policy; but it remained for Folk of Missouri to teach us that, after all, in his own phrase, "Honesty is the best politics." The concrete results of the great moral wave are now coming to be understood and acknowledged. The average of honesty has been rising, and its rise dates from the time when Folk came upon the stage of public affairs. All this has been conclusively shown by an article from the pen of Mr. Philip Loring Allen, in a recent number of a well known periodical.

In his New York speech welcoming Mr. Bryan, Governor Folk said:

"We are on the threshhold of the greatest political awakening this nation has ever known. It marks the beginning of a new age. The next few years will be distinguished as the time in which industrial problems are solved, the reign of the special privilege brought to an end, and the doctrine of equal rights fixed in national politics and in the conscience of mankind. Only a few years past, bribery was considered merely conventional. Legislative halls were made dens of thieves, and the touch of the unclean dollar of privilege was over all. Dishonesty in public life was either unnoticed, or else regarded with despair. Then a dormant public conscience was aroused to the necessity of stamping out the offense that strikes at the heart of free government. The energies of this public conscience have been extended from the domain of the public wrong-doer to that of the private wrong-doer, and are probing into the workings of rascals of every kind. The insurance investigations have sent forth their message, the rebate revelations have been seen and heard, and innumerable grand juries have drawn aside the curtain and revealed the anarchs of corruption and greed in their bacchanal of avarice.

"The regenerated conscience of the people has been assailing these abuses one by one, and has now commenced to attack the deeper evil of privilege. No one ever heard of a legislator being bribed to give

equal rights to all the people. It is always for the purpose of obtaining special privilege for the few. Graft cannot be fully done away with until special privileges are exterminated and the doctrine of equal rights becomes the standard for governmental action."

When Folk says that privilege is the source of graft, every man in America knows that it is true, for he speaks upon the subject with the authority of expert knowledge. In his boodle prosecutions he learned from actual experience that every graft may be traced directly to some special privilege.

In the speech above referred to the Missouri Governor announced the following epitome of democracy:

"In this epoch, so important to American liberty, we ask the people to set up no new gods; we ask them to follow no new paths which may lead into the quicksands of dishonor and despair. Our safest and surest guide is still the old maxim, that there shall be “equal rights to all; special privileges to none." With this maxim as our chart, we cannot lose our course; with this rule for our guidance, the infamies of privilege in every form will be destroyed, and unto all men there will be restored the equal right that belongs to each, the fair and equal opportunity of every man to live and labor upon the earth which God has given to all, and to enjoy untrammeled the gains of individual industry."

What grander concept can there be, of human government? It is indeed the soul of a great man and a great democrat, that speaks for "the free and equal opportunity of every man to live and labor upon the earth which God has given to all, and to enjoy untrammeled the gains of individual industry"-how suggestive of the spirit of a John Bright or a Henry George!

Here are no meaningless words; nothing for mere ornament, show or rhetorical effect. When Folk speaks, he speaks

advisedly and to the point, and he is every bit in earnest; just as he was when he laconically accepted, from a St. Louis politician, the nomination for circuitattorney-"I will accept, but I will obey my oath of office." And the world knows how well he obeyed that oath!

As Governor of Missouri he has driven the corporation lobby from the State capitol, abolished the practice of legislators and appointees of the governor riding on free railway-passes, forced the passage of a law extending the statute of limitations in bribery cases from three to five years, has taken the police out of politics in the large cities of Missouri, forced the passage of a law penalizing race-track gambling and enforced that law to the letter, incidentally driving the largest race-track syndicate in the world out of business although it enjoyed the protecttion of local county officials. He has closed the wine-rooms and gambling-dives of the great cities, driven out the panelworkers and stamped out grafting from the police departments of the great cities of his State. He has so conducted the elections through his election commissioners in the great cities that no cry of fraud has been raised after any city election held under his administration. Most remarkable has been his enforcement of the law requiring the Sunday closing of dramshops.

The great brewery syndicate which, allied with the retail liquor dealers of the State, represents a capital of some three hundred millions, determined that the law should not be enforced. No Missouri Governor had ever before attempted its enforcement. The idea was laughed at as impracticable and foolish. The enormous campaign funds which backed the would-be violators of the law won over many newspapers and politicians; but Folk, backed by the moral sentiment which has ever been his unfailing support, was greater than them all, and now Missouri is probably the most completely law-abiding State in the Union. Not satisfied with vilification, threats and

intimidation, the liquor interests caused enormous petitions to be presented, calling upon the Governor to enforce the law. But there was another side to the question. The wives and mothers who had been starved and neglected that the Sunday saloon might thrive, began writing letters to the Governor, and in the darkest hour of the fight, when it looked as though victory was yet afar off, the Governor gave out to the press one of these letters from the wife of a poor laboring man, who thanked God that her husband was now spending his Sunday at home, instead of in the barroom, and that she and her children now had food and clothing instead of starvation and rags. "I am praying that God may give you strength to keep up the fight,' she wrote. And Folk publicly declared: "I would rather have the prayers of one good woman than the support of all the liquor dealers in the world."

