The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1913-03-05
WILSON'S Views
GIVEN TO nation
Inaugural Address Of the New
President.
DEFINES PEOPLES DUTY.

First Obligation Of Law Is to Keep So
ciety Sound by Sanitary and Pure
Food Statutes and Measures Deter
mining Conditions Of Labor-Task
Not Merely One Of Politics.
Washington, March 4.-The inaugural
address of President Woodrow Wilson
is as follows:
There has been a 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
pret the occasion.
It means much more than the mere
success of a party. The success Of
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 to 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 disguises
and shown themselves alien and SIN
lister. Some new things as we look
frankly upon them. willing to compre-
bend their real character. have come
to assume the aspect Of things long be-
lieyed in and familiar. stuff Of our own
convictions. We have been refreshed
by a new insight into our own life.
Our Model Government.
We see that in many things 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 linn
itless 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 helpful
ness and counsel in their efforts to rec
tify wrong. alleviate suffering and set
the weak in the way of strength and
hope. We have built up, moreover,
great system Of government, 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.
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 we'll as admirably efficient.
We have been proud Of our industrial
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
ul6LS duO seat Will luS
great government went many deep Sc
cret things which we too long delayed
to look into and scrutnize 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 Il vision has been vouchSafed
Us OF our life as whole. We set the
bad with the good. the debaSed and
decadent with the sound and vital
With this vision we approach new at
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-
fee]inp in our haste to succeed and be