The happiest men I know in all this unhappy life of ours, are those leaders who, brave, loyal, and sometimes in tears, are serving their fellow-men.
And who are their fellow-men that accept their service? We are, you and I; we are the people who beat, but who also elect these leaders of ours. And what are we? Well, if I listen to my own thoughts, and my own conscience, and to my own heart, and yours; and if you hearken only to yours, and mine, we may not recognize the voice of God. But, if we heed, as Mark Fagan must, and Ben Lindsey, and Rudolph Spreckels, the proud; if we should have to hear and abide by the votes of the great, mixed, smelly mass of us, then we, too, should both be and obey the voice of humanity. And that is divinity enough for Man, and for the little leaders of men.
Lincoln Steffens.
Boston, May 15, 1909.