He kept up the fight, and won.

And so it has been with every species of lawlessness which he has been called upon to combat. Everywhere wealth and power has been against him; and everywhere the prayers of good people have gone up in support of his good work, and that work has in every instance been crowned with victory.

But, although his name is coupled more conspicuously with the idea of lawenforcement than that of any other man living or dead, Folk is not merely an enforcer of the laws. His plans for the improvement of the Government of his State are far-reaching, and toward their successful accomplishment he is moving forward with a certainty than does not admit of question.

He has made and is now making a fight to place the burdens of maintaining the government so far as possible upon the holders of special privileges, and exempting to that extent the fruits of individual industry; is striving to establish a system of local option in taxation, and has appointed a commission to consider plans for a complete revision of the present system of taxation in Missouri.

In addition to this he is seeking to establish a public-utility commission with power to inquire into and determine the actual amount invested in public-utility corporations, and to fix upon a reasonable and fair basis the rates which such concerns shall be allowed to charge the public. Speaking of this project he has said:

"If the rates of all public-utility corporations were regulated upon a basis of actual investment (and it has been held by the courts that the legislature can do this), the result would be to materially lower the rates charged by gas, electriclight, telephone, telegraph and street-car companies, where the rates now charged are based upon fictitious values. Corporations controlling public utilities exercise privileges that are denied the ordinary individual. It is not only fair to them that their rates be regulated on a reasonable basis by the State, but such action seems to be necessary in this day of immense consolidation of capital for the protection of the public."

This is no flowery speech. It is simply the plain, practical expression of a practical statesman, and those who know Folk know that he means just what he says. Will he succeed?

If he lives, yes. Folk always succeeds. Another reform he is working out is the substitution of the ballot primary election for the delegate convention, as a means of nominating candidates for office. He has already won Missouri over to this proposition, and it is hardly possible that the State primary law can fail of passage in the next legislature. But Folk goes farther, and would apply the ballot to matters of legislation as well. He has repeatedly endorsed the Initiative and Referendum, and if his busy life is spared to the people for a few more years Missouri will see this reform engrafted upon

the organic law of the state. During a prior administration the Initiative and Referendum was defeated by a popular vote, because not sufficiently understood by the people.

In private life Governor Folk is plain, unpretentious, and severely democratic in his habits. Although personally congenial, the cares of state have not allowed him to greatly indulge a disposition toward the usual social indulgences. In the capital city he is seldom seen excepting at his office or at the executive mansion. He is an omnivorous and incessant reader, and never tires of delving among his books. Determination is written in his face, and he knows no such thing as fear. During his various crusades against lawlessness his life has been repeatedly threatened, but he has always refused a guard. He is a clever shot, and his favorite sports are hunting and trap-shooting, although for these his official duties give him little time. Although calm and dignified in his demeanor and apparently unemotional, I have frequently seen him moved to tears by the plea of a poor widow for the pardon of her son, and once I knew him to pardon a widow's only son and then give her $10 with which to buy him clothing. In the administration of the pardoning power he is probably the first American executive to invariably couple conditions with his pardons. Wherever it is known that the prisoner's ruin was due to some particular vice, such as gambling or drinking, Governor Folk specifies in the pardon that a lapse into those vices again shall cause the return of the prisoner to the penitentiary.

Such, in brief, is Folk, the statesman and the man. His character may be written in three words: Honesty, courage, strength; and the greatest of these is honesty.

THOMAS SPEED MOSBY.

Jefferson, Mo.

ΤΗ

HE NOW wide and constantly widening separation and differentiation of classes, the changing industrial and social life of the people, and the close contact with the civilization and the swarming millions of the Orient are forcing the question of population into the foreground of American thought. New conditions are modifying and complicating this problem. Disregarding the more narrow aspect of the question of population or of "race-suicide," three points-of-view may be taken. It may be considered as a class question, a national question, or a racial or religious question -Orient versus Occident. Although passing by the narrow aspects of the question, no implication tending to minimize the importance of those aspects is intended. The question as to the effect of large families upon home conditions, and upon the life and progress of the female sex is, of course, extremely important; but it is this phase of the problem which is now being discussed with bitterness and vehemence in the forum of public opinion. Other important factors in the population question are almost wholly lost sight of.

