Delaware City press. (Delaware City, Del.) 1913-19??, 1913-03-07
WILSON'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS
New Chief Executive Declares His Aim Will Be to Correct the
Evils Of Our National Life Without Impairng the Good

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
US off from our proper part in the
commerce of the world, violates the
just principles of taxation, and makes
the government facile instrument in
the hands of private interests; bank
ing and currency system based upon
the necessity of the government to
sell its bonds fifty years ago and per-
fectly adapted to concentrating cash
and restricting credits; an industrial
system which, take 1t on all its sides,
financial as we'll as administrative,
holds capital in leading strings, re-
stricts the liberties and limits the op.
portunities of labor, and exploits With
out renewing or conserving the nat
ural resources of the country; body
of agricultural activities never yet
given the efficiency of great business
undertakings or served as 1t should be
through the instrumentality of science
taken directly to the farm, or afforded
the facilities of credit best suited to
its practical needs; water courses UNI
developed, waste places unreclaimed,
forests INTENDED, fast disappearing
without plan or prospect Of renewal,
unregarded 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 states
men, or as individuals.
Nor have we studied and perfected
the means by which government may
be put at the service of humanity, In
safeguarding the health of the nation.
the health of its men and its women
and its children, as we'll as their rights
! in the struggle for existence. This is
no sentimental duty. The firm basis
| of 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 chill
} dren be not shielded in their lives,
their very vitality, from the conse-
J quences of great Industrial and social
/, processes which they cannot alter.
{ control or singly cope with. Society
must see to 1t that 1t does not itself
3 crush or weaken or damage its own
4 constituent parts. The first duty OF
: law is TO keep sound the society 1t
+ serves. Sanitary laws, pure food laws,
t and laws determining conditions of
0 labor which individuals are powerless
= to determine for themselves are inti-
/ mate parts of the very business Of JUS
8 tice and legal efficiency.
|, These are seine Of the thin thin Es So W.
p ought to do, and not leave the others
Il undone, the old-fashioned, never-to-be-
g neglected, fundamental safeguarding
of property and of individual right
/, This is the high enterprise of the new
r day; to lift everything that concerns
r our life as nation to the light that
g shines from the hearthfire of every
n mans conscience and vision of the
II right. 1t is inconceivable that we
3 should do this as partisans; 1t is in
1t conceivable we should do it In ignor-
Ie ance of the facts as they are or in
e, blind haste. We shall restore, not de-
c. stroy. We shall deal with our econ
re omic system as 1t is and as 1t may
a. be modified, not as 1t might be IL we
n had clean sheet of paper to write
IS upon; and step by step we shall make
TX 1t what it should be, in the spirit OF
r. those who question their own wisdom
We and seek counsel and knowledge, NOT
of shallow self-satisfaction or the excite
Id ment of excursions whittier they can
q ali Nd Ap1x fttoffan
shall always be our motto.
h And yet it will be no cool process
1e of mere science. The nation has beer
le- deeply stirred, stirred by solemn
nd passion, stirred by the knowledge Of
p- wrong, of ideals lost, of government
to too often debauched and made an in
to strument of evil. The feelings will
he which we face this new age of RICH
ry and opportunity sweep across ou
ut heart-strings like some air out o
1t. Gods own presence, where justice ant
nd mercy are reconciled and the ludg'
to and the brother are one. We know
as our task to be no mere task of politics
M but task which shall search u
or through and through, whether we b.
in able to understand our time and tn
ny need of our people, whether we be II
of deed their spokesman and interpre
ok tiers, whether we have the pure hear
or to comprehend and the rectified vii
ed to choose our high course of action.
a This is not day of triumph; it
he day of dedication. Here muster, nc
err the forces of party. but the forces c
nd humanity Mems hearts wait upon us
re- mems lives hang in the balance; mem
ere hopes call upon us to say what W
,at. will do. Who shall live up to th
Der great trust? Who dares fall to try
ed I summon all honest men. all patriotic
es. all forwardlooking men. to my sid
are God helping men, will not fail then
life if they will but counsel and sustai
I'D me!
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