I claim everything for the people. And everything is not too much. The
individual has got to learn to say: I am the people. And the people have
got to learn to say: We are the individual. Everything springs from the
people. Everything goes back to the people. I'm not interested in suns.
I'm interested in people. Mountains and moons and trees have no meaning
to me until they are peopled. Your philosophies and dreams are
insignificant till they are peopled. I know nothing but people. I
comprehend nothing but people. If you sing a song I hear people in it.
If you paint a picture I see people in it. If I didn't hear the people
or see the people I might as well be deaf and blind. If you tell me
there are so many rivers in a country or so many acres of ground and ask
me: What do you think of that? I say: I dont think of that: I only think
of people. If you name the great men to me and ask: What do you make of
them? I answer: I make nothing of them: I make everything of the people.
If you ask me: What do you read in the book? I reply: I read the people
in the book. I am at home where people are. I am alien where people are
not. There's no use trying to get me to approve of anything that dont
include the people. That which dont include the people is empty. Just as
a man's heart if it does not include the people is void. I am drunk with
the crowd. I am bathed in the mass. I give myself to the common stream.
I dont want to be found somewhere off alone. I want to be lost somewhere
off alone. I want to be lost somewhere in the crowd. I never feel so
pinioned as when I'm alone. I never feel so free as when I'm in the
crowd. The crowd is my father and mother. My eyes are not enthralled by
sunsets and seastorms. I want people: only people. Let me have people
and I'm happy. Deny me people and I'm defeated. Rich as a man's soul may
be in its own right a man's soul is incomputably richer in the people's
right. Every time I wander from the people I feel as if I am choosing a
vacuum for my inheritance. Dont you see how it is? I draw all my checks
on the people. My personal signature is not valid. I have no account
with myself. I can never overdraw my account with the people. You say:
God said: Let there be light. I say: The people say: Let there be light.
You talk about inferior people and superior people. I see no superior
people and no inferior people. I see only people. When I say people I
dont say good and bad. No: nor geniuses nor fools. No: nor the saved and
the damned. No. When I say people I only mean people. I dont mean whites
or blacks or Hindus or Americans. I mean people. If I say that the world
belongs to people I don't mean a few owning for all or all owning for a
few but all owning for all. If I say the people are divine I dont mean
divine people. No. I only mean people. The people are divine but there
are no divine people. So when I say I claim everything for the people I
dont mean everything with exceptions. I mean everything without
exception. I dont owe the good people as separated from the bad people.
I owe both. And I owe the bad people more than I owe the good people.
For the good people have been good for themselves. And the bad people
have been bad for me. I claim everything for the people because the
people are everything. I make no claims for the green grass and
earthquakes and shipwrecks and arts and the will of the majority. Such
incidents are secondary. My claims are all for the people. After you
give me the people I have everything else. But if you refuse me the
people then I have nothing at all. If your theories dont give me the
people. Or your governments. Or your sciences. Or your vast cities. Or
anything you build or pride yourselves upon. If they dont give me the
people they are a fraud against which I revolt. But if they give me the
people then I return you a receipt in full. I want people. I'm willing
to go without anything. Without what you poorly call riches. Without
what you weakly call power. Without what you obscurely call distinction.
I'm willing to go without all that if you'll only give me people. Any
people. The rough and tumble average. The nonchalant non-elect. The
noisy quiet brutal kind crowd. Though I am dashed to death against its
rocky shores I surrender myself without equivocation to the furious sea.
Everything is not too much. I claim everything for the people.
You claim nothing for the people. Nothing is not too little for the
people. You lock your doors to keep the people out. You lock your heart
to keep yourself in. You say dollars. I say people. You say kings and
Presidents. I say people. You say the sculpture of Greece, the paintings
of Italy, the music of Germany. I say people. You say: But for them. I
say: But for these. You point out a few figures lost in the distance. I
direct you to the crowd at your elbow. You say one and another. You say
somebody. I say all. You say fame. Intermediaries. Middlemen.
Interpreters. I say people. You are eminent for a while by reason of
what you take. But I say no one can be eminent for good except by reason
of what he gives. You think the people need saviors. I say the saviors
need people. The people make money for you. You spend money for the
people. The people make so that you may have. You dont make so that
people may have. You give me leaders. I give you people. You say the
leaders lead. I say the leaders follow. That the people lead. Leaders
would be useless without people. People would still be people without
leaders. You say brain should be paid extra. I say nothing should be
paid extra. That pay should not be for talent but for need. What a man
needs. That should be his pay. What a man contains. That should be what
he gives. A witty man said: The more I see of men the more I think of
dogs. I will say that in another way. The more I see of those you call
the somebodies the more I think of those you call the nobodies. We live
in an age of saviors. I am looking for an age of people. The saviors are
multitudinous. The priest takes your soul. He's going to save your soul.
