s to be construed. Rigid construction of the law works, and must
work, in the vast majority of cases, for the benefit of the men who can
hire the best lawyers and who have the sources of influence in lawmaking
at their command. Strict construction necessarily favors the great
interests as against the people, and in the long run can not do
otherwise. Wise execution of the law must consider what the law ought
to accomplish for the general good. The great oppressive trusts exist
because of subservient lawmakers and adroit legal constructions. Here is
the central stronghold of the money power in the everlasting conflict of
the few to grab, and the many to keep or win the rights they were born
with. Legal technicalities seldom help the people. The people, not the
law, should have the benefit of every doubt.

Equality of opportunity, a square deal for every man, the protection of
the citizen against the great concentrations of capital, the intelligent
use of laws and institutions for the public good, and the conservation
of our natural resources, not for the trusts, but for the people; these
are real issues and real problems. Upon such things as these the
perpetuity of this country as a nation of homes really depends. We are
coming to see that the simple things are the things to work for. More
than that, we are coming to see that the plain American citizen is the
man to work for. The imagination is staggered by the magnitude of the
prize for which we work. If we succeed, there will exist upon this
continent a sane, strong people, living through the centuries in a land
subdued and controlled for the service of the people, its rightful
masters, owned by the many and not by the few. If we fail, the great
interests, increasing their control of our natural resources, will
thereby control the country more and more, and the rights of the people
will fade into the privileges of concentrated wealth.

There could be no better illustration of the eager, rapid, unwearied
absorption by capital of the rights which belong to all the people than
the water-power trust, perhaps not yet formed but in process of
formation. This statement is true, but not unchallenged. We are met at
every turn by the indignant denial of the water-power interests. They
tell us that there is no community of interest among them, and yet they
appear by their paid attorneys, year after year, at irrigation and other
congresses, asking for help to remove the few remaini