There has been a change of government. It began two years ago when the House of Representatives

became democratic by a decisive majority. It has now been completed. The Senate about to

assemble will also be democratic. The offices of President and Vice President have been put into

the hands of Democrats. What does the change mean?

It means much more than the mere success of a party.

The success of a party means little except when the nation is using that party for a large

and definite purpose.

No one can mistake the purpose for which the nation now seeks to use the Democratic Party.

It seeks to use it to interpret a change in its own plans and point of view.

Nowhere else in the world have noble men and women exhibited in more striking forms,

the beauty and the energy of sympathy and helpfulness and counsel in their efforts to rectify wrong,

alleviate suffering, and set the weak in the way of strength and hope.

We have built up, moreover, a great system of government, which has stood through a long age,

as in many respects a model for those who seek to set liberty upon foundations

that will endure against fortuitous change, against storm and accident.

But the evil has come with the good, and much fine gold has been corroded.

We have been proud of our industrial achievements, but we have not hitherto stopped thoughtfully enough to count the human cost,

the cost of lives snuffed out, of energies overtaxed and broken, the fearful, physical, and spiritual cost,

to the men and women and children upon whom the dead weight and burden of it all has fallen pitilessly the years through. With the great government

went many deep secret things, which we too long delayed to look into and scrutinize with

candid, fearless eyes. The great government we loved has too often been made use of for private

and selfish purposes, and those who used it had forgotten the people.

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