New Jersey Democratic Party

Title

New Jersey Democratic Party

Creator

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924

Identifier

WWP20640

Date

1918 March 20

Publisher

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library

Subject

Press Releases
Democratic Party (U.S.)

Language

English

Text

THE WHITE HOUSE
Washington.

My dear Mr. Toastmaster:

I sincerely regret that matters of pressing importance will prevent my taking part in the reorganization banquet to which you have generously invited me. It is my feeling, as I am sure it will be the feeling of those present, that my clear duty is to stay here on the job. My work can be properly done only if I devote my whole thought and attention to it and think of nothing but the immediate task in hand.

At the same time it is clear that in the present posture of affairs in New Jersey I cannot overlook my responsibility as aleader of a great party, and that it is my privilege to point out what I believe to be the duty of the Democrats in New Jersey, now and in the months to come, in order that the exigency of a great hour of crisis may properly be met.

During the months that I had the privilege of serving the people of New Jersey in the office of Governor we sought to accomplish this definite purpose, namely, to open the processes of government to the access and inspection of every citizen, in order that thepeople might feel that the Government of New Jersey represented their hopes, their impulses, and their sympathies. It was with this great purpose in mind that we succeeded in establishing electoral machinery which took away from selfish political leaders the power to hold the mass of the party voters in the State in subjection to themselves. In the matter of employers' liability we substituted for the cold letter of the old law the warm and wholesome tonic of humane statute. In every act of legislation we cut a clear pathway of public service and achieved a record remarkable for its variety and humanity, in every way comprehensive in character and touching no vital interest in the State with a spirit of injustice or demagogy. We gave the people, after many tedious and discouraging years of waiting, a government which they could feel was their own, free and unhampered by special privilege.

A time of grave crisis has come in the life of the Democratic Party in New Jersey - a time when its friends and supporters must face the facts of the situation if they would serve the cause of free government in New Jersey. Every sign of these terrible days of war and revolutionary change, when economic and social forces are being released upon the world whose effect no political seer dare venture to conjecture, bids us search our hearts through and through and make them ready for the birth of a new day - a day, we hope and believe, of greater opportunity and greater prosperity for the average mass of struggling men and women, and of greater safety and opportunity for children.

The old party slogans have lost their significance and will mean nothing to the voter of the future, for the war is certain to change the mind of Europe as well as the mind of America. Men everywhere are searching democratic principles to their hearts in order to determine their soundness, their sincerity, their adaptability to the real needs of their life, and every man with any vision must see that the real test of justice and right action is presently to come as it never came before.

The men in the trenches, who have been freed from the economic serfdom to which some of them have been accustomed, will, it is likely, return to their homes with a new view and a new impatience of all mere political phrases, and will demand real thinking and sincere action.

Let the Democratic Party in New Jersey, therefore, forget everything but the new service which they are to be called upon to render. The days of political and economic reconstruction which are ahead of us no man can now definitely assess, but we know this, that every program must be shot through and through with utter disinterestedness; that no party must try to serve itself, but every party must try to serve humanity, and that the task is a very practical one, meaning that every program, every measure in every programe, must be tested by this question, and this question only: Is it just; is it for the benefit of the average man, without influence or privilege; does it embody in real fact the highest conception of social justice and of right dealing without respect of person or class or particular interest? This is a high test. It can be met only by those who have genuine sympathy with the mass of men and real insight into their needs and opportunities, and a purpose which is purged alike of selfish and of partisan intention.

The party which rises to this test will receive the support of the people because it deserves it.

Very sincerely yours,
WOODROW WILSON

Original Format

Miscellaneous

Files

D30255.pdf

Citation

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924, “New Jersey Democratic Party,” 1918 March 20, WWP20640, Woodrow Wilson Press Statements, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.