make complete our political democracy.
You may be surprised at this, Jonathan. Perhaps you are accustomed to
think of our political system as being the perfect expression of
political democracy. Let us see.

Compared with some other countries, like Russia, Germany and Spain,
for example, this is a free country, politically; a model of
democracy. We have adult suffrage--_for the men_! In only a few states
are our mothers, wives, sisters and daughters allowed to vote. In most
of the states the best women, and the most intelligent, are placed on
the political level of the criminal and the maniac. They must obey the
laws, their interests in the well-being and good government of the
nation are as vital as those of our sex. But they are denied
representation in the councils of the nation, denied a voice in the
affairs of the nation. They are not citizens. We have a class below
that of the citizens in this country, a class based upon sex
distinctions.

To make our political system thoroughly representative and democratic,
we must extend political power to the women of the nation. Further
than that, we must bring all the means of government more directly
under the people's will.

In our industrial system we must bring the great trusts under the rule
of the people. They must be owned and controlled by all for all. I say
that we "must" do this, because there is no other way by which the
present evils may be remedied. Everybody who is not blinded to the
real situation by vested interest must recognize that the present
conditions are intolerable--and becoming worse and more intolerable
every day. A handful of men have the nation's destiny in their greedy
fingers and they gamble with it for their own profit. Something must
be done.

But what? We cannot go back if we would. I have shown you pretty
clearly, I think, that if it were possible to undo the chain of
evolution and to go back to primitive capitalism, with its competitive
spirit, the development to monopoly would begin all over again. It is
an inexorable law that competition breeds monopoly. So we cannot go
back.

What, then, is the outlook, the forward view? So far as I know,
Jonathan, there are only two propositions for meeting the evil
conditions of monopoly, other than the perfectly silly one of "going
back to competition." They are (1) Regulation of the trusts; (2)
Socialization of the trusts.

Now, the first means that we should leave these great monopolies in