Economic considerations are now generally recognized as playing an important rôle in determining the rate of increase of the population. An established standard of living, together with its accompanying social position, is tenaciously clung to by all men and women; but especially by those who are raised above very low standards of living. If a large family endangers the maintenance of this accustomed standard, smaller families will be the inevitable result in the majority of cases. While large families in rural communities in earlier times spelled increase of products and of in

come, to-day, under essentially different conditions, a large family means greatly increased expense without a corresponding increase of income, and leads inevitably in the majority of cases to the loss of accustomed comforts and enjoyment. A young man is seriously handicapped at the present time, if he becomes the father of a large family. These are facts so germane to the subject that they cannot be overlooked. The instinct or desire for offspring is placed in opposition to the strong human ambition to maintain and to advance one's social and economic position. Whereas a few generations ago a widow possessing a large family of minor children was considered to be an excellent marriageable proposition, today she becomes, unless wealthy, a drug on the matrimonial market. Widows are, no doubt, just as spritely and goodlooking to-day as were those of half a century ago; economic conditions rather than the personal characteristics of widows have changed.

As soon as education and skill raise a class or a group of men above the lower strata of economic and social life, the struggle to maintain themselves on this new level begins, and small families are the fruits of the majority of marriages between individuals in their classes. It is in essence a class struggle. Those in the depths are not affected; they have lost heart, and fear nothing further, or they are apparently contented with their condition and mode of living. The wages of the unskilled may be kept down by two means: by immigration from other countries, or by large increase in the native working population. The immediate interests of the landowning and employing classes are favored by large increases in the population of the

laboring people, because as a result a large number of workers compete against each other, thus tending to keep down the wage level. Indeed, our present industrial system demands a large floating population of unemployed. Low wages also lead to relatively high land values and to high rents and excessive returns from the use and ownership of market opportunities of various sorts. Large numbers of would-be employés offer golden opportunities to the employers. The situation may be fairly stated as follows: the employers desire a surplus of laborers; the unions are desirous of restricting the numbers; but the general public-society-wishes a perfect adjustment between work and workers. This is the ideal toward which society is climbing. The employing class, the national leader who fears foreign aggression, and the imperialistic statesman unite upon the question of race-suicide; although each attains his position as a result of a somewhat different line of reasoning.

The question as to the desirability of large families and of rapidly increasing population is frequently considered from a point-of-view which was pertinent a generation or two ago. but which is no longer applicable. As long as questions involving the increase of productive possibilities and the exploitation and appropriation of natural resources occupied a predominant place in our economic and political activity, the question of population assumed one aspect; but when these questions yield in relative importance to those involved in the distribution of the products of industry and of the efficient consumption of the same, it is presented to society in a different form. As Burke pointed out, we are prone to see historic needs and dangers, but we are also liable to overlook those of the present. We are afflicted with a sort of far-sightedness which blurs the vision as to the present, which destroys our mental perspective. Mere increase in numbers to till our broad fields, to

tend our many machines, and to sell or transport our products, is unnecessary. We possess a floating, semi-idle population which is imperfectly adjusted to the industrial needs of the country. Industry now needs skilled workers rather than unskilled. The question of population when large quantities of tillable land lie fallow on our Western frontier is much different from the question which confronts us when the frontier has been trampled under the foot of advancing civilization. This class element in the problem did not appear, or at least did not assume important dimensions, until after the disappearance of the frontier.

If the working people of one country are able to raise their standard of living above that of other countries, international competition immediately acts, tending to force down the wage level in the first country. Only by erecting trade barriers, such as apprenticeship regulations, unions, and restriction of immigration, can one country raise its scale of wages far above that of another country, except in so far as the efficiency of the workers may differ. The existence of low standard-of-living workers acts as a positive check upon social betterment. Class distinctions, trade demarcations, unionism, and professional requirements are the concrete results of efforts to differentiate certain classes of people from the evils of this situation. The Chinese exclusion act is based upon a class or caste effort to prevent the depression of the American wage level. Remove the barriers of legal restriction, custom and the immobility of labor, and the wage-level of the world will tend toward uniformity. Where large masses of labor are employed, special ability or efficiency is rarely recognized except by lifting an occasional individual to a higher trade-level. The wages of all members of a railroad section gang, a gang of hodcarriers or of mine shovelers, are not differentiated and graded according to the personal efficiencies of different members; all members of the same gang re