Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1913-03-11
WILSON SPEAKS
TO THE NATION
inaugural Address Delivered by
the New President.
SEES WORK OF RESTORATION
Task of Victorious Democracy Is to
Square Every Process of National
Life With Standards Set Up
at the Beginning.

close there was heard nothing bu
praise for it's eloquence and higt
moral tone. The address in full wa:
| as follows:
There has been a change of govern
ment. 1t began two years ago, wher
the house of representatives became
| Democratic by a decisive majority
1t has now been completed. The sen
ate about to assemble will also b.
Democratic. The Offices of president
and vice-president have been put intC
| the hands of Democrats. What does
the change mean? That is the ques
! ton that is uppermost in our minds
today. That is the question I am go
| ing to try to answer, in order, if
may, to interpret the occasion.
Purpose of the Nation.
1t means much more than the mere
success of party. The success of &
party means little except when the
nation is using that party for a large
and definite purpose. No one car
| mistake the purpose for which the
nation now seeks to use the Demo
| cratic party. 1t seeks to use it to in
terpret a 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 ouI
lives, have altered their aspect as we
| have latterly looked critically upon
them, with fresh. awakened eyes;
have dropped their DISCUSSES and
shown themselves alien and sinister
Some new things, as we look frankly
upon them, willing to comprehend
their real character, have come to as
sumo the aspect of things long believ-
ed in and familiar, stuff of our own
convictions. We have been refreshed
by 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 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 women
exhibited in more striking form the
beauty and energy of sympathy and
helpfulness and counsel in their efforts
to rectify wrong, alleviate suffering,
and set the weak in the way of
strength and hope. We have built up,
moreover, a great system of govern
ment, which has stood through long
age as in many respects 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 contains it in rich
abundance.
Evils That Have Come.
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 a 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-
and impotent, scorning to be careful,
shamefully prodigal as well as admir-
ably efficient. We have been proud of
our industrial achievements, but we
have not hitherto stopped thought
fully enough to count the human cost
] hn Of nj Nf -
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 pitilessly the years
through. The groans and agony of ii
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 loob
! into and scrutinize with candid, fear
less 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.
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 impairing the
/ good, to purify and humanize every
process of our common life without
weakening or sentimentali$ing it
There has been something crude and
heArtless and unfeeling in our haste tc
| succeed and be great. Our thought ha:
/ been Let every man look out for him.
self, let every generation lock out for
ITSELF while we reared giant machiR'
| cry which made It impossible that any
but those who stood at the levers OF
/ control should have a chance to look
I out for themselves. We had not for
1 gotten 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 power
full, with an eye single to the stand
ards of justice and fair play, and re
membered it with pride. But we were
very needless and in a hurry TO be
great.
Things to Be Altered.
We have come now to the sober
second thought. The scales OF heed
lessness have fallen from our eyes
We have made up our minds to square
every process of our national life
Safe Sentiments.