" When property gets possession of the
voting power also, little is left for the people. That is why the unholy
alliance between business and politics is the most dangerous fact in our
political life. I believe the American people are tired of that
alliance. They are weary of politics for revenue only. It is time to
take business out of politics, and keep it out--time for the political
activity of this Nation to be aimed squarely at the welfare of all of
us, and squarely away from the excessive profits of a few of us.
A man is not bad because he is rich, nor good because he is poor. There
is no monopoly of virtue. I hold no brief for the poor against the rich
nor for the wage-earner against the capitalist. Exceptional capacity in
business, as in any other line of life, should meet with exceptional
reward. Rich men have served this country greatly. Washington was a rich
man. But it is very clear that excessive profits from the control of
natural resources, monopolized by a few, are not worth to this Nation
the tremendous price they cost us.
We have allowed the great corporations to occupy with their own men the
strategic points in business, in social, and in political life.
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