The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-03-04
Wilson Appreciates That Peo-
pie Desire Change.
Passing of Party Control Is
Barometer.
is NOT A DAY OF TRIUMPH
Forces of Humanity Above
Those of Party.
Summons Good Citizenship to
His Aid.

Washington. d. c.. March AFTER
taking the oath of office President Will
son delivered the following address.
There has been a change of sovarr-
ment- 1t began two years ago. when
the house of representatives became
democratic by a decisive majority IF
has now been completed The senate
about to assemble will also be Deuo
cratic. The offices of president and
vice president have been put into the
hands of Democrats. What docs the
change mean? That is the question
that Is uppermost in our minds to-
day. That is the question I am going
TO try TO answer In order, If may, to
interpret the occasion.
1t means much more than the mere
success of party. The success of n
party means little except when the ma
ton is using that party for a large
and definite purpose. No one can mis-
take the purpose for which the nation
now seeks to use the Democratic party
1t seeks to use it to interpret change
in It's own plans and point of view
Some old things with which we had
grown familiar, and which had begun
to creep into the very habit of our
thought and of our lives, have altered
their aspect as we have latterIy looked
critically upon them, with fresh, awak-
ened eyes; have dropped their disguises
and shown themselves alien and SIN
lister. Some new things, as we look
frankly upon them, willing to compre-
hend their real character, have come
to assume the aspect of things long be-
Iieved in and familiar. stuff of our
own convictions. We have heen re-
freshed by a new insight into our own
life.
We see that in many things that life
, is very great. 1t is incomparably great
| in its 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 limit
less enterprise of groups of men, 1t 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 helpfulness
and counsel in their efforts to rectifv
wrong, alleviate suffering and set the
weak in the way of strength and hope.
We have built up, moreover. a great
system of government, which has stood
through a long age as in many respects
a model for those who seek to set lib
erty upon foundations that will endure
against fortuitous change, against
storm and accident. Our life contains
every great thing, and contains IL in
rich abundance.
But the evil has come with the good.
and much fine gold has been corroded.
With riches has come inexcusabIe
waste We have squandered a 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. shamefuIly
prodigal as well as admirably efficient.
We have been proud of our Industrial
achievements, but we have not hither-
to 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 pitilessly
the years through. The groans and
agony of It all had not yet reached our
ears. the solemn, moving undertone Of
our life, coming up out of the mines
and factories and out of every home
where the struggle h;-G it's intimate and
familiar 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 ha6 forgotten the people.
At Last We See a Vision.
At last a vision has been vouchsafed
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 impairing 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-
feeling in our haste to succeed and be
great. Our thought has been Let ev-
cry man look out for himself. let every
generation look out for ITSELF while
we reared giant machinery which
made it impossible that any but those
who stood at the levers of control
should have a chance to look out for
themselves. We had not forgotten our
morals. We remembered well enough
that we had set UP a policy which was
meant to serve the humblest as well
as the most powerful. with an eye sin
gle to the standards of justice and fair
play and remembered it with pride.
But we were very needless and in
hurry to be great.
We have come now to the sober sec
ond thought. The scales of Needless