superior to other men.

And I do not propose, if there is anything I can do about it, to be
compelled to feel superior.

I believe we all want to be good.

The one thing I want in this world is to prove it. I want my own way.

I am not going to slump into being a beautiful character. I have written
this book to get my own way.

I have said I will not be mixed up in the fate of people who do not know
where they are going, who have not decided what they are like, who do
not know who they are. What do the people want? Some people tell me they
want nothing. They tell me it would only make things worse and stir
things up for me to want to be good.

Or perhaps they think it is beautiful to lower the price of oil. They
want oil at seven cents a gallon.

Do they? Do you? Do I?

I say no. Let oil wait. I want to raise the price of men and to put a
market value on human life. I find as I look about me that there are two
classes of statesmen offering to be helpful in making life worth living
in America.

There are the statesmen who think we are going to be good and who
believe in a program which trusts and exalts the people and the leaders
of the people.

There are the statesmen who seem to believe that American human nature
does not amount to enough to be good. They are planning a program on the
principle that the best that can be done with human nature in America in
business and public life is to have it expurgated.

Which class of statesmen do we want?

In some of our state prisons men who are not considered fit to reproduce
themselves are sterilized. The question that is now up before this
country is, Do we or do we not want American business sterilized? Are we
or are we not going to put a national penalty on all initiative in all
business men because some men abuse it?

There is but one thing that can save us, namely, proving to one another
and to our public men, that we are good, that we are going to be good
and that we know how. We face the issue to-day. Two definite programs
are before the country.

Those who have put their faith in being afraid of one another as a
national policy have devised several By-laws for an Expurgated America.

They say, eliminate the right of a man to do wrong. Deny him the right
of moral experiment because some of his experiments do not work. We say
let him try. We can look out for ourselves or we will have bigger men
than he is, to look out for us.

They say, eliminate the