The plutocrat takes your body. He's going to save your body. You see,
they're going to save you by destroying you not by fortifying you. So
they seize the pictures to save art. And the operas and symphonies to
save music. You are to be saved by being denied everything. If they gave
you anything you'd be lost. They are safe from luxury no matter how much
they have. You are in peril of luxury no matter how little you have.
They fool you with their paraphernalia. You are awed not by their brains
but by what they tell you of their brains. You take their word for it.
You should take your life for it. You are willing they should enjoy for
you. Should travel for you. Should eat and drink for you. Should play
games for you. What have you for yourself? Resignation. Remember that
text which has been immemorially the solace of the robber. The poor you
have with you always. You must have the poor with you always because you
must have the rich with you always. Who would save the poor if the rich
didn't? And if the poor were not saved what would become of the rich?
The great you have with you always. You must have the little with you
always because you must have the big with you always. It wouldn't do to
wipe out the distinctions. To fill in the gap. That chasm is kept
impassable by the hand of providence. You cant live for yourselves.
Someone must live for you. You cant live for yourself. You who dig in
ditches. You who work in mills. Harry Thaw must live for you. You who
eat at lunch counters. You cant live for yourself. The fellow who dines
at the St. Regis: he must live for you. Every time you try to live for
yourself some savior interferes to live for you. You've got to keep
yourself thin to keep him fat. There's no other way to sustain the
delicate balances of destiny. The church will live for your soul. The
state will live for your body. You find all the saviors waiting to live
for you. Insisting on living for you. Refusing to let you live for
yourself. Taxing you to death to crown themselves for life. You have
thought of the saviors dying that you might live. Think again. And you
will see yourself dying that the saviors may live. My life is the
people's life. I no more die for the people than the people die for me.
Look the saviors straight in the face. Defy them. Refute them by an
appeal to your own treasure. Every time by an appeal to your own
treasure. Every time you save yourself you destroy a savior. Do you want
to be saved by another? Better be damned by yourself than saved by
another. What is the price of salvation? Your body and soul are the
price. You are to give up everything. That is the price. Not give up
everything to all. No. That would be a fair price. Give up everything to
the saviors. That is the price. That is the pirate fee. What is the
price of salvation? Your alleys and gutters and prostitutes and
factories and premature death are the price. At every doorway stands a
savior. He charges you for going in. He charges you for coming out.
Profit is a savior. You pay its toll. Rent is a savior. You pay its
toll. Interest is a savior. You pay its toll. What is left after you
have settled with the saviors? The saviors are left. But nothing is left
of you. Nothing is not too little for the saviors. You claim nothing for
the people.
I claim everything for the people. And everything is not too much. What
do the people claim for themselves? So far they have claimed little.
They have let the saviors give them religions. They have let the saviors
give them economics. They have stood aside to let the saviors pass.
Instead of making the saviors stand aside to let the people pass. The
saviors have given them religions which were blasphemies. The saviors
have given them economies which were robberies. The saviors have been.
The people are to be. The people are next. Now the people will give the
saviors religions which are reverent. And they will give the saviors
economies which are justice. The saviors used to succeed. Now you may
notice that the saviors fail. The saviors only succeed when the people
fail. When the people succeed the saviors fail. Saviors belong with
kings and owners and bosses. When the people at last object to being
ruled or owned or bossed the saviors will disappear with the saved. The
mendicant and the millionaire are symptoms of the same disease. The
savior and the saved are symptoms of the same disease. The superior
person and the inferior person are symptoms of the same disease. The
capitalist and the laborer are symptoms of the same disease. They
require only one treatment. You cant get one without the other. You cant
rid yourself of one without the other. The people dont need saviors
because they dont need to be saved. You cant save people for the same
reason that you cant damn people. The people are people. That's the
answer to all the saviors. The people are themselves enough answer.
People intoxicate me. My eyes see people. (I dont acknowledge things.)
Look for, find, abandon themselves, to people. Dont acknowledge saviors.
Reach out to, are reached out from, people. Everywhere I meet the
threatening saviors. Do you shrink in the mire till you can borrow wings
to take you to heaven? I know the black in the people. But the black in
the people is not the people. Even the white in the people is not the
people. The hate or love in a man is not the man. The man is the man.
The people are the people. It's stupid to say that. It's like saying a
cloud is a cloud. It's like saying a star is a star. But what else can
be said? Time and space are time and space. Can you damn or save time
and space? The people are the people. Can you damn or save the people?
You might as well tax the skies as tax a man. As well assume to save the
sun for pay as save the people for pay. As well pretend to be the
necessary middleman between Jupiter and the moon as between people and
people. I make the whole claim because I have the whole faith. And
everything is not too much. I claim everything for the people.
I see what you see all around: the half lives lived: the cruel
quarrels of brothers: