or anxiety. The people, not the few, must own and control the land, public monopolies, and the instruments of production and distribution; and every man's labor should insure him in all the material needs of life. Every opportunity in life is dependent upon economic support; hence, industrial justification means the intellectual development and moral redemption of the world. Better opportunities develop finer tastes, and where labor is fully rewarded and insured in the materials and opportunities of life there would be no occasion for manipulation, dishonesty, or subjection. Financial independence would do more to obliterate intemperance and immorality than anything else. Nowhere in the universe is there life-save where competition has been superseded by coöperation; and this must be brought about in our commercial world. Spend the remainder of your life among your brother-laborers, Mr. Deerborn, teaching them this great truth, that they may learn to strike scientifically and not with violence. Now, hail a cab and drive quickly to my old home, where you will find your wife and children awaiting you-a free and noble man, not a cowering murderer.

"Oh, God!" she wailed, "what might have happened had I been a moment or two later?" And for a time her face was drawn and ashen, and her form shook violently. "Ah," she said, with face and hand uplifted, "here before me are two men meant to be God's noblemen, but warped into oppressors and murderers by the competitive struggle for existence. Is man too weak, too vicious, to rise above such conditions? Ah, no, no! Ours will some day be a world of peace and of plenty. As man has grown in the past, so shall he grow in the futureuntil more and yet more of his perplexities are left behind. 'And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, nor any more pain, for all the former things are passed away!' Mr. Deerborn, hasten to your family. Mr. Van Housten, prepare yourself and we'll be driven rapidly to the Norwood tenement."

Ah! that shambling tenement-house, with its rotten stairways and open walls. And the commercial king was to accompany the wealthiest but least spoiled, the noblest woman of his city,

to his most neglected tenement. His cheeks flushed with shame, but the crucial fire was cleansing his soul-let it burn. And, alas! what puppets are we in the hands of fate. In so brief a space of time he had come to love this woman as he never would have believed it possible for a man to love. He had long known of her; and his love for her was not merely a case of sex magnetism-but she was his social, intellectual, and soul ideal. And the familiar lines began running through his mind:

"A woman in so far as she beholdeth

Her one beloved's face;

A mother with a great heart that enfoldeth
The children of the race.

A body, free and strong with that high beauty
That comes of perfect use, is built thereof;
A mind where reason ruleth over duty

And justice reigns with love.

A self-poised, royal soul-brave, wise, and tender;
No longer blind and dumb;

A human of an unknown splendor

Is she who is to come."

Van Housten not only loved Celeste as a woman, but he admired her intellectual powers and revered her moral supremacy. And to-day this remarkable trio-Archibald Deerborn, Joseph Van Housten, and Celeste Renan, as his wife—are giving their lives to the upbuilding of both social and individual life. Where a weak and ignorant woman would have left crime and murder, Celeste Renan had turned the forces to play in the highest channels of life.

In the personality of Celeste and the higher intellectual and social life into which she led him, Van Housten found that which satisfied the great inner longing of his life. Man has a body, but he is a soul; and he will never know life until he learns to live in the soul-in spiritual congeniality and affinity. The consciousness of daring to support those principles which stand for the justification and elevation of the masses brought him a satisfaction that was infinitely greater than that which came from the financial power he exercised. The more he

concealed his charities from the public the greater peace of soul he knew. He now declares that the world must move on until every life is blessed with wealth and inspired by love.

Life inspired by the highest love is divine; without this inspiration it is but a grinning phantom. Abundance for the body, and abundance for the soul balanced by justice and duty performed and life will ascend to a scale of magnificent proportions.

TOPICS OF THE TIMES.

By B. O. FLOWER.

ORGANIZED LABOR AND DIRECT LEGISLATION

I. DIRECT LEGISLATION IMPERATIVELY DEMANDED.

"New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth; They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth."

These words of Lowell were never truer or more applicable than they are to-day. Changed conditions and circumstances make necessary political changes in harmony with present needs, if the fundamental demands of free government are to be preserved. Not only has the social horizon broadened and enlarged since the days of the founders of the Republic; but the ancient foe of freedom, equal rights, and justice has become so powerful and its corrupt influence so marked and far-reaching that all serious students of history and lovers of republican government must appreciate the peril of the present.

In Direct Legislation alone is found the solution of the gravest problems before the friends of free government. This demand, furthermore, is in perfect alignment with the theory, ideal, and demands of the founders of our Government. Even the most conservative of the fathers held such views as were voiced by John Adams on January 1, 1787, when he wrote: "The end to be aimed at in the formation of a representative assembly seems to be the sense of the people, the public voice." Moreover, in the old New England town-meeting we find a near approach to a truly republican method of government.

Cherishing the principles of liberty with a passion whose intensity was only equaled by the wisdom of her people, the conservative Swiss Republic extended the accepted principles of Direct Legislation in such a manner as to meet present demands of civilization and preserve a republic in fact as well as in name; and the success of her example has demonstrated the practicability of this vital safeguard of free government,

so that the objections of the friends of monarchy, imperialistic government, and of corporations and corruptionists have been proved puerile and absurd.

The pitiful cry of "cost" for popular registration of the people's vote on legislation can have no force with any student of history who is free from prejudice; for it will be perfectly evident to him that under Direct Legislation the cities, the commonwealths, and the Republic itself would alike save many times all such cost in the veto of legislation that is to-day only possible by reason of the influence of the corporations upon political bosses, legislators, and the press. Who imagines for a moment that immensely valuable franchises would be given away without consideration by cities, States, or the nation if the people had a direct vote?

The famous Colton letters, written by Collis P. Huntington, and put in evidence in a law-suit in Santa Rosa, California, are only one of several authoritative evidences of the vast sums of money used during recent decades to secure special privileges that meant millions upon millions of dollars for the few, taken from the people and only obtainable through the lavish expenditure of money and the debauching of government in its various ramifications.

The net earnings of the street-railway monopoly of Boston last year were $3,456,395, which under municipal ownership would have gone far toward paying the running expenses of the city, or toward giving the people wealth in the way of public improvements as well as the benefits of improved service. No one knows better than the corporations and their corrupt tools that under Direct Legislation the people would enjoy the benefits of these immensely valuable franchises.

Then, again, so powerful and arrogant has become corporate greed in the Republic that the best interests of the people are frequently pushed aside for the furtherance of class interests, that the possessions of a few already overrich may be further augmented by special privileges. These dangers are so palpable that no sober-minded, self-respecting individual can longer deny them. They have long since become a supreme menace to free government.

II. A NEW VOICE FOR MAJORITY RULE.

But Direct Legislation will save the Republic from this deadly peril; and it is fortunate for liberty that, in the present crucial period, when the great press, with a few honorable exceptions,