WOODROW WILSON

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 19, 23 January 1913, Page 10

WOODROW WILSON

WARNS THE MONEY POWERS GIBBET FOB' PANIC-STARTERS SOME STRAIGHT TALK. fFBOM OtJtt OWN CORRESPONDENT.] - SAN FRANCISCO, 25th Dec. Woodrow Wilson, President-elect of the United States, has signalised his return home after a stay of lecuperation in Bermuda, by a somewhat remarkable public warning to the money powers of this country. Let them start an artificial panic — as it has been more than once asserted they would do in order to discredit lv's administration — and, said the incoming President, he would gibbet them and their families in public scorn and disgrace. It is now pretty generally admitted that the panic of 1907, when real money almost disappeared from circulation, . and only bankers' certificates were available, was deliberately fostered in Wall-street with the one purpose of beating some of the Roosevelt policies. * Woodrow Wilson, quite evidently, is' imbued with the belief that there' is a money power in this country strong enough to start a panic of malice prepense, for in his speech in New York he referred to the distinction between " natural " ■ and " unnatural " panics. He said that in many cases panics had come naturally because of a mental disturbance of people with reference to loans and money generally. " But," he added, " the machinery is in existence by which the thing can be deliberately, done. Frankly, I don't think there is any man living who dares use the machinery for that purpose. If he does, I promise him, not for myself," but* for my fellow-countrymen, a gibbet as high as Hainan's." The Presidentelect added ' that he meant no literal gibbet, "for that is not painful, but a' gibbet' of ■ public disgrace, which will live as .long as the members of that man's family survive!;". Otherwise the speech was much like those delivered during the election campaign, Mr., Wilson intimating that tariff changes .would not be so abrupt or so far-reaching as to upset business conditions. ."America with her eyes open is nOt going to*-let a panic happen," he observed. ' ' But I speak as if I expected —as if I ' feared it. I do not. I- am afraid of nothing. A panic,- according to the dictionary, is really »a state of mind. There is just as much money in the country the day after the < panic as •the day before, but it is distributed differently." - - ; The new President has plunged into the task of finishing up his work as Governor of the State of New Jersey, but at the same time is ,giving attention to the formation of his Cabinet, And is by thought and reading and conferences preparing' himself for his Messages to Congress. The labour ahead of him so far as it relates to making appointments ,and attempting to satisfy the horde of Democratic Office-keekers is, Mr. Wilson confesses, " wholly hateful," but it must nevertheless be accomplished, in the exigencies of the American political system. Cabinet-building is the subject of numerous talks the President-elect has ! had with irten high in his party, including the still-pOWerful' William* Jennings Bryan. The newspapers have, however, got tired of gjuessing the members of the Official family. Mr. Wilson, while he will throw the White House wide open to people who have public business to transact, has announced that the Executive mansion will not be free to crowds who merely com'o ,to shake hands with or gazo in curiosityat the •President. This is regarded as an amendment to his "open door" policy.