from the excerpt:
The chief justice of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, Edward Ryan, also made a deep impression. In 1873, La Follette, then eighteen, heard Ryan give a commencement speech to the graduating class of the University of Wisconsin Law School. “There is looming up a new and dark power,” Ryan told them. “The accumulation of individual wealth seems to be greater than it ever has been since the downfall of the Roman Empire. The enterprises of the country are aggregating vast corporate combinations of unexampled capital, boldly marching, not for economic conquests only, but for political power.” His talk issued a chilling warning that marked La Follette forever.
“The question will arise and arise in your day, though perhaps not fully in mine,” Ryan said. “Which shall rule—wealth or man; which shall lead—money or intellect; who shall fill public stations—educated and patriotic freemen, or the feudal serfs of corporate capital?”
In LaFollette's time and, because we were not dilligent, once again in our time...the spectre of Corporate rule hangs heavy above us.
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