I am the people -- the mob -- the crowd -- the mass.	
Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?	
I am the workingman, the inventor, 
the maker of the world's food and clothes.	
I am the audience that witnesses history. 
The Napoleons come from me and the Lincolns. 
They die. And then I send forth more Napoleons and Lincolns.
I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand for much plowing. 
Terrible storms pass over me. I forget. 
The best of me is sucked out and wasted. I forget. 
Everything but Death comes to me and makes me work 
and give up what I have. And I forget.
Sometimes I growl, shake myself 
and spatter a few red drops for history to remember. 
Then -- I forget.	
When I, the People, learn to remember, 
when I, the People, use the lessons of yesterday and no longer forget 
who robbed me last year, who played me for a fool -- 
then there will be no speaker in all the world say the name: "The People," 
with any fleck of a sneer in his voice or any far-off smile of derision.	
The mob -- the crowd -- the mass -- will arrive then.