Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1916-09-08
President Wilson's Speech Ac-
cepting Renomin nation.
Continued from second PAGE. !

redeemed in constructive legislation.
These things must profoundly distur
the thoughts and confound the plans O
those who have made themselves beliey
that the Democratic party neither under
stood nor was ready to assist the bushes
OF the country in the great enterprise
which it is its evident and inevitable des
tiny to undertake and carry through. Tn,
breaking up of the lobby must especial,
disconcert them; for it was through tn,
lobby that they sought and were sure the,
had found the heart of things The gam,
OF privilege can be played successfully by
no other means.
This record must equally astonish those
who feared that the Democratic party haC
not opened its heart to comprehend the
demands of social justice. We have in
Tour years come very near to carrying out
the platform of the Progressive party as
well as our own; for we also are progress.
sives.
Ihere Is one circumstance connected
with this program which ought to be very
plainly stated. 1t was resisted at every
step by interests which the Republican
party had catered to and fostered at the ex.
pense OF the country, and these same in
terests are now earnestly praying for a
reaction which will save their privileges
for the restoration of their sworn friends
to power before it is too late to recover
what they have lost. They fought with
particular desperation and infinite re-
sourcefulness the reform of the banking
and currency system. knowing that to be
the citadel of their control; and most
anxiously are they hoping and planning
for the amendment of the Federal Reserve
act by the concentration of control in a
single bank which the old familiar group
OF bankers can keep under their eye and
direction. But while the big men" who
used to write the tariffs and command the
assistance of the Treasury have been hos
tile-all but few with vision-the aver
age business man knows that he has been
delivered, and that the fear that was once
every day in his heart, that the men who
controlled credit and directed enterprise
from the committee rooms of Congress
would crush him, is there no more, and
will not return-unless the party that con-
suited only the big men" should return to
pOwer-the party of mastery inactivity
and cunning resOurcefulness in standing
pat to resist change.
The Republican party is just the party
that cannot meet the new conditions of a
new age. 1t does not know the way and
it does not wish new conditions. 1t tried
to break away from the old leaders and
could not. They still select its candidates
and dictate its policy. still resist change
still banker after the old conditions, still
know no methods of encouraging business
but the old methods. When it changes its
leaders and its purposes and brings its
ideas up to date it will have the right to
ask the American people to give it power
again. but not until then. A new age, an
age of revolutionary change. needs new
purposes and new ideas.
In foreign affairs we have been guided
by principles clearly conceived and con-
sistently lived up to- Perhaps they have
not been fully cOmprehended because they
have hitherto governed International af-
fairs only in theory. not in practice. They
are simple, obvious. easily stated and fun
damental to American ideals.
We have been neutral not only because
it was the fixed and traditional policy Of
the United States to stand alOof from the
politics Of Europe and because we had had
no part either of action or policy in the
influences which brought on the present
war. but also because it was manifestly
our duty to present. if it were possible, the
indefinite extension of the fires of hate
and desolatiOn kindled by that terrible
conflict and seek to serve mankind by re-
serving our strength and our resources for
the anxious and difficult days of restOra-
ton and healing which must follow. when
peace will have to build its house anew.
The rights of our own citizens of course
became involved; that was inevitable.
Where they did. this was our guiding prin-
ciple; that property rights can be vindi-
Gated by claims for damages. and no
modern nation can decline to arbitrate such
claims: but the fundamental rights of
of humanity cannot be. The loss Of life
is ireparable. Neither can direct viola
tons Of a nations sovereignty await vim
dication in suits for damages The nation
that violates these essential rights must
expect to be checked and called to account
by direct challenge and resistance. 1t at
once makes the quarrel in part our own.
These are plain principles and we have
never lost sight of them or departed from
them, whatever the stress or the perplexity
of circumstances or the provocation to
hasty resentment. The record is clear and
consistent throughout and stands distinct
and definite for anyone to judge who
wishes to know the truth about it.
The seas were not broad enough to keep
the infection Of the conflict out Of our own
politics. The passions and intrigues Of
certain active groups and combinations Of
men amongst us who were born under
foreign flags injected the poison of dis
loyalty into our own most critical affairs
laid violent hands upon many Of our in
dustries. and subjected us to shame OF
divisions Of sentiment and purpose in
which America was condemned and for
gotten. 1t is part Of the business OF this
year Of reckoning and settlement to speak
plainly and act with unmistakable pur.
pose in rebuke Of these things. in order
that they may be forever hereafter i'm
possible. am the candidate of a party
but am above all things else an Amer
lean citizen. neither seek the favor moi
fear the displeasure Of that small alien