i 9 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



sible ills that may ensue grossly exaggerated. The consequence is that 

 much-needed reforms are sometimes delayed and the temper of the pub- 

 lic tried until the foundation of the business order is undermined. It 

 is not far from the truth to assert that certain opponents of the " Roose- 

 velt policies " unwittingly contributed more to bring about the panic of 

 1907 than did the utterances of Mr. Roosevelt himself. The movement 

 for railway control has made headway in the face of the most pig- 

 headed opposition. A good deal of the time of the conservative re- 

 former is taken up with denying allegations which he has no thought of 

 entertaining. Mr. Lincoln, in the course of one of his debates with 

 Douglas, said : 



I protest, now and forever, against that counterfeit logic which presumes 

 that because I did not want a negro woman for a slave, I do necessarily want her 

 for a wife, is 



The foresight with which men of affairs are commonly credited often 

 fails them when it comes to dealing with public opinion. This ap- 

 peared in the tactless manner in which the coal operators treated the 

 public during the anthracite strike. According to The Commercial and 

 Financial Chronicle, the New Haven management in the acquisition of 

 trolley lines in no wise strengthened the system, but laid itself open 

 to the charge of trying to establish a transportation monopoly. 14 The 

 fact that the business magnate frequently turns out to be a poor strate- 

 gist in his relations with the public is no occasion for surprise. Intent 

 on furthering the particular interests w*ith which he is entrusted, he is 

 apt to lose sight of the public interest and to do things which end in 

 bringing down upon him a storm of popular disapproval. Positions of 

 command tend to beget an undue sense of power and a supercilious atti- 

 tude in one's relations with his fellows. The masterful spirit is often 

 overbearing. The head of a large railway, industrial combination or 

 public service corporation in a large city should be enough of a states- 

 man to understand what the public wants as well as what is good for 

 the general welfare, and in a democracy the man who feels that he be- 

 longs to a superior class is unable to understand his fellow men and is 

 incapacitated for this service. 



Sixthly, political agitation that is sane and efficient makes for busi- 

 ness stability, or at least any ill effects are temporary and are far out- 

 weighed by the good effects that abide. It is easy enough to understand 

 why bankers and others who deal with such a sensitive thing as credit 

 view anything that unsettles business with alarm, but there is less excuse 

 for failure to see that the cause of unsettled business is not the agitation 

 which issues out of grievances but the grievances themselves. Reform 

 that is genuine and real is the foundation of enduring prosperity. So 



is Debates of Lincoln and Douglas, op. cit., p. 22. 

 i* July 12, 1913, p. 86. 



