cts,
installing better machines, raising wages in the effort to secure more
efficient help, introducing the principle of cooperation and mutual
benefit, dealing fairly with labor unions, setting its face against
the underpayment of women and the employment of children; in a
word, treating the public fairly and its rivals fairly: then such a
corporation is behaving well. It is an instrumentality of civilization
operating to promote abundance by cheapening the cost of living so as to
improve conditions everywhere throughout the whole community. Does Mr.
Wilson controvert either of these statements? If so, let him answer
directly. It is a matter of capital importance to the country that his
position in this respect be stated directly, not by indirect suggestion.

Much of Mr. Wilson's article, although apparently aimed at the
Progressive party, is both so rhetorical and so vague as to need no
answer. He does, however, specifically assert (among other things
equally without warrant in fact) that the Progressive party says that it
is "futile to undertake to prevent monopoly," and only ventures to
ask the trusts to be "kind" and "pitiful"! It is a little difficult
to answer a misrepresentation of the facts so radical--not to say
preposterous--with the respect that one desires to use in speaking of or
to the President of the United States. I challenge President Wilson to
point to one sentence of our platform or of my speeches which affords
the faintest justification for these assertions. Having made this
statement in the course of an unprovoked attack on me, he cannot refuse
to show that it is true. I deem it necessary to emphasize here (but with
perfect respect) that I am asking for a plain statement of fact, not
for a display of rhetoric. I ask him, as is my right under the
circumstances, to quote the exact language which justifies him in
attributing these views to us. If he cannot do this, then a frank
acknowledgment on his part is due to himself and to the people. I quote
from the Progressive platform: "Behind the ostensible Government sits
enthroned an invisible Government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging
no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible Government,
to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt
politics, is the first task of the statesmanship of the day. . . . This
country belongs to the people. Its resources, its business, its laws,
its institutions, should be utilize