We wanted fair elections; we did not want candidates to buy themselves into office. That seemed reasonable. So we adopted a law, unique in one particular, namely: that if you bought an office in New Jersey, you did not get it. I admit that is contrary to all commercial principles, but I think it is pretty good political doctrine. It is all very well to put a man in jail for buying an office, but it is very much better, besides putting him in jail, to show him that if he has paid out a single dollar for that office, he does not get it, though a huge majority voted for him. We reversed the laws of trade; when you buy something in politics in New Jersey, you dont get it. It seemed to us that that was the best way of discouraging improper political argument. If your money does not produce the goods, then you are not tempted to spend your money. It was "We adopted a Corrupt Practices Act, the reasonable foundation of which no man could question, and an Election Act, which every man predicted was not going to work, but which did work to the emancipation of the voters of New Jersey. "All these things are now commonplaces with us. We like the laws which we have passed, and no man ventures to suggest any material change in them. Why didn't we get them long ago? What hindered us? Why we had a closed government; not an open government. It did not belong to us. managed by little groups of men whose names we knew, but whom somehow we didn't seem able to dislodge. When we elected men pledged to dislodge them, they only went into partnership with them. When the people had taken over control of the Government, a curions change was wrought in the souls of great many men; a sudden moral awakening took place, and we simply could not find culprits against whom to bring indictments; it was like a Sunday School the way they obeyed the laws". Dr. Wilson had two strenuous years as Governor of New Jersey. His entusiasm for reform found here a rich field for his activity. Never has any State in America's history enacted so many important reforms in such a short time as New Jersey under Governor Wilsons regime. From having had the reputation of being a State lagging behind all the rest of the States concerning progressive measures in government, New Jersey came to the front as one of the most progressive and up to date states in popular administration. Wilsons Gubernatorial term extended from the autumn of 1910 tho the autumn of 1913. In the fall of 1912 he was elected President. At the end of February 1913, he resigned the office of Governor of New Jersey, and the following fourth of March was installed in Washington President of the United States. IV. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Governor Wilson was not a prominent candidate for President in the early part of 1912. Champ Clark, Speaker of the House in Washington, was rather the favorite with leading democrats particularly in the Eastern States and mostly with the party bosses, not so much with the common people. But out in the West we had our eyes on Dr. Wilson already from the time when as President of Princeton he had his controversies with the aristocratic, money worshipping Board of Directors of the University. Out in Colorado where the present writer was then iving we read in the papers with much interest about the conflict between Dr. Wilson and the reactionary directorate and it began to be suggested between man and man at democratic gatherings that in the able and unafraid President of Princeton might be found good timber for a democratic candidate for the Presidency to put up against the republican aspirants (Roosevelt and Taft). When Wilson had been elected Governor of New Jersey, and was making a record as a splendid Chief of State, and the Princeton Directors began to feel cheap as against the man they meant to degrade, we laughed heartily out in the country at the situation and said "Bully for Wilson". The affair with the old democratic New Jersey boss, James Smith whom Wilson laid on the shelve so effectually amused us immensely, and Wilsons popularity with the common people increased daily, not only in his home-state but all over the country. People were as interested about Wilson in California and Idaho, as in New Jersey and New York, and as the time advanced towards the democratic National Convention in the summer of 1912, the newspapers paid more and more attention to Governor Wilson, many predicting that he was the coming man and perhaps the only one who could lead the democratic party out of the slough in which it had been mired for years. Colonel George Harvey, the able Editor of Harpers Weekly, Isaid of him that: "the ideal candidate is Govornor Wilson of New Jersey, the highly Americanized Scotch-Irishman, descended from Ohio, born in Virginia, developed in Maryland, married in Georgia, and now delivering from bondage that faithful old Democratic Commonwealth, the State of New Jersey. He is a man combining the activities of the present with the sobering influences of the past, uniting in his personality the finest instinct of true statesmanship with the no less valuable capacity for practical application to the work at hand". The leading candidates for the democratic nomination were besides Champ Clark and Wilson, Governor Harmon of Ohio and Congressman Underwood from Alabama. Both the big parties, the Republican and the Democratic, are divided in two groups, a progressive and a reactionary. The reactionaries we have given the name of stand patters, meaning thereby men. who are satisfied with things as they are and stand pat on present situations. Those who are interested in reforms we designate as progressives.. Champ Clark was the beloved son and heir of the standpatters. Wilson was entusiastically supported by the progressives. Governor Harmon and Congressman Underwood were only so called "favorite sons" of their respective states, either of which might possibly come in as a "dark horse" in case the fight between the two leading candidates should be prolonged and so even that neither could win over the other. Such a thing has happened several times in American political history, as for instance in the Republican National Convention in Chicago, 1880. John Sherman. from Ohio and another whose name I cannot recall, were the leading candidates, the convention had been voting for three days without any candidate being able to secure a majority; suddenly one of the delegates rose and proposed the name of Congressman James A. Garfield from Ohio. He was well and favorably known to the people and was the leader, of the House on the republican side. His name was favorably received by the convention. It was hot, the delegates were tired of the long fight, and one state after another went over to Garfield and he secured the nomination. He was elected at the general election in November and installed president on the 4:th of March, 1881. Such things can happen in America when a "dark horse" comes in on the last minute and grabs the nomination. A democratic National convention i U. S. consists of twice as many delegates from each state as the State has representatives in Congress. New York State has 43 member in the House and 2 in the Senate, total 45, and consequently 90 delgates in the convention. Minnesota has IO members in the House and 2 in the Senate, total 12, and comes to the convention with 24 delegates, Delaware which has only one member in the House but 2 in the Senate, comes to the convention with six delegates, and so forth. Congress has 531 members in all, and the convention has accordingly' 1,062 delegates. To be elected delegate to a national convention is considered a great honor and the party leaders in the various States strive with all their might to secure this distinction. The ladies are not less interested. The convention generally lasts a week and is always held in some of the large cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago or St. Louis, but never in Washington. The delegates bring their wives and daughters with them, and the ladies dress to kill When a man has been chosen a delegate his women folks get busy to fit themselves out properly |