FARMERS TO THE FRONT 161 



mere agent of the rich and powerful for carrying out 

 their doubtful schemes. 



Why is all this true in a country in which the peo- 

 ple are supposed to govern ? None of us can be made 

 to believe that the people are corrupt or that they de- 

 liberately prefer bad to good government. The peo- 

 ple are not corrupt, and so far from preferring bad 

 government it is they who chiefly suffer from it. 

 The trouble is that the people do not govern. Nom- 

 inally a democracy, this government is the«oligarchy 

 controlled by a comparatively small class in its own 

 interest. The people simply take what is given to 

 them. Thus we have turned our system upside 

 down and are false to the fundamental law of our 

 political being. When a scoundrel in the postoffice de- 

 partment is caught with money in his hands that does 

 not belong there we all know that it is the people's 

 money that he has stolen. When a rascally law is 

 enacted taxing the people for the benefit of a few 

 greedy and grasping individuals, it is not the people 

 who are guilty of the oppression, for it is they that 

 are oppressed. Divided into parties, the respectable 

 and decent men of our cities are powerless to check- 

 mate the rogues who prey on all alike, no matter 

 what party they may belong to. The combination 

 between men in office and corporations seeking fran- 

 chises and favors is a combination in the interest of 

 the politicians and the corporations and against the 

 interest of the people. The people everywhere suf- 

 fer, not because they govern, but because they are 



