Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/30

 ing them, this authority has yet to be heard from. Forms and names have been changed in some instances, but the dreaded work of vast aggregation of capital has gone on practically as heretofore. The writer does not hesitate to affirm it as his opinion that efforts along lines which have been followed in the past will be equally fruitless in the future.

But the man who has Force is the employer of men and women. Little homes and villages and the happiness of thousands depend upon him. After all, he is in our midst; he is a part of us and we cannot "tear him to pieces," "dissolve him," or "bust him." Would stopping the railroad or closing the electric light plant be of any benefit to us? The remedy must be complex and varied. The evils considered here are as old as the world and inherent wherever human frailty meets human strength. They are involved in every human attribute, and no rule of thumb or cut and dried theory can affect them wholly or completely.

However, there is a difference between a mountain and a molehill, and the great and glaring wrongs can be righted. Relieve the individual from even a little unjust force and he will do the rest. As long as he knows how to fight, is not complacent, nor overwhelmingly handicapped, the result will never be in doubt.

No plan can be made which will be successful, even temporarily, unless we probe for sound basic ideas. If this problem of concentrated wealth and power is world wide and world old, let us try to view it in its right rela-