It goes without saying that the law is supreme and must be obeyed.  Civilization rests on obedience to law.  But the law is not absolute.  It requires to be construed.  Rigid construction of the law works, and must work, in the vast majority of cases, for the benefit of the men who can hire the best lawyers and who have the sources of influence in lawmaking at their command.  Strict construction necessarily favors the great interests as against the people, and in the long run can not do otherwise.  Wise execution of the law must consider what the law ought to accomplish for the general good.  The great oppressive trusts exist because of subservient lawmakers and adroit legal constructions.  Here is the central stronghold of the money power in the everlasting conflict of the few to grab, and the many to keep or win the rights they were born with.  Legal technicalities seldom help the people.  The people, not the law, should have the benefit of every doubt.

Equality of opportunity, a square deal for every man, the protection of the citizen against the great concentrations of capital, the intelligent use of laws and institutions for the public good, and the conservation of our natural resources, not for the trusts, but for the people; these are real issues and real problems.  Upon such things as these the perpetuity of this country as a nation of homes really depends.  We are coming to see that the simple things are the things to work for.  More than that, we are coming to see that the plain American citizen is the man to work for.  The imagination is staggered by the magnitude of the prize for which we work.  If we succeed, there will exist upon this continent a sane, strong people, living through the centuries in a land subdued and controlled for the service of the people, its rightful masters, owned by the many and not by the few.  If we fail, the great interests, increasing their control of our natural resources, will thereby control the country more and more, and the rights of the people will fade into the privileges of concentrated wealth.

There could be no better illustration of the eager, rapid, unwearied absorption by capital of the rights which belong to all the people than the water-power trust, perhaps not yet formed but in process of formation.  This statement is true, but not unchallenged.  We are met at every turn by the indignant denial of the water-power interests.  They tell us that there is no community of interest among them, and yet they appear by their paid attorneys, year after year, at irrigation and other congresses, asking for help to remove the few remaining obstacles to their perpetual and complete absorption of the remaining water-powers.  They tell us it has no significance that there is hardly a bank in some sections of the country that is not an agency for water-power capital, or that the General Electric Company interests are acquiring great groups of water-powers in various parts of the United States, and dominating the power market in the region of each group.  And whoever dominates power, dominates all industry.