If they succeed in controlling
all industry, they will necessarily control the country. This country
has achieved political freedom; what our people are fighting for now is
industrial freedom. And unless we win our industrial liberty, we can not
keep our political liberty. I see no reason why we should deliberately
keep on helping to fasten the handcuffs of corporate control upon
ourselves for all time merely because the few men who would profit by it
most have heretofore had the power to compel it.
The essential things that must be done to protect the water powers for
the people are few and simple. First, the granting of water powers
forever, either on non-navigable or navigable streams, must absolutely
stop. It is perfectly clear that one hundred, fifty, or even twenty-five
years ago our present industrial conditions and industrial needs were
completely beyond the imagination of the wisest of our predecessors. It
is just as true that we can not imagine or foresee the industrial
conditions and needs of the future. But we do know that our descendants
should be left free to meet their own necessities as they arise. It can
not be right, therefore, for us to grant perpetual rights to the one
great permanent source of power.
Pages:
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71