I believe we all want to be good.
The one thing I want in this world is to prove it. I want my own way.
I am not going to slump into being a beautiful character. I have written this book to get my own way.
I have said I will not be mixed up in the fate of people who do not know where they are going, who have not decided what they are like, who do not know who they are. What do the people want? Some people tell me they want nothing. They tell me it would only make things worse and stir things up for me to want to be good.
Or perhaps they think it is beautiful to lower the price of oil. They want oil at seven cents a gallon.
Do they? Do you? Do I?
I say no. Let oil wait. I want to raise the price of men and to put a market value on human life. I find as I look about me that there are two classes of statesmen offering to be helpful in making life worth living in America.
There are the statesmen who think we are going to be good and who believe in a program which trusts and exalts the people and the leaders of the people.
There are the statesmen who seem to believe that American human nature does not amount to enough to be good. They are planning a program on the principle that the best that can be done with human nature in America in business and public life is to have it expurgated.