374 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



fill repute of being a free-trader, a visionary, and 

 a socialist. 



Time brings its revenges and the people are 

 flocking to the standard under which the patient 

 few have waited. The character of the heathen- 

 ish, yes, the taboo, tariff is becoming understood 

 and the plea of its supporters now is that the can- 

 cerous growth should be extirpated slowly. 



I urged that the Post Office Department, 

 which is the only great business in this country 

 which is beneficently run, establish, or take over, 

 its natural adjuncts, the telegraph and the tele- 

 phone. The latter was in its infancy then and 

 the delay in establishing it as a Government 

 function has worked a vast loss to the people, but 

 glory be, they are soon coming into their rights. 

 How futile was my plea for a parcels post w r as 

 clear when the representative of the Express 

 Trust in the Senate of the United States could 

 sneer down the call of a Postmaster General in 

 behalf of the people. Now at the first tentative 

 tilt between a Government department and the 

 Express Trust the latter was unhorsed while the 



