OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 3085, 30 April 1913, Page 7

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

(From Oub Own Correspondent.) NEW YORK, March 6. This country is all astir over National - politics. Inauguration week has just passed. For the first time in 16 years a Democrat is President of the United States. It is a time that is sure to take a prominent place in American history. It is a turning point from the old ideas to the new, to new theories of government that are likely to bring great changes in the social order. The general public is somewhat in doubt as to just what these changes are going to bo. Indeed President Wilson and those who arc reputed to sha're with him • his views concerning the reforms to be* made have been talking with a good deal of vagueness as to their plans. Perhaps the new President’s inaugural address throws a little more light upon his programme. It is not very definite, but in it he gives a general summary of his views. In some respects it is the most striking inaugural address that has come from a President in a great many years —perhaps since Lincoln. It is short and terse. Almost everybody has read it in consequence. It is filled with attractive phrases and striking epigrams. Wo have been very heedless and in a hurry to be great, says Mr Wilson. Wo have come now to the sober second thought. Now the scales of heodlessncss have fallen from our eyes, and we have made up our minds to square every process of our national life again with the standards we so proudly set up at the beginning and have always carried in our hearts. Says the new President: “We shall restore, not destroy. W 7 e shall deal with our economic system as it is and as it may be modified, not as it might be if we had a clean sheet of paper to write upon; and step by stop we shall make it what it should bo, in the spirit of those who question their own wisdom and sock counsel and knowledge, not shallow self satisfaction nor the of excursions whither they cannot tell.” Mr W ilson then proceeds to itemise the principal things he thinks ought to he altered. I'irst on his list comes the tarifi, which, ho declares, cuts us off from our proper thought in the commerce of the world, and makes the Government a facile instrument in the hands of private interests. Next comes the banking and currency system, which he declares is based upon the necessity of the Government to sell its Ixmds 50 years ago, and is perfectly adapted to concentrating cash and restricting credits. Third he cites the industrial system, which he denounces .as holding capital in leading strings, restricting the liberties and limiting the opportunities of Labour, and exploiting without renewing and without conserving the natural resources of the country. It is this third feature of his programme that will stir up more discussion than all the others put together. Tariff reform is an that will stir up more discussion than all is an old idea. So is the income tax, which is another of his slogans. Both were planks in the platform of the Cleveland Democrats of 20 years ago The Cleveland Administration, however, failed in its effort to bring them to puss. But fortune seems to bo smiling upon Woodrow Wilson. While Grover Cleveland was harassed by a Congress dominated by rock-ribbed Conservatives who refused to follow into untried paths, President Wilson has behind him a legislative body extremely progressive and radical in character and quite willing to upset the old order of things to an even greater extent than the President is likely to desire It is hardly likely that all the largo number cf changes the Democrats are looking forward to will bo brought about, but it, seems almost certain that an income tax will he levied and the tariff greatly reduced. What is less probable is the adoption of the proposed legislation restricting speculation in stocks, and also the plans to limit the activities of the great financiers, who are accused of controlling a money trust. The Congressional Committee that has been investigating this socallcd money trust has not been very successful, and its report is far from convincing. The corporations, however, and all largo business interests are fully aware that the new President and Democratic loaders are far removed from their predecessors of either party in their ideas, and that the tendency of the time is toward a more paternal Government than would have been relished by the people of a generation ago A little more light is shed upon the meaning of the new President's inaugural remarks concerning the reformation of an industrial system by looking into his record as Governor of New Jersey While in that office, which lie lias just resigned to become the chief executive of the nation, the most important piece of legislation for which he was responsible was the EmI Joyces’ Liability Bill This piece of logisation, whidh was fought toqth-and-nail by corporations and large business interests throughout the State, was somewhat upsetting to old-fashioned ideas of justice. In

awarding damages for injuries to employees it takes away from the employer the right to enter the plea of contributory negligence. An employee may lose an arm or a leg through his own carelessness, and still be able to collect damages from his employer just as if the employer himself had been solely to blame. The new law also does away with trial of damage suits before juries, and fixes definitely the agiount of award to be made for a particular kind of an injury. - The idea that an employer should be made to pay damages to an employee injured because of carelessness for which nobody else but the injured party is responsible is a brand new idea in this country. It smacks of Socialism to the old-timers. It scorns to them too much like robbing the thrifty fpr the benefit of the thriftless. Yet Mr Wilson succeeded in rallying enough supporters to put it through the New Jersey Legislature with little difficulty. Mr Wilson’s appointment of William Jennings Bryan, the former champion of free silver, to bo Secretary of State, is not pleasant to a large part of his party. Seventeen years ago when Mr Bryan came out of the West with his hair falling over his coat collar he was decried as the most dangerous firebrand who had ever appeared in American politics. He looked like an actor. In fact, he had once aspired to a career on the stage; and theatrical and ejicctacular indeed had been his sudden rise from obscurity. Almost unknown outside of his own State of Kansas, he rose in a single day to the leadership of his party. With his famous speech advocating free silver ho took the Democratic convention of 1896 by storm and won the nomination for the Presidency. His victory in the convention split the party, and is has required all those years for it to regain its former power. What will be the consequences of his appointment to the first place in the Cabinet remains to be seen. Hut there arc many pessimistic forebodings. Says'the Now York Sun: “It is useless to protend that the selection of Mr Bryan will not displease and disappoint thousands of loyal Democrats who will regard it as a covenant with ancient disaster. Nor will it l>e less disturbing to many citizens outside the barriers of party camps, who will see in it a dubious sign for the immediate future.” There are a number of smaller developments that are almost as disturbing to people who stick to the old ideas. It is reported, for example, that Mr Wilson means to visit the Capitol frequently and use the President’s room there for consultations with Senators and Representatives. Such a departure would he in line with the practice Mr Wilson lias followed as Governor of New Jersey when ho went to the very doors of the Legislative Chambers to press the hills in which he was interested. This possibility lias occasioned much secret ah;rm and open opposition at both ends of the Capitol. Some Republican Senators declare that a President would subject himself to great humiliation if he came to the Capitol pleading for his hills. Coincident with this excitement at the Capitol is the perturbation caused iu society circles by Mr Wilson’s refusal to become an honorary member of the Chevy Chase Club to which both Presidents Taft and Roosevelt belonged. These two departures are making Washington wonder what striking innovation is to be the next to come from the new incumbent of the White House. Mr Wilson gives as his excuse that he will bo too busy with Government affairs to belong to any social organisation. Some of bis critics, however, insinuate that he has merely been posing for the galleries, and point out that honorary membership in this club would not make any demands upon bis time. The now President has decided upon another innovation that is likely to stir up adverse criticism. He intends to have the VicePresident (Mr Marshall) take an active part in the affairs of the Administration. Indeed, Mr Marshall’s influence is likely to outweigh- that of Mi- Bryan. Probably ho will not, have a seat at the Cabinet table, but if he is to he the President’s private counsellor it will make no difference whether bo has a scat in the Cabinet or not. The President and the Vice-President have been holding long conferences about the policy of the Administration This, in itself, is unprecedented. As a rule, the last person a President is ever willing to talk such matters over with is the Vice-President. Indeed, of late years a nomination to the Vice-Presidency has been regarded by the general public as an invitation to the victim of the honour to retire into obscurity. When such a nomi nation was forced upon Theodore Roosevelt v bile he was Governor of the State of New Yo*k his friends were panic-stricken. They regarded it as the blighting of all his hopes and ambitions. His promising career would be brought to a sudden end. Ho would never be hoard from again. His political enemies might just as well trundle him out to a cemetery and seal him up in a tomb. And that was just the way it seemed to the political enemies, too.

