
great government went many deep Sc
cret things which we too long delayed
to look into and scrutinize with can
did fearless eyes, THE great govern
ment 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 vision has been vOuchsa fed
us of our life as a whole. We see the
bad with the good, the debased and
decadent with the sound and vital.
With this vision we approach new af-
fairs. Our duty is to cleanse. to re-
consider. to restore. to correct the evil
without iInpairing the good, to purify
and humanize every process of our
common life without weakening or
sentimentalizing it. There has been
something crude and heartless and un-