surance policy holders who,
from their income, have saved something and have laid it aside for the
rainy day. The masters of economic life--bankers, insurance men,
property holders, business directors--are in control of all three forms
of surplus.

The billions of surplus wealth that come each year under the control of
the masters carry with them an immense authority over the affairs of the
community. The owners of wealth owe much of their immediate power to
the fact that they control this surplus, and are in a position to direct
its flow into such channels as they may select.

8. _The Channels of Public Opinion_

No one can question the control which business interests exercise over
the jobs, the industrial product, and the economic surplus of the
community. These facts are universally admitted. But the corollaries
which flow naturally from such axioms are not so readily accepted. Yet
given the economic power of the business world, the control over the
channels of public opinion and over the machinery of government follows
as a matter of course.

The channels of public opinion--the school, the press, the pulpit,--are
not directly productive of tangible economic goods, yet they depend upon
tangible economic goods for their maintenance. Whence should these goods
come? Whence but from the system that produces them, through the men who
control that system! The plutocracy exercises its power over the
channels of public opinion in two ways,--the first, by a direct or
business office control; and second, by an indirect or social prestige
control.

The business office control is direct and simple. Schools, colleges,
newspapers, magazines and churches need money. They cannot produce
tangible wealth directly, and they must, therefore, depend upon the
surplus which arises from the productive activities of the economic
world. Who controls that surplus? Business men. Who, then, is in a
position to dictate terms in financial matters? Who but the dominant
forces in business life?

The facts are incontrovertible. It is not mere chance that recruits the
overwhelming majority of school-board members, college trustees,
newspaper managers, and church vestrymen, from the ranks of successful
business and professional men. It is necessary for the educator, the
journalist, and the minister to work through these men in order to
secure the "sinews of war." They are at the focal points of power
because they control the sources of surpl