more as it was for a century, not a standing army of idle soldiers,
but an active army of free men, busied by day in the fields and in the
workshops; resting by night under cover of their homes, surrounded by
their happy families; an army that is ready at an instant's call to
fight for the protection of their Flag and their Homes."

"The united armies of the world would hesitate to face the legions of
contented freemen. Our power in the world will be increased more by a
fleet of merchant ships than by squadrons of steel battleships.

"We want a National Militia, to be composed of every able bodied man,
who in the hours of peace prepares against the possibility of war. We
want a Navy strong enough to represent our interest on every sea; a
Naval Reserve strong enough to convert our Merchant Marine into the
greatest fleet in the world, should need arise.

"We want, and we will succeed in getting the Army of the Unemployed
mustered out.

"With us rests the duty of selecting a mustering officer; a man to carry
out the wishes of the people; a man who is temperate in his judgment,
unswerving in his purpose and unimpeachable in his integrity; a man in
whom the people may place full confidence. With such a man as a
candidate on the platform we shall adopt, the will of the people cannot
be thwarted.

"We can frame the platform. Where is the man?"

"Trueman! Trueman!" comes the cry.

From mouth to mouth the name passes; now it is shrieked by an entire
state delegation; now by the entire assemblage. Louder and louder
becomes the cry. It is chanted, sung, shouted, shrieked. Men who have
shouted themselves hoarse utter it inarticulately.

In the centre of the floor there is a movement; the guidon of New York
is moving. It is being borne toward the Pennsylvania delegation.

Another and another state guidon follows in its wake. The convention is
in an uproar.

Ten, twenty of the delegations are now swarming about the standard of
Pennsylvania. The galleries keep up the incessant shout of "Trueman!
Trueman!"

A hundred men are clustered about the speaker as he stands, awed by the
outburst of enthusiasm. He is picked up and placed on the shoulders of
his friends.

The delegations who have rallied to his support now number forty; they
are moving toward the platform. The men carrying Trueman go to meet
them.

The climax is reached. Trueman is carried round and round the hall, the
enthusiasm of the delegates reaching the po