most sent a man to jail because he couldn't
understand the lawyer's questions. I put the lawyer's language into
simpler words, and the man then understood and quickly cleared himself
of the charge against him. At another time, the mill owners petitioned
for the vacation of an alley because they wanted to build a railroad
switch there to give access to a loading-out station of the mill.

"I suppose," their representative told me, "that since this would be
a favor to the mill, and you were opposed by the mill owners, you will
hand it to us in this matter."

"Why should I?" I asked. "Don't you think you ought to have this alley?"

"Certainly we do, or we wouldn't have asked for it."

"Do you think the city needs the alley worse than you do?"

"No. It is an alley only on paper. There are no residences there and
nobody needs the alley but us."

"But you think because I am a labor man and you are a mill owner, and
you and I have had many hot fights over wage questions, that I will
fight you on this just for spite?"

"Such things have been done."

"Well, I am not spiteful. Many a time I have made the men mad at me by
being fair to you. Spite and malice should have no place in dealings
between employer and employee. If you had a chance, would you give the
men a dirty deal just for spite?"

"We're business men," he said. "And we never act through malice, but we
often expect it from the other side."

"Well, don't expect it from me. As a city official my whole duty is to
the city. If we give you that railroad switch it will help the mill and
can't hurt the city. Without your mills there would be no city here, and
all the alleys would be vacated, with grass growing in them. If I took
advantage of my city job to oppress your mill business, I would be two
kinds of a scoundrel, a public scoundrel and a private one. I favor the
vacation of the alley and when the council meets next Wednesday I am
sure they will do this for you."

CHAPTER XLII. THE EVERLASTING MORALIZER

I played the game fair throughout my term of office. I hate dishonesty
instinctively. I like the approval of my own conscience and the approval
of men. This is egotism, of course. I claim nothing else for it. I am no
prophet. I do not claim to be inspired. The weaknesses that all flesh
is heir to, I am not immune from. I write this story not to vindicate my
own wit nor to point out new paths for human thought to follow. I am a
follower of the old trai