The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-03-12
A DEDICATION AND WHAT CAME
OF 1T.

A DEDICATION AND WHAT CAME
OF 1T.
One year ago the first democratic
president to take office in a score of
years said to his fellow-countrymen
This is not day of triumph, it is
a day of dedication. Here muster
not the forces of party, but the forces
of humanity. Mems hearts wait
upon us, mems lives hang in the bal
ance, mems hopes call upon us to say
what we will do
Now when the echo of these words
have died away all those who had
heard and read them acknowledge
that they were we'll chosen, and that
they were honestly spoken. But we
were told that they were vague
and general, that no man could tell
from the inaugural what were the
president views on any important
question, and that it was 1.-The utter
ance Of an idealist accustomed to
teaching college boys
Today we may apply to that ad-
dress the test of the event. With a
congress Overwhelmingly democratic
in the house and democratic by the
narrOWest margin in the senate.
President Wilson has been in office
one year We are in position to
look at the record and say what his
dedication of himself one year ago
mas amounted to. We arc in posi-
ton to say whether his declaration
that that gathering was "a muster Of
the forces of humanity" was sober
oct
in position to say what he and his
associates have done in response to
mems hopes as of March 4, 1913.
The first task to which president
and congress addressed themselves
distinct party pledge-the revision
downward of the protective tariff.
This work involved the curing of
abuses of long standing and behind
every abuse was sheltered manufac-
turers and producers who had enjoy
ed the intestimable advantage of
taxes laid on everybody to benefit
somebody. These highly protected
manufacturers and producers are
men Of wealth and influence and long
practice in cooperation at the ex-
pense of the pubic. No tariff was
ever made, previous to 1913, that did
not represent in its principal sched-
ules, shameful compromises adopted
against the public interest by legis-
lators who were either purchased,
ferrorized, or utterly befooled. The
making of tariff bills in the past has
been a thing for leaders and parties
to live down.
The Underwood-Simmons tariff
owes much to the president; how
much only those who know current
history from the inside know. The
inlexible will, wide view and utter
integrity of purpose of the man in
White House enabled the leaders in
congress to hold their following firm
at critical moments. A tariff bill was
passed by democrats making sugar
free-and sugar is chiefly produced
in democratic states. 1t made wool
free, and wool also comes chiefly
from states democratic. 1t made
lumber free, and lumber, like sugar,
comes chiefly from the south.
When this bill was passed-the
first honest tariff bill since the civil
war-the president called the con-
gress to undertake currency revision.
This was very different task from
the other The nation had not made
up it's mind; there was no plan; the
great business interests OF the coun-
try were hostile; the man in the
street" did not know what currency
reform meant; there was not single
man in congress on the democratic
side widely known as a currency eX-
pert.
But the administration had one
priceless qualification for the task
the power to command popular con-
fidence. And in the cabinet were
three economists of firSt-rate ability:
Secretary McAdoo, Secretary Hous-
ton and the president himself. The
work began
Nowhere in the history of govern
ment do we recall more perfect
example of democracy in action than
in the making of that currency bill.
1t recalls a saying of western uni
versity president: What one man
can't think out, 100000 can.
True: but this thinking, to be effec-
tive must move a medium of good
faith. No one seems to know just
why the currency bill, beginning with
many defects, finally became so good.
1t is because that is the natural de-
velopment of a great plan in a
democracy, if the people have conf
dence in the leader. Men believed
the president and respected his in
fiuence with congress. So the best
business wisdom and the widest bust
ness experience of the country were
put at the disposal of the admins
tration, and the bill grew.
m fhn ~
Der of national banks in the country
have accepted it's provisions. This
fact needs no celebration. 1t is i'm
pressve beyond comment.
Now just one question. Suppose
the fact had been foreseen that the
harvests of the country would fall
short of the harvests of 1912, in
President Wilson's first year, by L.
100000 bushels of grain, what
would the prophets have prophesied
10 nf IF toriff-