352 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the main span ranges between two feet three inches and two feet nine 

 inches ; and before the suspenders were attached to the cable it actu- 

 ally revolved on its own axis through an arc of thirty degrees, when 

 exposed to the sun shining upon it on one side. You do not perceive 

 this motion, and you would know nothing about it unless you watched 

 the gauges which record its movement. 



Now, if our political system were guided by organized intelligence, 

 it would not seek to repress the free play of human interests and emo- 

 tions, of human hopes and fears, but would make provision for their 

 development and exercise, in accordance with the higher law of liberty 

 and morality. A large portion of our vices and crimes are created 

 either by law or its maladministration. These laws exist because or- 

 ganized ignorance, like a highwayman with a club, is permitted to 

 stand in the way of wise legislation and honest administration, and to 

 demand satisfaction from the spoils of office and the profits of con- 

 tracts. Of this state of affairs we complain, and on great occasions 

 the community arises in its wrath and visits summary punishment on 

 the offenders of the hour, and then relapses into chronic grumbling 

 until grievances sufficiently accumulate to stir it again to action. 



What is the remedy for this state of affairs ? Shall there be no 

 more political parties, and shall we shatter the political machinery 

 which, bad as it is, is far better than no machinery at all ? Shall we 

 embrace nihilism as our creed, because we have practical communism 

 forced upon us as the consequence of jobbery and the imposition of 

 unjust taxes? 



No, let us rather learn the lesson of the bridge. Instead of at- 

 tempting to restrict suffrage, let us try to educate the voters ; instead 

 of disbanding parties, let each citizen within the party always vote, 

 but never for a man who is unfit to hold office. Thus parties, as well 

 as voters, will be organized on the basis of intelligence. 



But what man is fit to hold office ? Only he who regards political 

 office as a public trust, and not as a private perquisite to be used for 

 the pecuniary advantage of himself, or his family, or even his party. 

 Is there intelligence enough in these cities, if thus organized within 

 the parties, to produce the result which we desire? Why, the over- 

 throw of the Tweed ring was conclusive evidence of the preponderance 

 of public virtue in the city of New York. In no other country in the 

 world, and in no other political system than one which provides for 

 and secures universal suffrage, would such a sudden and peaceful 

 revolution have been possible. The demonstration of this fact was 

 richly worth the twenty-five or thirty millions of dollars which the 

 thieves had stolen. Thereafter and thenceforth there was no doubt 

 whether our city population, heterogeneous as it is, contains within 

 itself sufficient virtue for its own preservation. Let it never be for- 

 gotten that the remedy is complete, that it is ever present, that no 

 man ought to be deprived of the opportunity of its exercise, and that, 



