f the man who does a bad thing and does not know it is
bad than of the man who does a bad thing and knows it is bad; because I
think that in public affairs stupidity is more dangerous than knavery,
because harder to fight and dislodge. If a man does not know enough to
know what the consequences are going to be to the country, then he cannot
govern the country in a way that is for its benefit. These gentlemen,
whatever may have been their intentions, linked the government up with the
men who control the finances. They may have done it innocently, or they
may have done it corruptly, without affecting my argument at all. And they
themselves cannot escape from that alliance.

Here, for example, is the old question of campaign funds: If I take a
hundred thousand dollars from a group of men representing a particular
interest that has a big stake in a certain schedule of the tariff, I take
it with the knowledge that those gentlemen will expect me not to forget
their interest in that schedule, and that they will take it as a point of
implicit honor that I should see to it that they are not damaged by too
great a change in that schedule. Therefore, if I take their money, I am
bound to them by a tacit implication of honor. Perhaps there is no ground
for objection to this situation so long as the function of government is
conceived to be to look after the trustees of prosperity, who in turn will
look after the people; but on any other theory than that of trusteeship
no interested campaign contributions can be tolerated for a moment,--save
those of the millions of citizens who thus support the doctrines they
believe and the men whom they recognized as their spokesmen.

I tell you the men I am interested in are the men who, under the
conditions we have had, never had their voices heard, who never got a line
in the newspapers, who never got a moment on the platform, who never had
access to the ears of Governors or Presidents or of anybody who was
responsible for the conduct of public affairs, but who went silently and
patiently to their work every day carrying the burden of the world. How
are they to be understood by the masters of finance, if only the masters
of finance are consulted?

* * * * *

That is what I mean when I say, "Bring the government back to the people."
I do not mean anything demagogic; I do not mean to talk as if we wanted a
great mass of men to rush in and destroy something. That i