They regarded it as not only the greatest joke, hut the finest piece of political strategy of the time. Yet, as everybody knows, they failed to bury Mr Roosevelt by relegating him to the Vice-Presidency, for the hand of Fate intervened. They might have succeeded, however —in fact, who could doubt it, —if M'Kinley had not been assassmated.

New York City has been having some very interesting experiences with the criminal element of late. An investigation of the Police Department is under way, and is bringing to light some sensational scandals. Several police officers of various ranks are under indictment, and several more will probably be accused before verylong. The investigation is the result of the Rosenthal murder of a few months ago. At 1 o’clock in the morning, in the heart of the theatrical district, which night or day is never lonely, Rosenthal, a gambler, was shot down by four gunmen, who then climbed into an automobile and rode away without any attempt being made to hinder them. The astonishing daring of the murderers and the apparent reluctance of the police to run them down naturally aroused a suspicion that at least a part of the Police Department was in league with the assassins. Then came the discovery that a police lieutenant had hired the murderers to kill Rosenthal, who had threatened to reveal to the District Attorney facts tending to prove that the lieutenant had been blackmailing gamblers. It was discovered later by the prosecuting officers that the lieutenant had been receiving at least 10,000 dollars a month from gambling houses in his precinct, and that, although his salary was only 2000 dollars a year, he had a bank account of almost 100,000 dollars. The police lieutenant and the four gunmen have all been convicted and sentenced to death. The disclosures, however, that were made before and during their trial have brought about the most active investigation of the Police Department that has ever been known. It has boon shown that the siprit of blackmail hovers over the entire police force. It is the belief of the investigators rl.at at least one policeman i.n 10 has been sharing in the graft in some way or another. The District Attorney believes that from (ho liquor saloons alone the blackmailing policemen have been collecting 1.200,000 dollars a year, and almost twice that sum from t'.io gambling houses and disorderly resorts. These startling disclosures bring before the j public again the mystery of The Man Higher Up Who that evasive individual is has never been discovered. Perhaps I there isn’t any such person. Or perhaps I there are a doyen men hiAio- up. Rich ] indeed must he the higher officers in rim Police Department if the golden stream stooped with them. Three millions a vear ! Think of it! If there is a man higher up and if there is only one he must he ns rich as CVoesus by this time, for this sort of blackmailing must have been going on for a generation nr more. It has been shown that the patrolman on the beat who did t’iie collecting took a small percentage of the swag, the officer one step higher up took another percentage, and so on ..n 1i! the Itooty reached a police inspector. F'o far the District Attorney can get no higher. But there is reason to believe that the monev flowed on to men of much more irnportanoo than inspectors, and perhaps ultimately rear/ied one lofty individual who held power over all. The result of all this lias been to stimulate a lively interest on the part of the public in crime. At the theatres the most popular plays of the day have policemen a.s villains and public prosecutors as the heroes. The popular magazines are filled with stories and articles about crime from cover to cover. Indeed, the excuse that the public should know all the facts leads some of these publications to go beyond the limits of decency. As some of the cheaper magazines have been having a hard struggle recently to keep out cf bankruptcy—indeed, some of them have gone under—ties excuse to become salacious, thereby booming circulation, must bo welcome to them indeed. Five thousand women paraded through (ho streets of Washington on the day before Inauguration Day with “ Votes for Women” banners floating over them. This demonstration was witnessed by at least 100.000 people, a large part of whom had corno from all over the country to see Mr Wilson inaugurated. But the women suffragists have not received very much encouragement so far from the new Administration. To be sure, a few senators and representatives marched in their parade, but the , President has up to tlrs time declined to 1 make any statement of has views on this subject, and surely he cannot bo much of . an enthusiast in the cause, even if lie is : not firmly opposed to it. And in Congress, j both House and Senate, there is scarcely a possibility that the suffragists could muster a majority at the present time.