ll be deserted, and he will wonder what has happened. Nothing
has happened. The world has been going on. The world has a habit of going
on. The world has a habit of leaving those behind who won't go with it.
The world has always neglected stand-patters. And, therefore, the
stand-patter does not excite my indignation; he excites my sympathy. He is
going to be so lonely before it is all over. And we are good fellows, we
are good company; why doesn't he come along? We are not going to do him
any harm. We are going to show him a good time. We are going to climb the
slow road until it reaches some upland where the air is fresher, where the
whole talk of mere politicians is stilled, where men can look in each
other's faces and see that there is nothing to conceal, that all they have
to talk about they are willing to talk about in the open and talk about
with each other; and whence, looking back over the road, we shall see at
last that we have fulfilled our promise to mankind. We had said to all the
world, "America was created to break every kind of monopoly, and to set
men free, upon a footing of equality, upon a footing of opportunity, to
match their brains and their energies," and now we have proved that we
meant it.

III

FREEMEN NEED NO GUARDIANS

There are two theories of government that have been contending with each
other ever since government began. One of them is the theory which in
America is associated with the name of a very great man, Alexander
Hamilton. A great man, but, in my judgment, not a great American. He did
not think in terms of American life. Hamilton believed that the only
people who could understand government, and therefore the only people who
were qualified to conduct it, were the men who had the biggest financial
stake in the commercial and industrial enterprises of the country.

That theory, though few have now the hardihood to profess it openly, has
been the working theory upon which our government has lately been
conducted. It is astonishing how persistent it is. It is amazing how
quickly the political party which had Lincoln for its first
leader,--Lincoln, who not only denied, but in his own person so completely
disproved the aristocratic theory,--it is amazing how quickly that party,
founded on faith in the people, forgot the precepts of Lincoln and fell
under the delusion that the "masses" needed the guardianship of "men of
affairs."

For indeed, if you stop to think about it, no