I do not trust any promises of a change of temper on the part of monopoly.
Monopoly never was conceived in the temper of tolerance. Monopoly never was
conceived with the purpose of general development. It was conceived with the
purpose of special advantage. Has monopoly been very benevolent to its
employees? Have the trusts had a soft heart for the working people of
America? Have you found trusts that cared whether women were sapped of their
vitality or not? Have you found trusts who are very scrupulous about using
children in their tender years? Have you found trusts that were keen to
protect the lungs and the health and the freedom of their employees? Have you
found trusts that thought as much of their men as they did of their
machinery? Then who is going to convert these men into the chief instruments
of justice and benevolence?

If you will point me to the least promise of disinterestedness on the part of
the masters of our lives, then I will conceive you some ray of hope; but only
upon this hypothesis, only upon this conjecture: that the history of the
world is going to be reversed, and that the men who have the power to oppress
us will be kind to us, and will promote our interests, whether our interests
jump with theirs or not.

After you have made the partnership between monopoly and your government
permanent, then I invite all the philanthropists in the United States to come
and sit on the stage and go through the motions of finding out how they are
going to get philanthropy out of their masters.

I do not want to see the special interests of the United States take care of
the workingmen, women, and children. I want to see justice, righteousness,
fairness and humanity displayed in all the laws of the United States, and I
do not want any power to intervene between the people and their government.
Justice is what we want, not patronage and condescension and pitiful
helpfulness. The trusts are our masters now, but I for one do not care to
live in a country called free even under kind masters. I prefer to live under
no masters at all.

I agree that as a nation we are now about to undertake what may be regarded
as the most difficult part of our governmental enterprises. We have gone
along so far without very much assistance from our government. We have felt,
and felt more and more in recent months, that the American people were at a
certain disadvantage as compared with the people of other countries, because
of what the governments of other countries were doing for them and our
government omitting to do for us.

It is perfectly clear to every man who has any vision of the immediate
future, who can forecast any part of it from the indications of the present,
that we are just upon the threshold of a time when the systematic life of
this country will be sustained, or at least supplemented, at every point by
governmental activity. And we have now to determine what kind of governmental
activity it shall be; whether, in the first place, it shall be direct from
the government itself, or whether it shall be indirect, through
instrumentalities which have already constituted themselves and which stand
ready to supersede the government.