Their unquestioning orthodoxy in this respect has made them faithless both to their own personal interest as reformers and to the cause of reform.

Reform exclusively as a moral protest and awakening is condemned to sterility.

Reformers exclusively as moral protestants and purifiers are condemned to misdirected effort, to an illiberal puritanism, and to personal self-stultification.

Reform must necessarily mean an intellectual as well as a moral challenge; and its higher purposes will never be accomplished unless it is accompanied by a masterful and jubilant intellectual awakening.
All Americans, whether they are professional politicians or reformer, "predatory" millionaires or common people, political philosophers or schoolboys, accept the principle of "equal rights for all and special privileges for none" as the absolutely sufficient rule of an American democratic political system.

The platforms of both parties testify on its behalf.