The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1912. THE DEMOCRATIC TRIUMPH.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 268, 8 November 1912, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1912. THE DEMOCRATIC TRIUMPH.

For the co-use that lacks assistance, For the wnmg that needs resistance, For the future v* the distance, A.nd the good that we can -do.

The election of Woodrow Wilson to the Presidency is not the only sign of the times which indicates that American political sentiment has undergone a deep and far-reaching transformation during the past, few years. For not only baa the Democratic candidate secured an overwhelming majority in the Electoral College, but it is now announced that the Democrats will have n substantial working majority in the house of Representatives, and that they are even certain of a majority in the Senate. These are. certainly remarkable developments which do not Reem to have been predicted by even the most experienced political oracles in the United State?. The split in Uip Republican party made it highly probable that neithpr Taft nor Roosevelt would be able to secure nn absolute majority against Wilson. Rut it was hardly anticipated anywhere that the Democratic policy would pain so large an amount of popular support. The Senate more especially has been for many years the stronghold of that wellorganised ''Money Power" which is j popularly reputed to dominate America. lit was the Senate, as previously constituted, that was the chief obstacle to a revision of the Tariff—one of the cbief "planks" in the Democratic "platform." And the ascendancy now secured 'ov the Democrats in both branches of the 1.-egis-lature means the practical triumph of those political doctrines which arc specially obnoxious fo the Conservative element in American public life. IT wp in general terms that thi Republican party is Conservative, anr that the Democratic party is Liberal 01 Progressive, we have hardly done ful jirsticc to the distinction between thr two. F,.r the American Constitution is in theory so definitely democratic thai Conservatism in the British sense, o: the term is hardly recognisable as c feature of American politics. But tht Republicans certainly stand for th< privileged classes, who have entrenchei. themselves in a position of vantacri chiefly through their accumulation o wealth. The Trusts and the financiers of Wall Street are closch identified with the Republican party 1 and the Democrats, on the. other hand >tund for the popular rights ami liber ties which the ascendancy of the privi leged classes is endangering. An Wood row Wilson himself luis Raid, the Re publicans differ radically from thi

Democrats in their views of government. The Democrat believes in

eminent by the people, the Republican is satisfied ■with government for the

people. But the essential >part of ihe distinction is that the Republican eon-

siders that, ho is the inly person fit to bo entrusted with the ripht to administer thn affairs of the country on the people's behalf. Tlmt is why Woodrow Wilson is a convinced Democrat; for he holds that the one. indispensable necessity for the reform of political life and the promotion of the public welfare in America to-day is "the resumption of popular government"-—in other words, the exercise 'by tho people themselves of those elective and legislative functions of which they have been robbed by the 'Money Power" and the "machine." 'Naturally tbe character of the Democratic policy tinder the. new regime will depend largely upon the precise political principles adopted by the nev President. And on this subject Dr. Wilson has been singularly dear and outpsoken. 'I believe emphatically," he has said, "in the direct Primary'"—

that is, direct popular election—"every Stale in the Union should have it, T believe in direct and popular election of United Stares Senator?. Such a. law enforced in every -State would prevent, legislative control by special influence and thus one of the g-reates-t menaces to Topresent-atrre government -would ibe. removed." He believed also in the. Initiative tuid the Referendum, and even in the Recall—that is, the right of the people to remove public officials and political representatives who have failed in their duty; thoiigh he would not apply this- principle to the judiciary. As regards Trusts, he believes in the policy of the Sherman Act, which would prevent the establishment of monopolies, r<ny sacrifice of public interests to private privileges, or interference with open competition that can be construed as '"in restraint of trade." Tin is not hostile to corporations as such ; for he rejrards them (is a necessary phase of commercial development. But he condemns strongly the alliance of the Trusts with the political ""bosses" of the country. "To sum it all up in on« sentence,"" he says, "'the big evil to "be corrected is the control of politics and of our life by jrreat combinations of wealth.' , Americans, he says justly, are not afraid of wealth or jealous of •the men -who accumulate great wealth. But everybody in America knows that ■'fomc of the men who control the wealth and have .built up the industry of the country seek to control politic?! and to dominate the- life of common men": and this, he contends, is a. course that no man should ever bs permitted to take.

The new President is thus committed to a policy which, if it can be carried out effectually, should go some way toward re-establishing popular rovernment in the true sense in. America. Rut there is one "plank" in the Dejno>cratre "platform"' to which the Americans attach great importance, and which needs some definite elucidation for British readers—the demand for Tariff , Revision. The mistake generally made outside America is to regard the Democrats as Free Trader?, and to assume that the now President will attempt to sweep away tariff restrictione altogether. Thiring the election campaign the "Daily News" sacrifi'CPfl its sense of responsibility to ite enthusiasm for Cobdeaiem so completely As to risk this outrageous raisstatement: and Dr. Wilson himself at once publicly and emphatically corrected the error. '"Do you suppose," he asked a "Daily Express' , representative, "that haW tbo population of tbe I'nited States is going to destroy the very foundations of our economic life by running amok umojtg tariff schedules? That is not our programme, and anybody who says it is nim|>ly does not understand the situation in the United States at all. There should t>c no fear of the Free Trade Bllffahoo, because tin . Democrats do noyt propose to revise the tariff in any -other way than will conserve the real hu&inees interests of the country. We propose, to revise those schedules ■which give unfair private advantage to certain interests without affecting busjI noes which is eotind and legitimate, and •which we all wish, to -see. promoted. Neitb. r I nor the Democratic party stands far Free Trade." This is surely a sufficiently forcible disclaimer, and it should cscttle the question once and for all. What the Democrats wish to do is to prevent the Trusts from manipulating the tariff to suit their own selfish ends without regard to the interests of the people. But there is no possibility of sweeping away Protection in America, because the system has practically no enemies there. As Dr. Wilson puts it:—"When people talk to you about the danger of Free Trade, do not be afraid that you will meet a Free Trader in the dark anywhere. There are not many Traders who ca.n get abroad in America at. present.' . And .so we may rest assured that, the chief energies of the De.moerats and their Ic.uier are to be expemVd iv re.eonstnir-t.ing the. elective :md representative Fystem of the country '"for the purpose of recovering what seems to have been lost —the people's control of their own instruments, their ' right to exercise a free and constant clioice in the management of their own . affairs."