Life — March 13, 1913 — page 8: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

MARCIE 13, 1913 “While there is Life there's Hope” VOL. 61 No. 1885, Published by LIFE J. A, Merenm, Pres't, “T SUMMON all honest all pa- ic, all for- ward - looking men to my 2 side. God help- ing me, I will not fail them, if they will but counsel and sustain me.” So our new President ends his in- augural. A bold call that, brethren! One can almost hear the crowd respond: “ God save the King!” It meant a great deal, that old cry that we republicans never hear. It meant God save gov- ernment, justice, liberty, order! God save the servant of the people! We don’t know whether or not the in- auguration crowd is used to cry, God save the President, but well it may, and President Wilson's inaugural is full of inspiration for such a shout. It is a sober, compressed document, charged with feeling and intelligence, with more of religion in it than of politics, a fit discourse for the minis- ter’s son and the Presbyterian elder, and yet explicit and searching in its declaration of political intentions. There are no threats in it, unless the President's dedication of his powers to justice shall be so construed. Spe- cifically, he declares for revision of the tariff, for a better banking system, for a better industrial system, for conser- vation of natural resources and im- proved agriculture. There is no doubt that President Wilson is very much in earnest, and earnest with the zeal of a statesman rather than of a politician. We see PUBLISHING COMPANY 17 West Thirty-first English Offices, Cannon House, Breams’ ildzs., London, A. MILLER, Sec'y anit Treas. EC. reet, New Vor: little egotism in him, but great inten- sity of purpose, confidence in his own instincts about right and wrong, con- fidence in his diagnosis of what ails us, and confidence in his power to find the proper remedies for our social and industrial troubles. But his confidence is not so much a confidence in himself as in the beliefs, the ideals, the prin- ciples that actuate him. His summons to all forward-looking men to his side is not a personal or a partisan sum- mons, but the cry of a patriot to pa- triots. It is in that spirit that Presi- dent Wilson seems strong, and it is that spirit that one must look to to win for him, if he wins, in spite of all mistakes and misadventures. Certainly, he is no national intoxi- cant like his last predecessor but one, and he has in a very slight degree that gift of the glad hand which served the last three of his predecessors in good stead. The Scotch-Irish of him is amusing, but impressive in those who know it in Jackson and Calhoun. No one who remembers the vehemence of his Princeton declaration so few years ago that he did not propose to be president of a country club but will chuckle at his unwillingness to be an honorary member of Chevy Chase. The trouble is that, at Princeton, he got a surfeit of all the apparatus of social exclusiveness and is probably in- disposed to go inside of any enclosure which all humanity may not enter if it buys a ticket. Chevy Chase may not understand that, and needn't, but it is perfectly understandable. His “No” to Chevy Chase was simply an amus- ing eruption of a spirit too long pes- tered with the sight of little pens for polite people and stirred with a gener- ous preference for an out-of-doors without a gate. There is far more love than offishness in his impatience with pens, but it is a love for the peo- ple outside. After all, the United States is a fine country club with due acreage, a membership of ninety-six millions and a large waiting list, espe- cially—heaven help us!—in Southeast- em Europe. The love of the people is really in this President; down deep in him, and eruptive. The wonder about him is his insistence in standing just where what is inside of him says he must stand. It’s like Luther and his “ Here I stand. I can do no other- wise. God help me! Amen!” That's the kind Dr. Wilson In a mule this characteristic is obstinacy, but in an eminent public character of Scotch- Irish derivation it is steadfastness, and is a great quality, though to various persons a stumbling-block, as here- tofore. But we do not see in President Wil- son a man who cannot take advice. He will need a lot of it, and will have to take a great deal, and will take it, but with discrimination, and a final deci- sion that will be his own. OC SSCCSOOELY W E have acquired a mighty inter- esting President, and if he keeps his health, we are in for a mighty interesting administration. The Cabinet had to be recruited mainly from gentlemen without recent experi- ence in governing the country. The hands are fairly green, but promising. If our stenographer could sit in with them awhile and tell us people all that is said at cabinet meetings, his report would outsell all the best sellers. We want especially, of course, to sit under the cabinet discourse of the Secretary of State. That can hardly be, but we shall have the eating of the pudding anyhow. The Attorney-General is a practised hand and generally accept- able; the Secretary of the Interior—a very important place once occupied by Mr. Ballinger—is another; the Secre- tary of Agriculture is green, but good, and very able; the Secretary of the Treasury seems well qualified and con- stituted to be a sympathetic helper to comicbooks.com