Various

“ If after so many hundreds of years the mass of the Russian people are so steeped in ignorance and superstition that they are unfit to exercise the common rights of manhood, that fact, if it be fact, damns the Russian aristocracy with the deep guilt of having debased the nation committed to its care and guidance.
No substantial reform has ever been conceded within a state governed by king or aristocracy until the blood of sacrifice has first been shed. ”

“ It seems almost impossible for the people of our great cities to learn the lesson taught by our own troubles, and taught further by the object-lessons furnished us by nationalities which are not such cowardly slaves of the corporations as we seem to be. The most amazing feature in American life today is the audacity with which predatory corporations ride forth, like the feudal barons of olden times, to strike down the average citizen and rob him of what he makes as fast as he makes it. ”

“ The man who believes that the autocratic class in Russia will give up its advantages without a fight is a superficial student of history, just as the man who believes that the dominating trusts and corporations in these United States can be made, by moral suasion, to turn loose, is an idle dreamer who knows nothing of the greed of class-rule. No matter under what name it exploits the people, or under what form it exerts its power, or under what particular system of legislation it usurps control and veils its rascalities, to make it turn loose you must beat it in battle or make it afraid. ”

“ When Hustler Joe had left Miss Barrington so abruptly he had attacked his work with a fierceness that even the miners had never seen him show. “A good man—a good man—‘I knew you were a good man’!” he muttered between his teeth. “A ‘good’ man indeed—bah!” he snarled aloud, wielding his pick with long, sweeping strokes. Then he suddenly stood upright. “Great God—am I not a good man? Have fifty lives not a feather’s weight?” ”

“ When he covers his nakedness, when he satisfies his hunger, when he builds his house, when he buys tools to work with, he pays an outrageously oppressive Tariff tax.
Rockefeller pays no more Federal tax than is paid by many a one-horse negro farmer in the South.
Morgan pays less Federal tax than many a Western corn-grower who fed his stove on ear corn in 1891, because it was cheaper than coal.
Blessed are our millionaires! Those of them who are neglected by Congress are tenderly cared for by the Federal judiciary.
Blessed are the rich!—they run the government, and the common man pays the bill. ”

“ How Private Ownership Breaks Down
In the great city of New York there is a Subway, an underground street, which was opened at the expense of the taxpayers. Every dollar of the enormous expenditure came out of the pockets of the citizens of New York. After this Subway had been completed and paid for by the people, it was turned over to a private corporation to be used for private profit. It is unnecessary to say that such a stupendous piece of folly could never have been committed by wise men or honest men. On the face of it, the transaction reeks with rascality. ”

“ It is needless to say that, if corrupt practices in elections continue to increase, the end of popular government in this country is in sight. Already there exists a widespread and deep-seated distrust of the result of elections. Instances could be given, occurring within the past ten years, in which a very large proportion of the voters interested, perhaps a majority of those voting, believe that the wrong candidate was inducted into office.
Certainly no duty is more pressing than to see to it that in every election the unbiased and unbought will of the people be recorded. ”

“ We of today are caught in the trap set for those who lived more than a hundred years ago. Not until after the nation had been plunged into a civil war between two factions—each of which claimed strict allegiance to the Constitution—did conditions arise which afforded a fair test of the restrictive features of that document. So long as the wealth of the nation was so distributed as to prevent the formation of conspiracies in its behalf, the masses were able to conserve their rights, despite all of the checks and restrictions in the Constitution. ”

“ Yellow-dog politics is the spirit that moves a man to ride to hell in a two-wheel cart drawn by the Democratic mule or Republican elephant, rather than to go to heaven by the independent route.
It is gratifying to know that a real effort is being made to “control” the railroads. The failure of such an [Pg 235] effort is the best evidence that it can’t be done. Then will come public ownership.
The government has no more right to farm out to the bankers the privilege of issuing money than it has to grant to a few rich farmers the exclusive privilege of breeding short-horn cattle. ”

“ Over and over again, in great crises, the American people have shown themselves to be patriotic, honest and wise. This has happened whenever the masses have been aroused by serious threats of danger, either external or internal.
The real danger to our institutions lies, not in great crises, but rather in a gradual, almost insensible, deterioration of the government, due either to a lack of vigilance on the part of the people or to a paralysis of their latent powers. ”

“ The crudest, the most demoralizing and the most common method of withholding the hands of the sovereign people from the control of their government is the direct bribery of voters. This means of thwarting the wishes of the majority dates back to the early history of the country. Our system of so-called majority election by districts, placing, as it often does, the balance of power in a small minority of the electorate, invites the purchase of the votes of individuals. ”

