s not the idea.
I want the people to come in and take possession of their own premises;
for I hold that the government belongs to the people, and that they have a
right to that intimate access to it which will determine every turn of its
policy.

America is never going to submit to guardianship. America is never going
to choose thralldom instead of freedom. Look what there is to decide!
There is the tariff question. Can the tariff question be decided in favor
of the people, so long as the monopolies are the chief counselors at
Washington? There is the currency question. Are we going to settle the
currency question so long as the government listens only to the counsel of
those who command the banking situation?

Then there is the question of conservation. What is our fear about
conservation? The hands that are being stretched out to monopolize our
forests, to prevent or pre-empt the use of our great power-producing
streams, the hands that are being stretched into the bowels of the earth
to take possession of the great riches that lie hidden in Alaska and
elsewhere in the incomparable domain of the United States, are the hands
of monopoly. Are these men to continue to stand at the elbow of government
and tell us how we are to save ourselves,--from themselves? You can not
settle the question of conservation while monopoly is close to the ears of
those who govern. And the question of conservation is a great deal bigger
than the question of saving our forests and our mineral resources and our
waters; it is as big as the life and happiness and strength and elasticity
and hope of our people.

There are tasks awaiting the government of the United States which it
cannot perform until every pulse of that government beats in unison with
the needs and the desires of the whole body of the American people. Shall
we not give the people access of sympathy, access of authority, to the
instrumentalities which are to be indispensable to their lives?

IV

LIFE COMES FROM THE SOIL

When I look back on the processes of history, when I survey the genesis of
America, I see this written over every page: that the nations are renewed
from the bottom, not from the top; that the genius which springs up from
the ranks of unknown men is the genius which renews the youth and energy
of the people. Everything I know about history, every bit of experience
and observation that has contributed to my thought, has confirmed me in
the convictio