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AJAX DEFIED THE LIGHTNING 
 
 444305 
 
Copyright 1920 
 
 by 
 
 LeoD F. Dou(;^>^<a 
 
TO 
 
 ELDRIDGE R.JOHNSON 
 
 A fair-minded and moat unselfish man, 
 who has been my inspiration and guide 
 
 LEON F. DOUGLASS 
 
 San Rafael, California 
 
 June, 1919 
 
AJAX DEFIED THE LiGHTNllVfc * * 
 
 Ajax, it is said, defied the lightning. If he did, he was a 
 fool. A zip-cr-r-ack, and Ajax, as the old Latins would tell 
 us, "has been." Far saner would he have proved himself, 
 had he allowed the thunder to do the talking, while he quietly 
 slipped out of his armor and made record time for the nearest 
 shelter. When the lightning was zigzagging in the sky it 
 was time for him to get in out of the rain. It was silly stage- 
 play to defy the forces of Nature. He had nothing to gain. 
 He had everything to lose. Jupiter needn't have been very 
 particular in taking aim: a coat-of-mail would, by its very 
 attractiveness, have drawn the bolt to the right spot. Ajax, 
 we repeat, was a fool, and every sensible man will agree 
 with us. Far wiser was Franklin. He wooed the Nature 
 that Ajax had defied, and with a simple plaything of child- 
 hood enriched mankind with forces that have made the mod- 
 ern world. "Thy eye," said the lover in Shakespeare, "Jove's 
 lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder, Which, not 
 to anger bent, is music and sweet fire." (Love's Labor Lost.) 
 Defy Nature, contend with Nature and you reap destruction ; 
 bend to her will, observe her laws, and the discords of life 
 will be blended into music, the dross of our humanity will be 
 purified by her sacred fire. Ajax, defiance of Nature, war, 
 decadence; Franklin, conformity with Nature, peace, prog- 
 ress; good and evil, to be determined by choice; this is the 
 lot of human life. The choice is life to the individual. The 
 choice is fife to the race. The part of Ajax is manifold and 
 many play it unaw^es. In condemning him it behooves us 
 to examine in how far we are condemning ourselves. 
 
 [11 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 ' ' J*or the Laws of Nature are not those only that regulate 
 and harmonize mere material existence; that now bind now 
 separate the atoms in her wondrous laboratory; nor to these 
 that robe the earth in verdure; that swell in the bud and 
 ripen in the fruit; that pulse in the sea, and vibrate in the 
 sun, and bind the spheres in harmonious unity. Her sway 
 is not limited to these. She reaches up into the higher lives 
 of her children and establishes laws for our humanity which, 
 if observed, are more beneficent than electricity, if defied or 
 even deviated from, are more destructive than the thunder- 
 bolt. Far back in the ages she had formed all. In each in- 
 stance she rules all. Nothing is too small to escape her 
 notice: nothing too great to tax her power. Her laws are 
 universal and fixed. Strive as we may, rebel as we may, we 
 cannot escape them. 
 
 All successful human laws, therefore, must be based upon 
 the Laws of Nature. For the solution of the problems of 
 every phase of life, conformity to Nature's code is necessary, 
 for she is the source and the guide, the ultimate rule of all 
 human achievement. 
 
 And note how wonderfully, and simply, and on what 
 broad lines she proceeds. The beauty and fairness of Na- 
 ture is, that she makes one set of laws for all. Rich or poor, 
 strong or weak, great or small, all must obey alike. She 
 
 knows no favoritism. She grants no exemption. Her laws 
 
 ' . . 
 
 are immutable. She judges impartially and punishes in- 
 
 falhbly all transgressors. Human law is imperfect, hence 
 its need of equity. Where equity is absent, there enter privi- 
 lege, immunity, exemption, partiality. Exemptions breed 
 jealousies; and jealousies, war. Were man to conform to 
 
 121 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 and co-operate with Nature's laws, we would enjoy a para- 
 dise on earth; by ignoring and violating them, we have the 
 world as it is. 
 
