HOME-BUILDING FOR THE NATION 



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us it has no significance that the Gen- 

 eral Electric interests are acquiring 

 great groups of water-powers in va- 

 rious parts of the United States, an-1 

 dominating the power market in the re- 

 gion of each group. And whoever 

 dominates power, dominates all indus- 

 tr\-. Have vou ever seen a few drops 

 of oil scattered on the water spreading 

 until they formed a continuous film, 

 which put an end at once to all agita- 

 tion on the surface ? 1die time for us 

 to agitate this question is now, hefore 

 the separate circles of centralized con- 

 trol spread into the uniform, unhroken. 

 nation-wide covering of a single gi- 

 gantic trust. There will be little chance 

 for mere agitation after that. No man 

 at all familiar with the situation can 

 doubt that the time for efifective protest 

 is verv short. If we do not use it to 

 protect ourselves now, we may be very 

 sure that the trust will give hereafter 

 small consideration to the welfare of 

 the average citizen when in confiict 

 with its own. 



The man who really counts is the 

 plain American -citizen. This is the 

 man for whom the Roosevelt policies 

 were created, and his welfare is the end 



to which the Roosevelt policies lead. 

 As a nation, we are fortunate at this 

 time in this fact above all others, that 

 the great man who gave his name to 

 these policies has for his successor an- 

 other great President whose adminis- 

 tration is most solemnly pledged to the 

 support of them. 



I stand for the Roosevelt policies be- 

 cause they set the common good of all 

 of us above the private gain of some 

 of us ; because they recognize the live- 

 lihood of the small man as more im- 

 portant to the Nation than the profit 

 of the big man : because they oppose 

 all useless waste at present at the cost 

 of robbing the future; because they de- 

 mand the complete, sane, and orderly 

 development of all our natural re- 

 sources, not forgetting our rivers ; be- 

 cause they insist upon equality of op- 

 portunity and denounce monopoly and 

 special privileges ; because, discarding 

 false issues, they deal directly with the 

 vital questions that really make a dif- 

 ference with the welfare of us all — 

 and most of all, because in them the 

 plain American always and everywhere 

 holds the first place. And I propose 

 to stand for them while I have the 

 strength to stand for anything. 







