The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1916-10-19
WHAT /" LIFE" THINKS
OF PRES. WILSON

WHAT LIFE" THINKS
OF PRES. WILSON
Mis- Ida Tarbell says Mr.. Will
son is our greatest progressive
and has proved his fitness to lead
the cause of progressive ciyiliza-
ton.
Life" avs Miss Tarbell is
right. :" Incendentally Life"
says some nice things about MI.
Wilson right off its own bat. Its
editorial in part follows:
Miss Ida Tarbell has come out
for Wilson and Clifford Pinchot
has come out against him.
Again for Wilson both ways.
The truth is that Mr.. Wilson
comes more and more under sus-
picion of being the greatest Amer
lean progressive since Thomas
Jefferson. Jefferson was ex-
ceedingly clever man, especially
in the use of language and he was
out to beat the rich. Mr.. Wilson
gives more and more the imore s.
sion Of being out on the same
errand. Wherever there comes 4
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 mobility
and gentry on his board of trust
ees. He is an astute, formidable
person, driven all the time by an
innate and sleepless ildisposi-
ton to knuckle- down to the pow
er of money or anyone that stands
on it.
The rich. as representatives of
the vested intercsts. are always
instimctively obstacles TO political
progress. They are beneficaries
of the existing order and don't
want it all mussed up. Also they
have a say about the conduct of
life and the management of aft
airs and they don't lose it. The
only power taht can stand up
against theirs and keep their
grip on the human windpipe rea-
sonably loose it the power of the
people. Accordingly, ambitious
spirits are always reaching out :o
grasp and use the power of the
people.
That is the way of the world;
so human life goes on. JEFF
ferson fought the federalists; in
cluding most of the rich and re-
spectacle people in the country.
Jackson fought. the United
States bank; Lincolin fought the
slave-holding aristocracy and all
its allies; Roosevelt fought-here
and there-the trusts, the rail-
roads. the bankers, off and on. but
Roosevelt is an aristocrat and has
+, compassionate bowels for his
| own kind.
F; But Wilson is not an aristocrat
He is a Presbyterian professor.
He fought according to his lights,
against the exploitation of the
bodies and energies of the COM
mon people to- defend the in
tercsls and investments of the
prosperous. At the start he
would not fight in Mexico to de-
,fend American investors; he would
not take sides with Rockefeller il
the Colorado strike; he helped re-
duce the tariff; he alIeviated the
domination of the money trust;
he would not get 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 brother
hoods.
| Mr.. wilson is a kind of presi-
Dental monOgoose. The ques-
iion about him is not whether he
is pretty or has a1fectionate 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 good hand to
nip the tariff cobra, the banking
adder, the railroad boa-constrici-
or when this is necessary. 1t is
his nature to fight these Great
ures. IL was not Roosevelt's
nature to- fight them. He could
slash around among them on oc-
casion, but he enjoyed their so
ciety. His notion of government
was always government by artist
Ocracy.
Miss Tarbell is right. Mr.. Will
son is real progressive with the
necessary bite, the Indispensable
wiles, and a remarkable gift of
public discourse.
Government is a sad affair. and
being president is sad duty