the interpretation of our national life from the
general body of the people than from those who have made
conspicuous successes of their lives."

But the "Interests" are not to be excluded from the new dispensation.

"I know a great many men," Mr. Wilson says further, "whose names
stand as synonyms of the unjust power of wealth and of corporate
privileges in this country, and I want to say to you that if I
understand the character of these men, many of them--most of
them--are just as _honest_ and just as patriotic as I claim to be.
But I do notice this difference between myself and them; I have not
happened to be immersed in the kind of business in which they have
been immersed; I have not been saturated by the prepossessions
which come upon men situated as they are, and I claim to see some
things that they do not yet see; that is the difference. _It is not
a difference of interest_; it is not a difference of capacity; it
is not a difference of patriotism. It is a difference of
perception....

"Now, these men have so buried their minds in these great
undertakings that you cannot expect them to have reasonable and
rational views about the antipodes. They are just as much chained
to a task, as if the task were little instead of big. Their view is
just as much limited as if their business were small instead of
colossal. _But they are awakening._ They are not all of them
asleep, and when they do wake, they are going to lend us the
assistance of truly statesmanlike minds.

"We are not fighting property," Mr. Wilson continues, "but the
wrong conception of property. It seems to me that business on the
great scale upon which it is now conducted is the service of the
community, and the profit is legitimate only in proportion as the
service is genuine. I utterly deny the genuineness of any profit
which is gathered together without regard to the serviceability of
the thing done.... Men have got to learn that in a certain sense,
_when they manage great corporations, they have assumed public
office_, and are responsible to the community for the things they
do. _That is the form of privilege that we are fighting."_ (Italics
mine.)[33]

A second glance at these passages will show that Mr. Wilson speaks in
the name rather of struggling small capitalists, bu