anywhere else. They'd ruin our prosperity, if we'd let 'em."

"How about the thousands of families who don't earn enough to live
decently even in times of prosperity?" inquired Krebs.

"It's hard, I'll admit, but the inefficient and the shiftless are bound
to suffer, no matter what form of government you adopt."

"You talk about standards of living,--I could show you some examples of
standards to make your heart sick," he said. "What you don't realize,
perhaps, is that low standards help to increase the inefficient of whom
you complain."

He smiled rather sadly. "The prosperity you are advocating," he added,
after a moment, "is a mere fiction, it is gorging the few at the expense
of the many. And what is being done in this country is to store up an
explosive gas that some day will blow your superstructure to atoms if you
don't wake up in time."

"Isn't that a rather one-sided view, too?" I suggested.

"I've no doubt it may appear so, but take the proceedings in this
legislature. I've no doubt you know something about them, and that you
would maintain they are justified on account of the indifference of the
public, and of other reasons, but I can cite an instance that is simply
legalized thieving." For the first time a note of indignation crept into
Krebs's voice. "Last night I discovered by a mere accident, in talking to
a man who came in on a late train, that a bill introduced yesterday,
which is being rushed through the Judiciary Committee of the House--an
apparently innocent little bill--will enable, if it becomes a law, the