 But Nature not only supplies a rule for human conduct, 
 she is equally generous in supplying a remedy for every 
 human ill. Selfishness, envy, greed, egotism and vanity are 
 the most common failings of mankind. They are devilations 
 from the beauty of her ideal, but Nature is never thwarted. 
 Love undermines the fortress of selfishness; open-handedness 
 will level the ramparts of envy; shame will put greed to 
 flight; the desire for the respect of our fellowmen will fetter 
 our egotism and vanity. Man is ruled by the degree of in- 
 telligence bestowed on him by Nature. His every act is 
 weighed in her unerring scale. When by his misdeeds he 
 violates virtue, Nature punishes him that she may restore 
 the balance she exacts of all. To see her equalize the bal- 
 ance, we have only to consider the simple, ordinary in- 
 cidents of every-day life, in which selfishness, greed, envy, 
 egotism and vanity forai the chief cast, with selfishness in 
 the leading role. 
 
 It behooves us, therefore, to bend to her wise and potent 
 sway, and accept, with a willing heart, laws that are made 
 solely for our benefit. The farmer must observe them if he 
 wishes the earth to open up her treasures. The doctor's work 
 is vain if Nature withhold her aid. For every poison she 
 has supplied an antidote. No scientist can invent success- 
 fully except by strict adherence to her laws. The manufac- 
 turer knows that he must make no effort to evade them. All 
 success in life is their product — attempts at evasion result 
 inevitably in failure. 
 
 [3] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning, 
 
 The framers of human laws, however, from time imme- 
 morial, have foolishly sought to evade Nature's precepts and 
 have broken the higher code; and the pages of history are 
 stained with the tears of the millions who have suffered in 
 consequence. Defiance of them is the defiance of Ajax, and 
 we know him for a fool. It is because human laws and hu- 
 man lives conflict with Nature's laws, that, in retahation, 
 she punishes us with strikes and rebellions, and unleashes 
 upon humanity the dogs of war. 
 
 We do not need to delve deeply into the records of the 
 past to prove our assertion, for the history of the hour reveals 
 it in a flood of light. What is responsible for the present 
 state of Russia? The unnatural condition of her laws. 
 Her rulers, glutted with an autocratic power, made the laws 
 subservient to their private interests, partial to their favor- 
 ites, and unfair and adverse to the common people. The 
 laws of Nature were set at nought. The Czar, as Ajax, de- 
 fied the lightning, and it struck, struck with fearful precision 
 and resulting havoc, and the tempest of rebellion swept 
 across the land. Throne and palace crumbled in its path, 
 and the hut of the hitherto oppressed and despised peasant 
 became the seat of power. But alas! and this is the sad part, 
 the masses rising in their might, have been as false to the 
 laws of Nature as the ruler whom they dethroned; and glutted 
 in turn with power, have fallen into equal if not worse ex- 
 cesses. Nature's pendulum of justice and of fairness is not 
 allowed to oscillate in obedience to its laws, and drawn too 
 much to one side by ignorance, and rapacity, and thirst for 
 revenge, it has swung violently to the other side into the 
 bands of those who, led astray by idealistic, unpractical and 
 
 [4] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 unnatural principles, can never work out the peace and hap- 
 piness of humanity. By its fair and even and well-balanced 
 motion instituted by Nature, its regulator, the pendulum of 
 justice, should swing impartially between ruler and ruled, 
 marking out for each the blessings of our common existence; 
 but violently drawn to either side in defiance of its laws, 
 both must ultimately suffer in the inevitable reaction. But 
 human authority is ever greedy and history repeats itself. 
 
