THE AMERICAN OUTLOOK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15707, 8 March 1913, Page 5

THE AMERICAN OUTLOOK.

By Hugh H. lajsk.

lI.—THE PRESIDENT AND HIS POLICY. On the 4th March, tho new President of tho United States will take office as tho executive head of the world's greatest Republic. It must be borne in mind that tho executive ipowers of an American President are very much greater than ■those now, remaining in the hands of our own Sovereign. He may, in fact, be said to hold all the powers, and in some ■respects more than all the i»wers, that in England rest with both the King ajid .his' Cabinet. It need hardly be said, therefore, that the personal character and opinions of an American President are of the first- importance, especially at a time that is both socially and politically critical. Woodrow Wilson, the newly-elected President, is in some respects a very interesting persoriality, and. perhaps the more so because he may bo called a new experiment in American politics. Unlike former Presidents, he has had very little practical acquaintance with political life. Until about three years ago, indeed, he had taken absolutely no part in political affairs, and was known only as a writer of historical books and the president of the University of Princeton, in the State of New Jersey. As a writer, he had protested very strongly against ■ much of the legislation of his own State, which had obtained a very bad reputation as the headquarters of the great combinations of capital that have spread their octopus-like tentacles over the whoie country for purposes of trade monopoly. The leaders of the Democratic party in New Jersey saw in the strong feeling of popular indignation that was steadily increasing in the State an opportunity to defeat the Republican party, which had long controlled tho State Executive and 'Legislature, and persuaded Mr Wilson, as the best-known writer against the policy of monopoly within the State, to become their candidate for the office of Governor. Their choice was justified by his election to the office by a considerable majority, and by the -election of a representative chamber in the State Parliament in which a majority was pledged to his support. His record as a State Governor—an office which greatlv re- . sembles for State administration that of President for Federal purposes—has in some important respects been very good, and nobixjy can reasonably question the honesty of purpose with which he. tried to carry out the policy of reform to which he was pledged.- It 'cannot be denied that he succeeded in reforming administration in New Jersey in several very important respects/but it must be added that he made but little progress in the much-needed reform of the State laws, dealing with. monopolies, and the facilities which they offered for carrying out the plans ,of the great organisations of capital. The task was no doubt a difficult one, but the conclusion of fairly unprejudiced judges seemed to ba justified that,, with the best intentions, Governor Wilson showed a serious want of initiative power and in some cases an absence of determination that might have produced better results during . fully three years of office. Woodrow Wilson -will take office as the | representative of the Democratic party that had. tried in vain for the last 16 years to, secure -the election of a President of its own party to succeed Grover Cleveland, and give effect to the policy of Freetrade, or something like Freetrade, for which the party has stood, and practically stood in vain, for 35 years. In Cleveland, it is generally if not universally admitted, the party had' in most ways a stronger representative—certainly a man of more initiative force than the new President. He was le?s of a scholar,

but he was certainly more of a natural leader of men— a quality that mny be said to be all but essential for any one who _is to fill the part of a social ajid political reformer. It was not realised by the American people, or at any rate by My large part of them, before the end of last century, when Cleveland was President, that any toge measure of reform was urgently needed. Conditions are certainly very different now, and the need of a leader of men may soon be recognised as an absolute necessity. It is this fact that makes the character of the man and his mental constitution a matter of more than common importance. In spite of- his somewhat striking personality, President Cleveland was tillable to Rive effect to the economic policy which he believed in, because, when it came to the point, lie was unable to keep the representatives of his party in Congress » together. The same difficulty will, beyond J all question, confront Woodrow Wilson. The Republican party, jt is true, has ever n since the Civil War been the party of g } vea " , h; but many of the leading men in tlw Democratic naity now belong to tie millionaire class, and they will cer- •' tainly be used by the great combinations to hamper, if not openly to oppose, any radical changes in the law that are'likely them in their policy of greed. The Democratic Convention, which met at Baltimore in July of last year, had one feature that was almost wholly wanting in the Republican Convention at Chicago. It was chiefly by the influence of Mr Bryan, who practically controlled a majority of the delegates, that the Con- | vention really discussed the national situation, admitting its serious character, and arrived at a declaration of the policy which the party considered adequate to meet the emergency. The success of the party at the November elections, while it was mainly owing to the great split in the ranks of the Republicans, and the rise of the third party, was partly due to this declaration of policy, accompanied by its frank admission that various reforms were urgently required; and the fact naturally gives special importance to the policy laid down in the party platform. The new President will take up the duties of his office to all intents and purposes bound by the policy laid down. Woodrow Wilson it is- true, during the campaign went beyond tlie platform on more than one occasion by expressing his personal sympathy with several of the things that were advocated in the platform of the new Progressive party, and the fact may have helped to prevent some Democratic votes from going to Boosevelt. Tim, however has often been done before, and means little or nothing after the election, is over. Even if the new President was entirely sincere in the opinions he expressed, he could do nothing beyond the limits of the j party platform. Many of the men elected ! on tlie policy expressed in the platform will be sure to find good reasons for refusing to give anything lilce full effect to it-when Hie time for action arrives. It is practically certain that none of them will go beyond it, whatever the President mav say. The policy of the Democratic party, as expressed in its platform, contains a good many reforms that are much needed at present in America, but, with the single exception of tariff reform, none of them can be said to grapple with the great social and economic evils that to-day threaten the nation. Tlie policy of tariff reform does recognise one of 'the great evils that have in the last 10 years been making themselves constantly more generally felt by the steadily increasing cost of living in every part of. the country. This has, as everybody in America now believes, been the doing of tile gTeat corporations that monopolise production, transportation, and, to a largo extent, the retail distribution of goods of every kind. Food, clothing, fuel, and house rent have increased year by ytiir in cost, till it can be shown without difficulty that the cost of living in any American city is twice as great as it is in any country of Europe, and rather more than twice as great as it was in America itself 20 years ago. Many legislative attempts have been made, especially during the last 10 years, to remedy this state of things by putting some check upon the operations of the great trusts. Tho most important of theso was the Sherman Tru'.t law, which gave the Supreme Court of the United States the power, on the prosecution of the Government, to compel tho dissolution of any capitalist combination iisinp its power to the injury of the public! Experience has proved that the proposed remedy is a failure. In a few cases—a very few indeed compared with the number of monopolising trusts—prosecutions have been successfully conducted, and the trusts dissolved. In every case the

result has only been to change she form of the trust, and to increase its prospen ly. The Democratic platform falls hack on tho tariff for'revenue only as the cure for the evil of tlio great cost of living, vhjch is held to be the main cause of the unrest and discontent that are becoming so threatening. It is proposed to carry on the system of prosecutions under the 'Sherman anti-trust law, though it admits that so far these have resulted in failure in the hands of Republican Presidents. The platform commits the new President and the Democratic representatives in both Chambers of tho Congress to legislation that will give large powers of supervision and control over railways, express companies, telegraphs and telephone companies doing business in more than one State. For the purpose of ensuring just results it commits the President and the party's members 'in Congress to a preliminary valuation of the property of these companies, and the subsequent fixing of rates on the basis of that valuation. These represent the only three classes of reform dealt with in the platform of the party which has been largely successful at the last election, and these may be said to indicate the policy, and really the whole policy, that the President and his supporters in Congress are authorised to carry out'to remedy tho evils that admittedly exist. It -remains only, with a view to forming a reasonably correct estimate of the present American . outlook, to consider how far these proposed reforms are likely to solve the problems that have arisen, and to afford relief from. the evils that are so keenly felt by the great mass of the people.