The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1913-06-21

ship theory. l have never found
man who knew how to take care of
me, and, reasoning from that point out,
conjecture that there isn't any man
who knows how to take care of all the !
people of the United States. l suspect
that the people of the United States
understand their own interests better |
than any group of men in the confines
of the country understand them. The
men who are sweating blood to get
their foothold In the world of endeav-
or understand the conditions of bust
ness in the UNITED States very much
better than the men who have arrived
and are at the top. They know what
the thing is that they are struggling
against. They know how difficult 1t is
to start new enterprise. They know
how far they have to search for credit
that will put them upon an even foot
ing with the men who have already
built up industry in this country. They
know that somewhere, by somebody,
the development of industry is being
controlled.
do not say this with the slightest
desire to create any prejudice against
wealth; on the contrary, l should be
ashamed of myself If excited class
feeling of any kind. But do mean to
suggest this: That the wealth of the
country has, in recent years, come
from particular sources; It has come
from those sources which have built
up monopoly. Its point OF view is
special point Of view. 1t is the point
of view Of those men who do not deter
mine their own affairs, because they
do not believe that the peoples judg-
ment is sound. They want to be COM
missioned to take care of the United
States and of the people of the United
States, because they believe that they,
better than anybody else, understand
b, the interests of the United States.
do not challenge their character;
challenge their point of view. We can
not afford to be governed as we have
been governed in the last generation,
by men who occupy so narrow, so preju-
diced, so limited point of view.
The government of our country can
not be lodged in any special class. The
policy of a great nation cannot be tied
up with any particular set of interests.
| want to say, again and again, that
my arguments do not touch the char
acter of the men to whom l am OPP
posed. believe that the very wealthy
men who have got their money by GER
tain kinds of corporate enterprise have
closed in their horizon, and that they
do not see and do not understand the
rank and file of the people. 1t is for
that reason that want to break up the
little coterie that has determined what
the government of the nation should
do. The list of the men who used to
determine what New Jersey should
and should not do did not exceed hall
a dozen, and they were always the
same men. These very men now are
some of them, frank enough to admit
that New Jersey has finer energy in
her because more men are consulted
and the whole field of action is wild
, ened and liberalized. We have got t
| relieve our government from the dom
) nation of special classes. not becaus'
, these special classes are bad, neces
sarily, but because no special class car
3 understand the interests of a grea
1 community.
I l believe, as l believe In nothing
else, in the average integrity and tn
average intelligence Of the American
people, and l do not believe that tn
y intelligence of America can be pu
1 into commission anywhere. l do no
l. believe that there Is any group O
l. men of any kind to whom we can al
e ford to give that kind of trusteeshiI
will not live under trustees If
y can help it. No group of men les
than the majority has right to te
n me how have got to live in Amer
II ca. l will submit TO the majority, bt
III cause / have been trained to do it
II though / may sometimes have my pr
II vate opinion even of the majority.
II do not care how wise, how patriot
II the trustees may be, have neve
heard of any group of men in who's
hands l am willing to lodge the III
II critics Of America in trust.
II If any part Of our people want
H be wards. If they want to have qua
dams put over them. If they want I
be taken care Of, II they want to b
children, patronized by the govern