The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1913-03-04
Woodrow WilSOa
Inaugurated President
FARGO. n. n
Phone @9S

Continued From Page Seven.
ell enough that we had set up pol
icy which was meant to serve the
humblest as well as the most power
full, with an eye single to the stan
dards of justice and fair play and re-
rnembered it with pride. But we were
very needless and in a hurry to be
great.
We have now come 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
again with the standards we so proud
ly set up at the beginning and have
always carried at our hearts. Our
work is a work of restoration.
We have itemized with some degree
of particularly the things that ought
TO be altered and here are some OF the
chief items: A tariff, which cuts IFS
off from our proper part in the COM
merce of the world, violates the Just
principles of taxation, and makes the
government a facile instrument in the
hands of private interests; a. banking
and currency system based upon the
necessity of the government to sell
its bonds fifty years ago and perfectly
adapted to concentrating cash and re-
stricting credits; an industrial system
which, take it on all sides, financial as
we'll as administrative, holds capital
| in leading strings, restricts the liber-
| ties and limits the opportunities of
| labor, and exploits without, renewing
or conserving the natural resources Uf
| the country; a body of agricultural
activities never yet given the eftic
iency of great business undertakings
Or served as it should be through the
| instrumentality Of science. taken di-
rectly to the farm, or afforded the ia
cilities of credit best suited to its
practical needs; watercourses unde-
i veloped, waste places unreclaimed,
forests INTENDED, fast disappearing
/ without plan or prospect of renewal,
unregraded waste heaps at every
mine. We have studied as perhaps no
other nation has the most effective
means of production, but we have not
studied cost or economy as we should
/ either as organizers of industry, as
/ statesmen, or as individuals.
Nor have we studied and perfected
1 the means by which government may
/ be put at the service of humanity, in
safeguarding the health Of the nation,
the health of it's men and women and
it's children, as we'll as their rights in
| the struggle for existence. This is no
4
| government is justice, not pity. These
are matters of justice. There can be
no equality or opportunity, the first
essential of justice in the body polite,
if men and women and children be not
| shielded in their lives, their very vital
| ity, from the consequence of great in
dustrial and social processes which
| they cannot alter, control, or singiy
| cope with. Society must see to it
that it does not itself crush or weaken
| or damage it's own constituent parts.
| The first duty of law is to keep sound
Ithe society it serves. Sanitary laws,
i pure food laws, and laws determin-
ing conditions of labor which indi-
viduals are powerless to determine for
themselves are intimate parts of the
very business of justice and legal eff
ficiency. -.. ....
These are some of the things we
fought to do, and not leave the others
undone, the o1d-fashioned, never-to-
be-neglected fundamental safeguard
ing Of property and of individual
right, This is the high enterprise of
the new day; to lift everything that
concerns our life as nation to the
light that shines from the hearthfrs
of every mans conscience and vision
of the right. 1t is inconceivable that
we should do this as partisans; it (
inconceivable we should do it in igno
rance of the facts as they are or il
blind haste We shall restore, not de-
stroy. We shall deal with our eco
nomic system as it is and as it may
be modified, not as it might be If VIZ
had a clean sheet of paper to write
upon; and step by step we shall make
1T what it should be, in the spirit o.
those who question their own wisdom
and seek counsel and knowledge. not
shallow self-satisfaction of the ex-
citement of excursions whittier they
cannot tell. Justice, and only justice,
shall always be our motto.
And yet it will be no cool process
of mere science. The nation has been
deeply stirred, stirred by a solemn
passion, stirred by the knowledge of
wrong, of ideals lost, of government
too often debauched and made an
instrument of evil. The feelings with
J which we face this new age of right
and opportunity sweep across our
heart-strings like some air out OF
: Gods own presence, where Justice
and mercy are reconciled and the
judge and the brother are one. we
4 know our task to be no mere task
of politics but a task which shall
search us through and through
whether we be able to understand our
time and the need of our people,
whether we be indeed their spokes
men and interpreters, whether we
J have the pure heart to comprehend
and the rectified will to choose our
high course of action.
This is not a. day of triumph: it ia
a day, of dedication. Here muster, nor
the forces of party, but the forces of
humanity. Mems hearts wait upon us:
mems lives hang in the balance; mem :
hopes call upon us to say what We
will do. Who shall live UP to the
great trust? Who dares fail to try?
summon all honest men. All
patriotic, all forward looking men.
! to my side. God help me, viii mot
fail them. If they will but counsel and
sustain me!
Conclusion of Programme.
At the conclusion of the inaugural
address, the programme called for the
senate to return to it's chamber. either
to confirm appointments or adjourn
to later day, while the house STANDS
adjourned to the date of the extra
session to be called by the new ,presi.
J dent At the head Of the iralirnraI
procession the president rode hack ia
the White House to review the "a pe-
ant and begin the duties Of his ONCE.