Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1921-03-17
WOODROW WILSON.

of those who constitute the
worlds really great men, writes
Prof. D. d. Wallace of Wofford
college in The Southern Christian
Advocate. Like many another
great statesman, he retires under
the burden of the temporary un-
popularity of political reaction. In
this he is in such company as Gro
yer Cleveland, William E. Glad
stone, Sir Robert Peel and the ell
der Pitt. ...
DIR. Charles Eliot, who, except
for his support of Cleveland and
Wilson, is ranked as Republican,
and it is needless to add the high
est type of Republican, declared
during the recent campaign that
the Democratic party under Will
sons leadership had accomplished
more for the industrial, financial,
political and moral advancement
OF the American people in seven
years than the Republican party
had in the previous 30 years: The
truth of the statement helps to ex-
plain why the party was driven
- so overwhelmingly from power.
The ordinary, average citizen can
stand only certain amount of
moral uplift and moral stimulus in
given period. President Wilson
understood from the first that
much of his great work would
have to be done quickly if it were
done at all. He did it with mar
velous quickness. He pays the
temporary penalty; he will re-
ceive the permanent glory.
The bare list of the achieve
ments of the Democratic party
under President Wilson's leader
ship during his first administra-
tion is catalogue whose length
is relieved of wearisomeness only
by the stirring nature of its
items. First, there came the only
substantial reform in an inqui-
tous and out of date tariff that
the country had seen since 1857,
and the country will never see
any very decided or lasting re-
turn to the old system. Not rest
ing with one great reform that
would have for the time satisfied
the average president, he launch
ed Immediately the program for
the financial reform that materi-
allied in the federal reserve sys-
TEN, the most wonderful achieve
ment in banking legislation that
the world has ever seen. In the
few years of its existence it has
made possible the financing of the
Great war with a facility that
would have otherwise been i'm
possible, and has enabled the
country to make the transition
from the perilous conditions of
war with a painful depression in
stead of calamitous panic.
Then followed the Clayton anti
trust act and the federal trade
commission, designed to enable
big business to render it's indis-
pensable service to the modern
world without becoming pirat-
ical outlaw. The income tax was
introduced, so as to adjust the
burden of taxes, as they had
never been adjusted before, to
the capacity to pay. THE air was
cleared of spoils politics by the
simple announcement that the
man who sought position on the
mere recommendation of politi-
clans would be considered to
have confessed his unfitness on
his merits, and the merit system
Of appointment was extended to
G. tens of thousands Of postmaster
ships. Rural credits were estab-
lished by the federal farm loan
banks.
There is no eXaggeration in
giving President Wilson large
part of the'credit for these meas
ures, for many. if not most, of
them would have been impossible
without his leadership. He be-
longs frankly to the school of
publicists who believe in the ne
cessity of vigorous executive
leadership. Not only the history
of England, France, Germany
and Italy demonstrate the cor
rectness of this view but a glance
over our own past tells the same
story. The forces that storm
and swirl around the government
of a great modern nation are so
mighty, so divergent, so multitu-