born; the doctrine that teaches us that men shall prosper as long as they do their duty to themselves and thei neighbors alike; the doctrine that we shall believe as long as we believe in those archaic rules of conduct which were set down in the Sermon on the Mount.

The use and abuse of property. The use of it is to use it as any honest man would use his property in reference to his brother. Its abuse is to use it as any honest man would not use his property in reference to his brother. All that the Legislature, all that our public bodies, have to do is to see that our policy as a State, that the policy of the Legislatures and the policy of the Nation is shaped along those lines; that when a measure comes up in our State Legislature, it shall be treated absolutely on its merits.

Each community has the kind of politicians that it deserves. Each community is represented with absolute fidelity by the men whom it chooses to have in public life. Those men represent its virtue or they represent its vice, or, what is more common, they represent its gross and culpable indifference; and gross and culpable indifference may, on some occasions, be worse than any wickedness. Now, send men into public life who, on the one hand, will be incapable of yielding to any demagogic attack upon men of means, merely because they are men of means, men who will realize how much this country owes to the architects of its material prosperity, who will realize. that every man in legitimate business benefits not only himself, but benefits the whole community in which he resides; and men who, on the other hand, will not be blinded by those considerations to the fact that too many. men of means, too many successful men of business, strive to bring into public life the kinds of chicanery by which

they have won in business life. Make them understand that they will not be allowed one advantage due to dishonesty, due to mere smartness, due to anything but proceeding along the recognized rules of morality, which we expect to see followed by every high-minded and honorable man. And when you have once made your public men take that attitude, not spasmodically, not intermittently, but continuously and as a regular thing; when you have once got them to take that attitude, it will be but a short time before you see the disappearance of some of the problems with which we are now threatened; it will be but a short time before you see the disappearance, once for all, of demagogic attacks upon wealth, upon the one hand, and of corrupt subserviency to the purposes of great corporations on the other.

AT THE CIVIC CLUB, NEW YORK CITY, MAY 19, 1899

MR. PRESIDENT and GENTLEMEN: I am very proud of being introduced as your President introduced me, and I am proudest of being an American citizen speaking to his fellow citizens. I have very little to say to you tonight, and after all it is what I've done and not what I have said, on which you must judge me for ill or for good. I can say now, after being Governor for five months, that I have striven faithfully to represent the best interests of the people, and to live up to what according to my lights was needed by the citizens of the commonwealth. The result of what we have been able to do falls short, as must always be the case, of what we hoped to do, but I think it has been good, not evil, and a step in advance, not a halt or retrogression.

I am glad of the chance to see you. I spoke for this invitation a long time ago. The goodness to-night is all on your part for being willing to have me here. I've come here to have a chance to meet you, and when this club is started fairly, I want to know that when I am in doubt as to what I should do I shall be able to come over here and consult with you.

I wish you could understand how much we need good advice. I hope to call you in to advise me on difficult bills. affecting this neighborhood and the city, about which you should know much more than I possibly can. When I send down to get your opinion, I want to be able to feel that you will look seriously over whatever I lay before you and consider it in a broad light, and not from a personal standpoint. I here have by me many bills such as I speak of. Probably I've consulted men whom I knew I could trust-about a dozen of them.

Take one for an example. There is a bill the object of which is to give drug clerks shorter hours. I've had conflicting statements about it from the drug clerks themselves. If a bill like that comes up next year I want to be able to send it to you and feel that I will get the facts and the truth about it from you. Some of the drug clerks, friends of the bill, say it will give to them shorter hours. Others say it will deprive them of their weekly holiday. I want to be able to send it to you, who can learn from the drug clerks, when there is no organization and no individual to terrorize them, what they think of it, and I want to be able to bet on what you tell me about it. I want to know not only that you mean well - lots of folks mean well-but that there is good common sense back of your well meaning.

AT THE CITY CLUB, NEW YORK CITY, MAY 9, 1899

MR. PRESIDEnt and Gentlemen of thE CITY CLUB: While I won't always say as much as you would like to have me along your particular lines, you may depend upon it that I will always act up to whatever I say. The most important issues that come up in public life are not party issues at all, but issues based upon those archaic rules of conduct, the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments. Now I prefer to speak to you upon what the Legislature, which is adjourned and is soon to meet again, has accomplished.

I am pleased to see here Senator Elsberg, Assemblymen Davis, Fallows and Mazet, with whom I have worked and talked this winter, and without whom I could have done absolutely nothing. We have done up there at Albany the best we could according to our lights. We have endeavored to practice what we preached as well as what was preached at us. On the whole, we have done nothing I could wish undone. Not only would I be willing to have my successor, Mr. Moss, or Mr. Mazet question me about my administration, but I would be willing to have the other party do it.

Oh, gentlemen! I wish I could bring home to you not only the need of striving for high ideals, but also the need of accomplishing things. My own experience for the past eighteen years in public life has been that we don't raise set issues. We meet them as they come up. For instance, if you should have asked me three months ago what I thought of taxing municipal franchises my ignorance would have been found to be abyssmal; but on this question I think we all agree on two propositions first, that cor

porations shall be taxed, but the tax shall not be a persecution, and, second, that they shall bear a just part of the public burden. I want to tax these franchises as the real estate through which they run is taxed. But I don't want any more reduction for debts made in one case than in another.

Now in this matter I want to say that I want your help and your advice. I don't need anybody's advice about the general lines of the bill, but I want to tell you how you can help me in other ways. I want some men from this club who are good lawyers to come up to Albany and talk over the question of municipal franchises with me. I have this night asked Prof. E. R. A. Seligman of Columbia and Judge Cohen to do this, and I now ask you, Mr. Wheeler, to come up yourself and bring with you two or three other gentlemen whom you may select that I may have your suggestion and advice on the matter.

And this leads me to say that I noticed in one of the papers the other day that I had been consulting with corporation lawyers. I did consult with them, and I'll do it again, because I want their side of this matter. I should be disgusted with myself and with my office if I were afraid they would influence me too much by what they said. I want this State to lead the Union on the question of municipal taxation. I see men here who have given me help and advice, and I want it again.

Now, understand that a man who gives me advice doesn't have a mortgage on my opinion. Of course, my own judgment must govern me in the end, and I want that understood. I am grateful to this club for the watch it has kept on legislation, but I know of some instances where you have rendered snap judgment. Now, it is be