city is made up of infinite interests. They vary from hour to hour,
and conflict is the law of their being. Many of the elements of social
life are what mathematicians term "variables of the independent
order." The problem is, to reconcile these conflicting interests and
variable elements into one organization which shall work without jar,
and allow each citizen to pursue his calling, if it be an honest one,
in peace and quiet.

Now, turn to the Bridge. It looks like a motionless mass of masonry
and metal; but, as a matter of fact, it is instinct with motion. There
is not a particle of matter in it which is at rest even for the
minutest portion of time. It is an aggregation of unstable elements,
changing with every change in the temperature, and every movement of
the heavenly bodies. The problem was, out of these unstable elements,
to produce absolute stability; and it was this problem which the
engineers, the organized intelligence, had to solve, or confess to
inglorious failure. The problem has been solved. In the first
construction of suspension bridges it was attempted to check, repress
and overcome their motion, and failure resulted. It was then seen that
motion is the law of existence for suspension bridges, and provision
was made for its free play. Then they became a success. The Bridge
before us elongates and contracts between the extremes of temperature
from 14 to 16 inches; the vertical rise and fall in the centre of the
main span ranges between 2 ft. 3 in. and 2 ft. 9 in.; and before the
suspenders were attached to the cable it actually 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
emotions, 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 organized 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 contracts. Of this state of affairs