Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-09-07
PARTY HAS KEPT FAITH AND DONE ITS DUTY
SAYS PRES. WILSON IN REVIEW OF HIS WORK

sponsibilitv OF an entire political par
ty. We have driven the tariff lobby
from cover and obliged 1t to substi-
| tute solid argument for private influ-
ence.
This extraordinary recital must
sound like n platform, list of san.
guine promises, but 1t Is not. 1t is n
record Of promises made four years
ago and now actually redeemed in CON
structlve legislation
These things must profoundly disturb
the thoughts and confound the plans of
those who have made themselves be-
licvc that the Democratic party neither
understood nor was ready to assist the
business of the country in the great
enterprises which 1t is its evident and
Inevitable destiny to undertake and
carry through. The breaking up of the
lobby must especially discomfort them,
for 1t was through the lobby that they
sought and were sure they had found
the heart of things. The game of priv
ilege can be played successfully by no
other means.
Fought by the interests.
This record must equally astonish
those who feared that the Democratic
party had not opened its heart to com
prehend the demands of social justice.
We have in four years come very near
to carrying out the platform OF the
Progressive party as we'll as our own,
for we also are progressives.
There is one circumstance connected
with this program which ought to be
very plainly stated. It was resisted at
every step by the interests. which the
Republican party had catered to and
fostered at the expense of the country,
and these same interests are now
earnestly praying for reaction which
will save their privileges-for the re-
storation 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 bank
Ing 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 concentra-
ton 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 hostile-all
but few with vision--the average
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 consulted only the "big
men" should return to power-the par
| ty of mastery inactivity and cunning
resourcefulness in standing pat to re
sist change.
The Republican party is Just the par.
| ty that cannot meet the new conditions
of new age. 1t does not know the
way. and it does not wish new con
ditions. 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 bust
| ness but the old methods. When It
changes It's leaders and it's purposes
and brings its ideas up to date ii will
have the right to ask the American
| people to give it power again, but not
| until then. 4 new age, an age of
revolutionary change. needs new pur-
| poses and new ideas.
In foreign affairs we have been guild
ed by principles clearly conceived and
| consistently lived up to, Perhaps they
| have not been fully comprehended be-
! cause they have hitherto governed In
ternational affairs only in theory, not
| in practice. They are simple. obvious
easily stated and fundamental to
American ideals.
We have been neutral not only be
cause 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 of policy in the influences
which brought on the present war, but
| also because II was manifestly our
| duty to prevent. If it We're possible,
the indefinite extension Of the fires of
hate and dcsolntion kindled by that
terrible conflict and seek to serve man
kind by reserving our strength and
our resources for the anxious and diff
cult days of restoration and healing
which must follow, when peace will
have to build its house anew.
American Citizen, Above All.
The rights of our own citizens, of
course, became involved; that was in
rvitablc. Where they did this was our
guiding principle : that property rights
ran he vindicatcd by claims for dam
ages when the war Is over, and no
modern nation can decline to arbitrate
such claims. but the Fundamental.
rights of humanity cannot be, The
loss of life is irreparable. Neither can
lircct violations Of n nations sover-
"ignty await vindication in suits for
| damages. Tho nation that violates
he checked and called to account by
lircct challenge and resistance. 1t nj
once makes the quarrel in part our
own. These are plain principles, and
we have never lost sight of them OF
departed from them. whatever the
stress or the pcrplcxity Of circum
stance or the provocation to hnsty re-