Omaha daily bee., 1919-02-04
Facts Retate Fine Words
The National Republican.

/ AC NdupudA 4NGpupACaHs
Speaking at the Paris peace conference, on
January rs, President Wilson said:
Gentlemen, the select classes of mankind
are no longer the governors of mankind. The
fortunes of mankind are now in the hands Of
the plain people of the whole world"
Fine words, fifty spoken. But listen!
The only portions of the United States of
America in which this principle is publicly
spit upon, are those dominated by the politi-
cal leadership of which Mr.. Wilson himself
is a part, and with which he is by tradition
experience and belief closely associated.
There is not republican state in the union
in which the people as a whole are not freely
and fully permitted to- order their own govern
mental affairs by participation in the choice of
their representatives in authority.
There is not a state in the union dominated
by the particular party leadership with which
Mr.. Wilson is intimately identified in the United
States, in which mankind's destnes, or the
destnes of government are directed by the
plain people. This denial of popular rights,
even rights established and guaranteed under
the American constitution, has been brought
about by the deliberate, public action Of the
political party over which Mr. Wilson at this
moment exercises absolute control, and of
which he has been the complete master for six
years.
In fact Mr.. Wilson is president today be-
cause he, himself, as candidate for president
in 1916, received more than so electoral votes
DdSGu upon the franchise OF national ClliLeHS Oh
the republic, whose right to participation in
elections was denied by the force fraud and
legal trickery of the leaders of Mr.. Wilson's
party in the Ii old slave states.
Mr.. Wilson is president and the spokesman
of this government at this time, in other words,
because more than so votes were cast for him
in the electoral college which were based upon
the ballots of citizens whose right to exercise
the suffrage for themselves is denied by Mr..
Wilson'S own associates in democratic party
leadership, who at the same time demand and
exercise the right to cast electoral votes and
occupy seats in the house of representatives
based upon the very votes they have invalidated
Within sight of the windows of the White
House lies the natal state of President Wilson,
the state of Washington, of Patrick Henry
of Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Bill of
Rights. In that state by the chicanery Of
President Wilson's intimate associates in party
leadership, such a status of political junkerism
has been brought about that hve-sixths OF the
men called to the colors under the CONSUMPTION
act to save the world for democracy were at
the time they were summoned to this service
barred from the exercise of the rights of voters
in their own state and nation although all of
them were citizens of the republic under the
terms of the United States Constitution.
In that natal state of President Wilson, |
dominated by his associates in democratic party
leadership, 10000 men only are eligible to par
ticipate in government, and at the last general
election on November 5, 1918, but $1,000 did
actually participate in the determination of the |
affairs of two and third millions of people. |
Of the citizens denied by force, fraud and legal
trickery the right to participate in the affairs of
their own government, there are more than |
100000 more white than black The men denied |
the right to political freedom are the plain people
who most of all need the ballot to protect them
selves against the forces which President Viii |
son so eloquently says seek mastery of affairs. |
Of this, President Wilson, as leader of his |
party and as chief executive of his country, |
is not ignorant He was born and reared in the |
very state thus ground beneath the heel of
junkerism. A word from him would at any |
time have started movement for the reform |
of these conditions, not made more agreeable |
to men possessed of the true spirit of American |
ism merely because they operate to the adj |
vantage of democratic partisanship. His own |
recently appointed secretary of the treasury |
was a member of the Virginia constitutional |
convention which fastened this junker system
to save it for democracy with a big I'D" by
throttling democracy with a small ID.
Listenp In the several states of that union
the extent to which the plain people President
Wilson so eloquenty spoke about at Paris on
January Is participate in government is almost
exactly proportionate to the extent to which the
leadership of Mr.. Wilson's party in the United
States has no control. The degree of popular
participation in government in the several states
is almost exactly in proportion to the size of
the normal republican pluralities This is not
mere theory; it is statement based upon the
circumstances as they exist in the several states
and as they are revealed in their statutes their
practices and in their election returns.
BMYIeSOn SWInOS the Climb