And we know, those of us who handle the machinery of politics, that the great difficulty in breaking up the control of the political boss is that he is backed by the money and the influence of these very people who are intrenched in these very schedules.  The tariff could never have been built up item by item by public discussion, and it never could have passed, if item by item it had been explained to the people of this country.  It was built up by arrangement and by the subtle management of a political organization represented in the Senate of the United States by the senior Senator from Rhode Island, and in the House of Representatives by one of the Representatives from Illinois.  These gentlemen did not build that tariff upon the evidence that was given before the Committee on Ways and Means as to what the manufacturer and the workingmen, the consumers and the producers, of this country want.  It was not built upon what the interests of the country called for.  It was built upon understandings arrived at outside of the rooms where testimony was given and debate was held.

I am not even now suggesting corrupt influence.  That is not my point.  Corruption is a very difficult thing to manage in its literal sense.  The payment of money is very easily detected, and men of this kind who control these interests by secret arrangement would not consent to receive a dollar in money.  They are following their own principles,—­that is to say, the principles which they think and act upon,—­and they think that they are perfectly honorable and incorruptible men; but they believe one thing that I do not believe and that it is evident the people of the country do not believe:  they believe that the prosperity of the country depends upon the arrangements which certain party leaders make with certain business leaders.  They believe that, but the proposition has merely to be stated to the jury to be rejected.  The prosperity of this country depends upon the interests of all of us and cannot be brought about by arrangement between any groups of persons.  Take any question you like out to the country,—­let it be threshed out in public debate,—­and you will have made these methods impossible.

This is what sometimes happens:  They promise you a particular piece of legislation.  As soon as the legislature meets, a bill embodying that legislation is introduced.  It is referred to a committee.  You never hear of it again.  What happened?  Nobody knows what happened.

I am not intimating that corruption creeps in; I do not know what creeps in.  The point is that we not only do not know, but it is intimated, if we get inquisitive, that it is none of our business.  My reply is that it is our business, and it is the business of every man in the state; we have a right to know all the particulars of that bill’s history.  There is not any legitimate privacy about matters of government.  Government must, if it is to be pure and correct in its processes, be absolutely public in everything that affects it.  I cannot imagine a public man with a conscience having a secret that he would keep from the people about their own affairs.