thing could be a greater
departure from original Americanism, from faith in the ability of a
confident, resourceful, and independent people, than the discouraging
doctrine that somebody has got to provide prosperity for the rest of us.
And yet that is exactly the doctrine on which the government of the United
States has been conducted lately. Who have been consulted when important
measures of government, like tariff acts, and currency acts, and railroad
acts, were under consideration? The people whom the tariff chiefly
affects, the people for whom the currency is supposed to exist, the people
who pay the duties and ride on the railroads? Oh, no! What do they know
about such matters! The gentlemen whose ideas have been sought are the
big manufacturers, the bankers, and the heads of the great railroad
combinations. The masters of the government of the United States are the
combined capitalists and manufacturers of the United States. It is written
over every intimate page of the records of Congress, it is written all
through the history of conferences at the White House, that the
suggestions of economic policy in this country have come from one source,
not from many sources. The benevolent guardians, the kind-hearted trustees
who have taken the troubles of government off our hands, have become so
conspicuous that almost anybody can write out a list of them. They have
become so conspicuous that their names are mentioned upon almost every
political platform. The men who have undertaken the interesting job of
taking care of us do not force us to requite them with anonymously
directed gratitude. We know them by name.

Suppose you go to Washington and try to get at your government. You will
always find that while you are politely listened to, the men really
consulted are the men who have the biggest stake,--the big bankers, the
big manufacturers, the big masters of commerce, the heads of railroad
corporations and of steamship corporations. I have no objection to these
men being consulted, because they also, though they do not themselves seem
to admit it, are part of the people of the United States. But I do very
seriously object to these gentlemen being _chiefly_ consulted, and
particularly to their being exclusively consulted, for, if the government
of the United States is to do the right thing by the people of the United
States, it has got to do it directly and not through the intermediation of
these gentlemen. Every time it h