HOME-BUILDING FOR THE NATION 



5-5 



us it has no significance' that the ( ien- 

 eral Electric interests are acquiring 

 great groups of water-powers in va- 

 rious parts of the United States, and 

 dominating the power market in the re- 

 gion of each group. And whoever 

 dominates power, dominates all indus- 

 try. Have you ever seen a few drops 

 of oil scattered on the water spreading 

 until thev formed a continuous film,' 

 which put an end at once to all agita- 

 tion on the surface? The time for us 

 to agitate this question is now, before 

 the separate circles of centralized con- 

 trol spread into the uniform, unbroken, 

 nation-wide covering of a single gi-jj 

 gantic trust. There will be little chance 

 for mere agitation after that. No man] 

 at all familiar with the situation cam, 

 doubt that the time for effective protest 

 is very short. If we do not use it to| 

 protect ourselves now, we may be very 

 >ure that the trust will give hereafter^ 

 small consideration to the welfare of| t 

 the average citizen when in conflict 

 with its own. 



The man who really counts is the 

 plain American citizen. This is thel, 

 man for whom the Roosevelt policies^' 

 were created, and his welfare is the end ' 



ito which the Roosevelt policies lead. 

 As a nation, we are fortunate at t\n< 

 time in this fact above all others, that 

 the great man who gave his name t<> 

 these policies has for his successor an- 

 lother great President whose adminis- 

 tration is most solemnly pledged to thr 

 [support of them. 



I stand for the Roosevelt policies be- 

 Icause 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 

 (levelopment of all our natural re- 

 Isources, 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 T have the 

 strength to stand for anything. 



