in the great cities. The number of men who can stand the rigor of
out-door life, and the exigencies of labor afield, grows smaller year by
year.

Adulterated food, sedentary work at machines which require practically
no skill to operate, and dispiriting home surroundings have brought
millions of men to a mental and physical condition which makes them
little better than slaves.

These truths Trueman and his co-workers endeavor to impress upon the
people. In some districts the audiences evince interest in the
arguments. In others the speakers are met with open derision.

"We are content to work in our present places," some of the laborers
assert. "Are we not sure of getting our bread as it is? If we were to
bring on a revolution where would our next day's wage come from?"

To this argument, which exhibits to what a debased position the
wage-earner has sunk, the Independence party leaders who have formed the
party of the fragment of free-minded men that still remains, marshal all
the arguments of logic and political economy. They appeal to the pride,
the decency of the men, to drag themselves from the slough into which
they have fallen. The appeals are fervent, yet their effect seems
uncertain.

The terror of "lock-outs," of massacres done under the seal of the law,
is vividly recalled.

In 1900 the people had made a desperate effort to throw off the yoke of
the Trusts. They had failed and been made to feel the lash of their
victors. Eight years have passed, during which the Trusts have become
impregnable, the people impotent.

Trueman is in St. Louis on a flying trip. This city of two millions is
the great centre of the labor organizations.

It is Friday night, and the local headquarters is the scene of wild
excitement. It resembles nothing more closely than a camp on the eve of
battle. Leaders from all districts of the city are on hand to receive
final instructions, as in a camp they would be given ammunition, rations
and assignment of positions. The determined expression that marks the
face of a man who is set at a task which involves his entire future, is
upon every man who enters the headquarters. The fountain of their
inspiration is Trueman, who has a word for everyone. He seems to be
everywhere and to be able to do all things.

From the hour of his triumph at Chicago he has won the support of the
rural districts. Mass meetings have been held in villages, hamlets and
cross-roads in all the States. In the