Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1912. AMERICAN PRESIDENCY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8406, 7 November 1912, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1912. AMERICAN PRESIDENCY.

x Although the result of the Presidential election in the United States will not ß be officially announced for several months, it may be assumed ascertain that the choice of the people has fallen upon Dr Woodrow Wilson, late President of Princeton University and now Governor of the State, of New Jersey, and that he will in due course be installed as Mr Taft's successor at the White House. His selection is a testimony to the growing good sense of the American people and to their determinationHo get rid of the evils associated with party '' bosses '' and the party ''■ machine." It should also have. a great and beneficial result oh the purity of politics and the welfare of the' country—if some , lunatic, fanatic or hired assassin does not cut short the career of the newlvelected President. Dr Woodrow Wilson has won his'way in politics by sheer earnestness and singleness of purpose, and in spite of the party managers. Bei ginning as a writer on Trusts, the evils of " bossisrn," corruption in politics and similar subjects, he was widely known as a reformer before he thought of entering on a political career. He had been teaching history, political , economy and, jurisprudence, and he conceived the 1 idea, that lie could better serve his" 1 "countrymen by converting his teachings into action. "You see," he said, " I had told my students how to do it ; it seemed only fair to show them that it could be done." He showed them, and all the world beside, what could be done, by getting elected Governor of New Jersey and x rapidly and thoroughly cleansing the politics of that State. - What he did for a section of his countrymen he will soon have an opportunity of doing for all.

The-United '■ States will in the person of Dr Woodrow Wilson have a Democratic President who is entirely independent of the party "machine" with its unsavoury "Tammany" associations. He is an: uncompromising enemy of monopoly—a thoroughgoingl friend of the people. He would protect competition by making it a criminal oii'ence for any Trust-to kill off its rivals by underselling them and flooding their territory with manufactures sold at below cost; "Under present conditions," he declared '' the laws give the. giants free leave to trample down the pigmies. What I want- are laws to give the pigmies , the chance to keep the giants from their throats." Dr Wilson disputes the argument that the Trusts are organised for efficiency, and illustrates this point by reference to the case of Mr Carnegie, who, he says, was bought out because he was so very efficient, in^rder that the financiers who desired" to establish the Trust might be free from inconvenient competition.

The chief result of Dr Woodrow Wilson's election will be an important modification of the American fiscal system. The new President is in theory a Free Trader and holds that tariffs should be levied for revenue purposes only. The existing .protective tariff he describes as "a game in which the powerful, ihe subtle, the unscrupulous are more likely to prevail than any others. It stands as ugly and as full of unwholesome secrets and hidden , places as a Bastille." . Should, he succeed _ in breaking down the high tariffs that encourage the 'formation of Trusts and other fornis of monopoly, he will effect something in the nature* of a revolution in American politics, and in the trade of the world. If at the same time he succeeds in cleansing the public life of the United States/from the corruption for which it is unhappily notorious, his, term of the Presidency will be the most notable in the country's,history. He is personally a/ man of the highest character, and should he.

fail in his earnest efforts for reform, we may as well abandon all hope of the elevation of politics in America.