At this point of E.L. Doctorow’s short story, “Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden,” Chrissie Stevens is in a sanitarium talking to Agent Molloy. When Chrissie says this quote, she is referring to the higher-ups of Utilicon Corporation, who happens to be her father. She means to say that there are these people, like her father, who have all the power, and will always win in the battle of keeping their business alive. Chrissie says that these gentlemen are the ones responsible for the death of Roberto Guzman, but not directly. Directly after this quote, Chrissie acknowledges how “they didn’t give [Roberto] the asthma he was born with,” but wants the “gentlemen who run things” to feel a bit of shame for indirectly contributing to the death of Roberto.