“ I say nothing about the amount of which the traveling public is robbed by these corporations which own the public utilities. I confine myself simply and solely to this thought, namely, that under private ownership the situation, which now confronts the traveling public of New York City, is liable to happen at any time and at any place throughout the Union where public franchises are used for selfish and private gain.
That is the fruit of the tree. It always has been; it always will be. That kind of tree will never bear any other sort of fruit. ”

“ We have come to recognize the hopelessness of honest majorities when pitted against the machinery of our municipal governments; we no longer deny that the cumbersome machinery of our state governments lends itself to the manipulation of corrupt private interests; the suspicion has dawned on us that our National Congress is more concerned with thwarting public sentiment than in conforming to it; and despite all this knowledge we steadfastly refuse to direct our gaze to the prime cause of these abuses. ”

“ Within the past few years the truth has been forced home on us that the officialdom of our townships, villages, cities, counties, states and of the nation is maggoty with corruption; that our local, state and national legislatures are openly controlled by mercenary private interests; that the scandals concerning our judiciary can no longer be smothered or concealed; that our citizens are powerless to pass laws demanded by the majority, or to defeat those aimed to despoil the majority ”

“ When the first unscrupulous man found himself in possession of millions of dollars the Constitution became not his master but his tool. When the officials of our first great corporation found it practical to bribe legislation, the trap set by the forefathers was sprung. I do not mean to hint that the founders of the Constitution foresaw any such outcome. They constructed a device to protect themselves, and their bones had crumbled into dust before wealth was sufficiently armed and equipped to take advantage of their mistakes. ”

“ His head was turned away from the speakers, but he saw their reflection in the mirror facing him, and he noticed that the lawyer’s gaze was fixed across the room upon himself with a peculiar intentness as he said:
“Yes, incredible, I grant, Miss Barrington; and yet, in a little New England town of my acquaintance a boy of twenty shot down his own father in cold blood at their own fireside.”
“Oh, don’t, Mr. Martin—the human fiend!” shuddered Ethel.
The lawyer’s eyes did not waver; a strange light was coming into them.
“A human fiend, indeed,” he repeated softly, half rising from his chair. ”

“ Nowhere on earth, so far as I know, has there ever been a strike when the principle of government ownership was in operation. Take those cities of England where the street cars are owned and operated by the city government. Who has ever heard of a strike on those lines? From Liverpool to Birmingham and from Birmingham to Glasgow you will find the principle of public ownership applied with perfect success, and nowhere has the operation of public utilities by the public been stopped by a strike. ”

“ To create another tribunal for the purpose of controlling the railroads, is simply the building of another house upon sand.
The only solution of the Railroad Problem is national ownership, which takes away the motive to do wrong.
In no other way can you cure the disease.
Instead of establishing another Court, or Commission, for the corporations to play with, assert the principle of Eminent Domain, assess the railroads at a fair valuation, pay for them partly in treasury notes and partly in twenty-year two per cent. ”

“ They no more control the railroads than the saddle on a horse controls the horse.
Three excellent gentlemen draw comfortable salaries for acting as commissioners; the railroad lawyers have something to play with; the corporations are sometimes annoyed by having to evade direct answers to troublesome questions, and by having to get a Federal Judge to discipline the Commission; but that is about all.
J. P. Morgan is the absolute king of the railroads of Georgia.
He makes the Governor, controls the Legislature, overrides the Commission and tramples the Constitution of the State under his feet. ”

“ THE practical man values a house not by its antiquity, but by its conformability to modern standards of construction and equipment. If he purchases an ancient structure he is not required to pay an added price because of its lack of plumbing, its absence of gas and electric lighting fixtures, and he is not entranced that its roof leaks and that its cellar is damp and moldy.
This same man, if he gives the subject a passing thought, will likely assure you that the Constitution of the United States is a perfect document because it is more than one hundred years old. ”

“ Society never had seen Mr. Joseph Westbrook in just this mood before.
“Father did not recognize you,” said Ethel, after a time.
“No; I was introduced to Mr. Barrington at the Essex Club a week ago. I hardly thought he would remember Hustler Joe. You have just returned, Miss Barrington?”
“A month ago—from Europe, I mean; mother is there yet. America looks wonderfully good to me—I have been away from it the greater part of the last two years, you know. When I came home to Dalton I found the name of Mr. Joseph Westbrook on every lip. You seem to be a very important personage, sir,” she laughed. ”

“ The time for pity, sympathy and sentiment on the part of the justice comes when he pronounces the defendant guilty. Then the character and attitude of the man upon the bench undergo a complete change, for a duty far transcending that of weighing facts and reaching conclusions now devolves upon him. This duty is to determine what to do with the youngster who has been convicted, and upon this question the greatest mistakes may be made; it is the one that weighs most heavily on the conscience of the Court and is the most perplexing to the judicial mind. ”