Forgotten Man is in danger of a new assault is, that "the poor man" is
brought into the discussion. Since the Forgotten Man has some capital,
any one who cares for his interest will try to make capital secure by
securing the inviolability of contracts, the stability of currency, and
the firmness of credit. Any one, therefore, who cares for the Forgotten
Man will be sure to be considered a friend of the capitalist and an
enemy of the poor man.

It is the Forgotten Man who is threatened by every extension of the
paternal theory of government. It is he who must work and pay. When,
therefore, the statesmen and social philosophers sit down to think what
the State can do or ought to do, they really mean to decide what the
Forgotten Man shall do. What the Forgotten Man wants, therefore, is a
fuller realization of constitutional liberty. He is suffering from the
fact that there are yet mixed in our institutions mediaeval theories of
protection, regulation, and authority, and modern theories of
independence and individual liberty and responsibility. The consequence
of this mixed state of things is, that those who are clever enough to
get into control use the paternal theory by which to measure their own
rights--that is, they assume privileges; and they use the theory of
liberty to measure their own duties--that is, when it comes to the
duties, they want to be "let alone." The Forgotten Man never gets into
control. He has to pay both ways. His rights are measured to him by the
theory of liberty--that is, he has only such as he can conquer; his
duties are measured to him on the paternal theory--that is, he must
discharge all which are laid upon him, as is the fortune of parents. In
a paternal relation there are always two parties, a father and a child;
and when we use the paternal relation metaphorically, it is of the
first importance to know who is to be father and who is to be child.
The _rôle_ of parent falls always to the Forgotten Man. What he wants,