making an influential body of their constituents, have been studying these measures, know the sound reasons on which they are supported, and expect their enactment. Against such a preparation no member of the Legislature can offer any defense. It is the business of a representative to represent his constituents intelligently and correctly. If he cannot satisfy his clientele that his actions as their representative have been wise and for the promotion of the general welfare, he cannot expect long to remain their representative. His public life depends upon his ability to have the electors of his district, at least a majority of them, satisfied that his course as a legislator has been guided by a correct understanding of their wishes.

The voter is the source of sovereign power. An ignorant voter cannot use his power wisely any more than an ignorant representative can. If measures based on the propositions announced are to be enacted in form best calculated to promote the general welfare, they must be thoroughly discussed. Every reason favorable or unfavorable to them should be carefully considered. Every voter should be as well informed as the person selected to represent him. To accomplish such a work the great thing to be done is to cause each voter to realize that these questions have a genuine personal interest for himself, and that it is his duty to inform himself about them.

THE EFFECT OF THE CAMPAIGN UPON THE TRUST QUESTION.

Before the adjournment of Congress the people witnessed shrewd efforts on the part of both parties to manufacture material that would serve their purpose well in the discussion of the trust question during the pending campaign. In the political conventions of both parties the treatment of the trust question was invariably regarded as extra-hazardous. It received the most careful attention that expert and sagacious leaders could give. Inspired with the vital importance of the question, writers of all shades of opinion, of all degrees of mental equipment, of all grades of intellectual and moral fitness, poured forth a torrent of literature far exceeding any man's ability to examine or properly to digest. All of these indications seemed to designate the trust question to be the crucial question of the campaign. But all of these signs have failed. It has not been so. Early in the campaign indications appeared which caused shrewd observers to see that the trust question did not hold the place it had been assigned.

The reason for the collapse of the trust question as an immediate political issue is clearly exposed in the literature for which both parties are sponsors. The discussion soon developed the fact that neither party possessed a monopoly of virtue or intelligence. It was shown, each for the other, that Democrats and

Republicans were equally willing, equally eager, to make money by means of trusts. It was shown, each for itself, that Democratic and Republican speakers, writers and manipulators were equally unprepared to discuss the trust question in the only way in which it can be discussed profitably, purely as a question of economic science. Of denunciation, horse play, vulgar pandering to prejudices, there has been an oversupply. Of clear-cut, scientific elucidation of the economic principles that cause and govern trust formations, and will cause and govern them regardless of existing or to be enacted legislation, just as water will continue to run downhill regardless of what enacted laws may say about it, there has been a great deficiency. The trust question disappeared as a political issue, not because the people do not regard it as being of vital importance, but because of the sameness of the practice of men of both parties. There was not sufficient difference between them to permit them to take sides in a way clearly to separate one party from the other, therefore they could not create an issue out of it. For this reason the campaign, so far as the trust question is concerned, has been one of exposure, not education. It is very doubtful if the net result will be to enable state legislatures or the Congress to deal with the question with any greater ability or intelligence than it displayed during its last sessions. This does not dispose of the trust question. however. It exists and will exist. as all

questions of public policy have existed, until settled correctly. If such a settlement can be made in the next sessions of state legislatures and of the Congress the trust question will entirely disappear as a political issue. If this cannot be done it will become an issue by forcing a separation of those who seek a correct settlement from those who use it merely as a subject for declamation, seeking votes by denunciation and engendering class hatreds, instead of attempting correctly to teach the people. Correct economic principles rightly taught will broaden the idea of brotherhood in the minds of men until it obliterates all class distinctions and shows to each that his welfare cannot be truly served at the expense of another. When men are intelligent enough to see this they will settle the trust question correctly.

LAWS MADE BY THE MONEY POWER.

"The Bugbear of the Money Power" is the title of an editorial in the New York Journal of Commerce. Power over men and power over material things are two very different kinds of power. Men are employed and receive material things in payment. Men of wealth, by this means, can employ persons and the press to advocate policies designed to secure undue advantages for themselves, but the advocates of such policies do not permanently acquire power over men. The logic of events is merciless. The soundness of a public policy must be demonstrated by the test of

time if those who advocate it are to acquire power over the minds of those to whom they appeal.

Progress is being made toward industrial liberty for the masses by increased compensation in comparison with the costs of supplying wants. The discontent arises because it is easier for every man to increase wants than to increase income. And it is because this is so that hope for future progress has sound reason for existence. There may be those who only rely upon the use of money to secure the enactment of measures in which they are interested. These measures are not necessarily contrary to the general welfare. They may be, and often are, as essential for the general good as for the interests of the persons seeking them. It costs as much money to secure the enactment of a thoroughly sound measure as it does a thoroughly dishonest measure. In this behalf it is only necessary to refer to the work and money that it has been necessary to expend for the purpose of placing and keeping the monetary system of this country on a sound basis. And that work is not yet done. Money must be spent to educate voters or to buy legislation from their representatives. The difference between laws enacted by educating voters and those enacted by buying legislation is very marked. Only honest measures based on sound reasons can be enacted as the result of educational work, while unjust measures seek immunity from lack of publicity. When those having money seek power over men by educating them to a correct