The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1913-03-13
President Wilson'S Inaugural Address.

President Wilson delivered his inaugural
address from the east front of the Capitol
in Washington City, March 4th, imme-
diately after he had taken the oath of office
as the first Democratic Chief Executive
since President Cleveland retired in 1897.
The address, in full, follows:
There has been change of government.
1t began two years ago, when the House OF
Representatives became Democratic by a
decisive majority. 1t has now been COM
peted The Senate about to assemble
will also be Democratic. The offices
of President and Vice President have been
put into the hands of Democrats. What
does the change mean? That is the ques-
ton that is uppermost in our minds to- day.
That is the question | am going to try to
answer, in order, if l may, to interpret the
occasion.
1t means much more than the mere sue
cess 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 mistake the purpose for which
the nation now seeks to use the Democratic
party. 1t seeks to use it to interpret a
change in its 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 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 assume the
aspect of things long believed in and famil-
lar, stuff of our own convictions. We have
been refreshed by a new insight into our
own life.
We see in many things that life is very
great. 1t is incomparably great in its ma
terial 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 lmitless 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 SYM
patty and hepfulness and counsel in their
efforts to rectify wrong, alleviate suffering
and set the weak in the way of strength
and hope.
VIC nave OullV ups lhoiOOSol, q S,AN]o
system of government, which has stood
model for those who seek to set liberty
upon foundations that will endure against
fortuitous change, against storm and acct
and contains it in rich abundance.
But the evil has come with the good, and
much fine gold has been corroded. With
nj hoo No
have squandered a great part of what we
might have used, and have not stopped to
conserve the exceeding 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 hitherto
stopped thoughtfully enough to count the
human cost, the cost of lives snuffed out,
Of energies overtaxed aud broken, the
fearful 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 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 had its intimate and
familiar seat. With the great government
went many deep secret things which we too
long delayed to look into and scrutinize
with candid, fearless eyes. The great gov
eminent 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 vision has been vouchsafed us
of our life as whole. We see the bad
with the good, the debased and decadent
with the sound and vital. With this vision
we approach new affairs. Our duty is to
clense, to reconsider, to restore, to correct
the evil without impairing the good, to
purify and humanize every process of our
common life without weakening or senti-
mentalizing it.
There has been something crude and
heartless and unfeeling in our haste to sue
coed and be great. Our thought has been,
LET every 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 we'll enough that we had
set up policy which was meant to serve
the humblest as we'll as the most powerful,
with an eye single to the standards of JUS
tice and fair play, and remembered it with
pride. But We were very headless and in
hurry to be great.
We have come now to the sober second
thought. The scales of heedlessness 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 proudly set up at the beginning and