HOAIE-BUILDIXG FOR THE NATION 



523 



understand what the real problems are. 

 The g-reat things are few and simple, 

 but they are too often hidden by false 

 issues, and conventional, unreal think- 

 ing. The easiest way to hide a real 

 issue always has been, and always will 

 be, to replace it with a false one. 



The first thing we need in this coun- 

 try, as President Roosevelt so well set 

 forth in that great message which toM 

 what he had been trying to do for the 

 American people, is equality of oppor- 

 tunity for every citizen. No man 

 should have less, and no man ought to 

 ask for any more. Equality of oppor- 

 tunity is the real object of our laws 

 and institutions. Our institutions and 

 our laws are not valuable in them- 

 selves. They are valuable only because 

 they secure equality of opportunity for 

 happiness and welfare for our citizens. 

 An institution or a law is a means, not 

 an end — a means to be used for the 

 public good ; to be modified for the pub- 

 lic good, and to be interpreted for the 

 public good. One of the great reasons 

 why President Roosevelt's administra- 

 tion was of such enormous value to the 

 plain American was that he understood 

 what St. Paul meant when he said : 

 "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth 

 life." To follow blindly the letter of 

 the law% or the form of an institution, 

 without intelligent regard teth for its 

 spirit and for the public welfare, is very 

 nearly as dangerous as to disregard the 

 law altogether. What we need is the 

 use of the law for the public good, anil 

 the construction of it for the public 

 welfare. 



It goes without saying that the law 

 is supreme and must be obeyed. Our 

 civilization rests on obedience to law. 

 But the law is not absolute. It re- 

 quires to be construed. Rigid con- 

 struction 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 

 cannot do otherwise. Wise execution 

 of the law must consider what the law 

 ought to accomplish for the general 



good. The great oppressive trusts ex- 

 ist 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 ht^lp 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 concen- 

 trations of capital, the intelligent use 

 of laws and institutions for the public 

 good, and the conservation of our nat- 

 ural 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 stag- 

 gered by the magnitude of the prize 

 for which we work. If w.e succee;!. 

 there will exist upon this continent a 

 sane, strong people, living through the 

 centuries in a land subdued and con- 

 trolled 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 absorp- 

 tion by capital of the rights which be- 

 long to all the people than the water- 

 power trust, not yet formed, but in 

 rapid process of formation. This state- 

 ment 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 year after year at these con- 

 gresses by their paid attorneys, asking 

 for your influence to help them remove 

 the few remaining obstacles to their 

 perpetual and complete absorption of 

 the remaining water-powers. They tell 



