It seemed, for various reasons, undesirable to load down so practical a commission with a mere theorist or doctrinaire, and the professional sociologists who actually mixed with men and studied their subject at first hand were few and far between. So the President adopted a definition of his own, and laid his hand at once upon the man whom he believed it best fitted. This was E. E. Clark, a railway conductor. If any person in any occupation had had an opportunity to study humankind in groups, and under nearly all conditions calculated to bring out their peculiarities, it was one in Mr. Clark's calling. Apart from this consideration, moreover, Mr. Clark bore the name of a fair-minded man. Above all, he was an officer of one of the leading trade-unions in the country, with a membership of exceptional character and intelligence, the Brotherhood of Railway Conductors. This was the shrewd feature of the whole affair: whatever report Mr. Clark concurred in was bound to be conservative of the rights of the unions, and hence acceptable to organized labor everywhere.

So, while newspaper writers and stump orators were poking fun at the President for his peculiar application of the term "sociologist,"

ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION

he laughed with them outwardly, but at them in secret; for he knew what he was about, and they did not. Subsequent events, as we have seen, have vindicated his wisdom. The report of the commission, which was not signed and delivered till it had been put into a shape where every member could unite in it, not only settled this particular strike, but fixed a point of departure for the treatment of any labor questions with which the Government might be called upon to deal thereafter.

It was hardly the act of a demagoguethat visit of Police Commissioner Roosevelt to Clarendon Hall in New York during a particularly trying strike period to meet a body of representative workingmen. The police had been in more or less trouble with the restless element daily, and blood had flowed sometimes when officers had interfered with the efforts of strikers to "persuade" their scab substitutes to drop work. The commissioner had got tired of waiting for the difficulty to compose itself. He fancied that if all the facts were brought out by a good-tempered inquiry it might be possible for the city government to do something toward restoring quiet. So he arranged to have a talk with the strikers face

to face. When he came to the hall he found -as one might have guessed-a group of men determined to get all they could and yield nothing. They had quite misinterpreted his friendly advance. Why should he, a politician, come among them at this juncture except to cajole them for votes? And if he was to have the votes, he should pay a handsome price for them. So they dragged out their grievances and paraded them before him, and when they saw that he was listening intently they played their second card-threats.

A change passed over his face and manner. The appearance of sympathetic interest gave way, first to one of astonished curiosity, as if he were not sure that he had heard aright, and then to a settled expression of sternness. "Wait a moment!" he exclaimed, in a tone of command that brought the proceedings to a sudden standstill. "We came together to try to understand each other better. I wanted to learn from your own lips what there really was behind your trouble with your employers. I begin to think that some of you have mistaken the purpose of my invitation. Remember this, please, before we go one step further: the man among you who advises or encourages violence

OBEDIENCE TO ORDERS

is the enemy of all. We shall have order in this place and peace in this city before we have anything else; and the police will preserve it. Now, if the air is clearer, we can go on."

The men who had been talking brute force came down once more to reason. They were cowed; and their companions, instead of being angry, cheered loudly the politician who wouldn't be bullied.

Nor did it indicate a servile spirit when Commissioner Roosevelt made a speech of commendation and congratulation to a roundsman whom he promoted for a specially good piece of work during the same season. There was much rioting in this officer's district. He was told to take six men and keep a certain line of street-railroad open. The mob had reached a point where it was sullen and dangerous; the roundsman therefore promptly took decisive measures-charged it, clubbing right and left, and, without giving it a moment's chance to rally, drove it in headlong flight, and kept the whole railroad line clear. He had won his promotion to a sergeancy by a deed which was military in its efficiency, and Mr. Roosevelt recognized the fact without a moment's hesitancy.

CHAPTER XV

TRUSTS, TARIFF AND IMPERIALISM

Why one corporation is sued and another not-Prudential value of publicity-Free-trader versus Republican-A Philippine forecast sustained-Tropical colonies and the flag.

ABOUT the middle of February, 1902, President Roosevelt authorized the prosecution of the Northern Securities Company for violation of the Sherman anti-trust law, because he was advised by Attorney-General Knox that there was a fair reason for believing that the courts would sustain this action. The United States Steel Corporation had been marked by the public as a probable target for this sort of attack; but it was not prosecuted, because the President was advised by the Attorney-General that a prosecution would probably not be sustained by the courts.

Therein lies the whole story of Mr. Roosevelt's attitude toward the great trade and commercial combinations. The many explanations offered by contemporary writers might