us wealth.

The second method of maintaining control--through the control of social
prestige--is indirect, but none the less effective. The young man in
college; the young graduate looking for a job; the young man rising in
his profession, and the man gaining ascendancy in his chosen career are
brought into constant contact with the "influential" members of the
business world. It is the business world that dominates the clubs and
the vacation spots; it is the business world that is met in church, at
the dinner tables and at the social gathering.

The man who would "succeed" must retain the favor of this group. He does
so automatically, instinctively or semi-consciously--it is the common,
accepted practice and he falls in line.

The masters need not bribe. They need not resort to illegal or unethical
methods. The ordinary channels of advertising, of business acquaintance
and patronage, of philanthropy and of social intercourse clinch their
power over the channels of public opinion.

9. _The Control of Political Machinery_

The American government,--city, state and nation--is in almost the same
position as the schools, newspapers and churches. It does not turn out
tangible, economic products. It depends, for its support, upon taxes
which are levied, in the first instance, upon property. Who are the
owners of this property? The business interests. Who, therefore, pay the
bills of the government? The business interests.

Nowhere has the issue been stated more clearly or more emphatically than
by Woodrow Wilson in certain passages of his "New Freedom." As a student
of politics and government--particularly the American Government--he
sees the power which those who control economic life are able to
exercise over public affairs, and realizes that their influence has
grown, until it overtops that of the political world so completely that
the machinery of politics is under the domination of the organizers and
directors of industry.

"We know," writes Mr. Wilson in "The New Freedom," "that something
intervenes between the people of the United States and the control of
their own affairs at Washington. It is not the people who have been
ruling there of late" (p. 28). "The masters of the government of the
United States are the combined capitalists and manufacturers of the
United States.... Suppose you go to Washington and try to get at your
government. You will always find that while you are politely listened
to, the men re