"predatory wealth"; "unjailed malefactors," they are subjects of
continuous "grilling" in the congressional and legislative committee
rooms. The effort to make them "disgorge" is as continual as it is
noisy, and, as a rule, futile. It constitutes a curious and in some
respects instructive exhibition of misdirected popular feeling and
legislative incompetence. None the less, the existence of a monopolist
class calls for no proof at the bar of public opinion. Not so the other
and even more privileged class,--the so-called "wage-earner"; for,
disguise it as the trades-unionist will, angrily deny it as he does, the
fact remains that to-day under the operation of our jury system and of
our laws, the Wage-earner and the member of the Trades-Union has become,
as respects the rest of the community, himself a monopolist and,
moreover, privileged as such. Practically, crimes urged and even
perpetrated in behalf of so-called "labor" receive at the hands of
juries, and also not infrequently of courts, an altogether excessive
degree of merciful consideration. At the same time, both here and in
Europe Organized Labor is instant in its demand that immunity, denied
to ordinary citizens, and those whom it terms "the classes," shall by
special exemption be conferred upon the Labor Union and upon the
Wage-earner. The tendency on both sides and at each extreme to
inequality in the legislature and before the law is thus manifest.

Viewing conditions face to face and as they now are, no thoughtful
observer can, in my judgment, avoid the conviction that, whether for
good or ill, for better or for worse, this country as a community has,
within the last thirty years--that is, we will say, since our centennial
year, 1876--cast loose from its original moorings. It has drifted, and
is drifting, into unknown seas. Nor is this true of English-speaking
America alone. I have already quoted Lord Morley in another connection.
Lord Morley, however, only the other day delivered, as Chancellor of