Said Senator Davis in this admirable address, which should be
reprinted and distributed broadcast:
"The liberty of the individual has been annihilated by the logical
process constructed to maintain it. We have come to a political
deification of Mammon. _Laissez-faire_ is not utterly blameworthy. It
begat modern democracy, and made the modern republic possible. There
can be no doubt of that. But there it reached its limit of political
benefaction, and began to incline toward the point where extremes meet.
. . . To every assertion that the people in their collective capacity of
a government ought to exert their indefeasible right of self-defense, it
is said you touch the sacred rights of property."
The Senator then goes on to say that we now have to deal with an
oligarchy of wealth, and that the Government must develop power
sufficient enough to enable it to do the task.
Few will dispute the fact that the present situation is not
satisfactory, and cannot be put on a permanently satisfactory basis
unless we put an end to the period of groping and declare for a fixed
policy, a policy which shall clearly define and punish wrong-doing,
which shall put a stop to the iniquities done in the name of business,
but which shall do strict equity to business.
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