Even if you made a good running on a reform
wave, so much the worse. Reform waves merely serve the purpose of making
some poor devil conspicuous and recklessly optimistic, then subside and
leave him high and dry--at the mercy of the ever-recuperating machine.
It's enough to make a man wish he'd never been born. I've seen it more
than once. There's only one of two results. They are either so disgusted
with politics that they stay out of them for the rest of their lives, or
they pick themselves up and make a bolt for the machine they think most
likely to give them a career. Look at some of our most illustrious
incumbents. Great bluff on the outside--which the machine don't mind
one little bit--and the best sort of a party man inside; walking a
chalked line with no rebellious wings on his feet. Wings don't grow on
clay. But they are right, Mr. Gwynne, and not because they are wrong,
either. In this great country organization is absolutely essential, and
in all vast complicated organizations some chicanery will creep in. But
take them all in all, American politics are not half as bad as they are
painted, not half as bad as they are painted."

"Well, that is a relief. You certainly should know. But what of the
great corporations that rule this State--as well as the country? The
State Democratic or Republican Boss is president or treasurer of one of
them, is he not? I haven't taken the trouble to be very specific as yet.
My time is so far off. Of course I do not need to be told that
organizations, trusts, or whatever you like to call them, are
inevitable--because they are in the line of progress; and unabused, they
would be as much to the advancement of the individual as of the country.
But they have been abused, from all I can make out--quite shockingly. I
am taking the course on 'The Law of Corporations' at the University,
partly because I want to understand so vital a question as thoroughly as
possible--and partly--well--at least, I fancied I should--for a
time--for what money there might be in it--But really!"

"Oh, I don't say that some trusts are not reprehensible, and the sooner
they are exposed the better. But they are sensational cases. The
majority of the great complex aggregations of capital are monuments to
American genius and progress; I am sure that if you waste any time on
the yellow press you know how to discount it. Some of even the best of
the trusts may have swollen to a size that renders them practically