The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-02
WILSON THE MAN
 FOR THE PEOPLE
 ''LIFE'S" TRIBUTE
Greatest American Progress sive Since Jefferson, Pub
 lication Says.

Miss Ida Tarbell says Mir. Wilson is our greatest Progressive and has prov ed his fitness to lead the cause of progressive civilization.
 "Life,' says Miss Tarben is right" Incidentally, Life" says some nice things about MT. Wilson right off it's own bat. Its editorial in part follows:
 Miss Ida Tarbell has come out for Wilson, and Clifford Pinchot has come out against him.
 "A gain for Wilson both ways.
 '"The truth is that MT. Wilson comes more and more under suspicion of be- ing the greatest American Progressive since Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was an exceedingly clever man, es- pecially in the use of language, and he was out to beat the rich. MT. Will son gives more and more the impress sion of being out on the same errand. Whenever there comes a choice of courses, as lately in the threatened railroad strike, he shows himself the same man who was president of Princeton, and at outs with most of the nobility and gentry on his Board of Trusteest He is' an astute, shifty formidable person, driven all the time by an innate and sleepless indisposi- ton to knuckle down to the power of money or anyone that stands on it.
 The rich, as representatives of the vested interests, are always and in- stinctively obstacles to political pro- gress. They are beneficiaries of the existing order and don't want it all unused up. lso they have. a say about the condult of life and the man. agement of affairc, and they don't want to lose it. The only power that can stand up against theirs and keep their grip on the human windpipe reasonably loose is the power of the people. Accordingly, ambitious spir- its are always reaching out to grasp and use the power of the people.
 ''That is the way of the world; so human life goes on. Jefferson fought the Federalists, including most of the rich and respectable people in the country; Jackson fought the Unit ed States Bank Lincoln fought the slave-holding aristocracy and all it's al- lies; Roosevelt fought - here and there-the trust, the railroads, the Nbankers, off and on, but Roosevelt is ian aristocrat and has compassionate bowels for his own kind.
 "But MT. Wilson is not an aristocrat, He is a Presbyterian professor. He has fought, according to his lights, against the exploitation of the bodies and energies of the common people to defend the interests and investments of the prosperous. At the start he would not fight in Mexico to defend American investors: he would not take sides with Rockefeller in the Colorado strike; he helped reduce the tariff; he alleviated the domination of the mon- ey trust; he would not get us into the war, even after the Lusitania, though he did risk doing so, and though all society wanted to get in; and he would not side with the railroads against the Brotherhoods.
 "So you see his best.
 "You may not care for a mongoose for a household pet, but a mongoose is bully little animal to kill snakes.
 MT. Wilson is a kind of presiden- tiaI mongoose. The question about him is not whether he is pretty or has affectionate and endearing ways, but a question of snakes; how many; how big.
 This man is for the mass of the people. He really is a great democrat. He is a good hand to nip the tariff cobra, the banking adder, the. railroad boa-constrictor when, that is necessary. It is his nature to fight these creatures. It was not Roosevelt's nature to fight them. He could slash around among them on occasion, but he enjoyed their society. His notion of govern ment was always government by aris- tocracy.
 Miss Tarbell is right. MT. Wilson is a real Progressive with the neces- sary bite, the indispensable wiles, and a remarkable gift of public discourse.
 'Government is a sad affair, and being President is a sad duty which someone must undertake. Nobody continues very long to make a good job of it, but, other things being equal, a man with four years experience at it ought to do rather better than a green hand.
 "Besides this,'' says Joseph H.. Choate, Candidate Hughes old corpo- ration law partner, Justice Hughes has never had any experience in for eign affairs, which now mosA critical ly involve our national honor and safe ty, and, what is more, no man knows what his views are on this or any oth- CT of the leading questions which now States"