No doubt it is much easier to confer the suffrage on the people than it is to make poverty a negligible social factor; but the difficulty of the task does not make it the less necessary.

It stands to reason that in the long run the people who possess the political power will want a substantial share of the economic fruits.

A prudent democracy should anticipate this demand.

Not only does any considerable amount of grinding poverty constitute a grave social danger in a democratic state, but so, in general, does a widespread condition of partial economic privation.

The individuals constituting a democracy lack the first essential of individual freedom when they cannot escape from a condition of economic dependence.
The American democracy has confidently believed in the fatal prosperity enjoyed by the people under the American system.