FREEMEN NEED NO GUARDIANS

There are two theories of government that have been contending with each other ever since government began.  One of them is the theory which in America is associated with the name of a very great man, Alexander Hamilton.  A great man, but, in my judgment, not a great American.  He did not think in terms of American life.  Hamilton believed that the only people who could understand government, and therefore the only people who were qualified to conduct it, were the men who had the biggest financial stake in the commercial and industrial enterprises of the country.

That theory, though few have now the hardihood to profess it openly, has been the working theory upon which our government has lately been conducted.  It is astonishing how persistent it is.  It is amazing how quickly the political party which had Lincoln for its first leader,—­Lincoln, who not only denied, but in his own person so completely disproved the aristocratic theory,—­it is amazing how quickly that party, founded on faith in the people, forgot the precepts of Lincoln and fell under the delusion that the “masses” needed the guardianship of “men of affairs.”

For indeed, if you stop to think about it, nothing 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.