 Nature is unselfish and loves to give of her abundance. 
 Man too often is selfish and chnging tenaciously to what he 
 has, strives to grab from others. Selfishness is the root of 
 most of the faults of mankind individually and collectively. 
 Overlooking the golden mean, men usually sin against dis- 
 cretion and lose that for which they are striving as well as 
 that which they already have. Ajax was not satisfied with 
 the arms with which he defied the lightning. He wanted 
 those of Achilles, and when they were given to Ulysses, he 
 lost his mind completely; and imagining that the flocks that 
 supplied food to the camps were the Grecian princes, his 
 imaginary enemies, he laid about him with the sword that bid 
 defiance to the lightning and slaughtered the innocent victims. 
 
 Our country has been divided between the "Wets" and 
 *'Drys." It has not been a fair division of our people, for 
 multitudes who are not "Drys" have had no sympathy with 
 the excesses of the "Wets." Still, had the "Wets" been con- 
 tent to abandon strong drink, they might easily have ob- 
 tained a compromise with the "Drys," and eliminating the 
 saloon evil, have saved light wines and beer. Being selfish 
 and unwilling to cede anything, they lost all. But the 
 "Drys," equally unreasonable, have abused their victory by 
 
 [5] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 drastic enactments that have fostered needless discontent. 
 Ajax went mad on account of defeat; the "Drys" went mad 
 on account of success, and imagining every moderate user 
 to be in league with their enemies, they have laid about them 
 with the sword of the law, fancying that they were serving 
 justice in this wholesale slaughter. The "Flu" victim may 
 die for want of a needed stimulant. WTiat is that to them? 
 "More," they tell us coldly, "died from drink." And are 
 not others still dying from drink .^ And will not others still 
 die from substitutes that are worse than drink? But again, 
 what is it to the extreme "Drys," provided that they can 
 slay in their madness? Nature stands for moderation. 
 Excess on either side is baleful. Virtue and Nature tread 
 the middle path. 
 
 Capital, too, has been selfish and ridden rough-shod over 
 the rights of Labor. It violated Nature's law and lost much 
 of what it formerly possessed. In recent years it has been 
 brought to a consciousness of its error and has shown an in- 
 clination to meet Labor half way. At present the wage 
 earners are receiving more, buying more, and for all that, 
 complaining more. The sale of non-essentials is limited 
 only by manufacturing capacity and is no longer restricted 
 to the wealthy. Capital, on the other hand, is yielding a 
 smaller and smaller revenue on investment. The bond- 
 holders' four per cent income has shrunk in purchasing ca- 
 pacity to two per cent, and is still further diminished by the 
 large portion that must be paid the Government in the form 
 of taxes. 
 
 So the pendulum is swinging — swinging — not in justice 
 and fairness, but too much on the side of Labor; yet Labor 
 
 [6] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 is over-greedy and demanding more and more. It is nothing 
 to the raihoad employees that the roads are operated at a 
 loss — that the burden of expense is more than traffic can bear. 
 Their demands become only more exorbitant and insistent. 
 What is it to them? * The public must traffic," so they rea- 
 son, "let the public pay." Have they, therefore, ceased to 
 be part of the public and become a privileged class to which 
 the public interests must be totally subordinated.^ Discre- 
 tion should teach them that when more water is drawn from 
 a well than is made up by the inflow, the well goes dry ; and 
 that the chief sufferers are those who are dependent on its 
 waters. No man ploughs and sows and harrows his field 
 that his neighbors, and the passers-by, and the farm help 
 may reap the crop and leave him the expense account and 
 the stubble. Labor would sneer at the proposal were it 
 asked to do likewise, yet it insists that Capital be satisfied 
 to do so. Nature in her fairness dictates that those who 
 have contributed to the result should share proportionately 
 in the profits. "We have done it all," Labor extremists say, 
 "the whole profit is ours." They have not done it all and 
 they know it; and those who are loudest in their shouting 
 are those who have done the least, for they are salaried 
 officials who never put their hand to labor. Discretion, 
 were it listened to, would make Labor standardize the great 
 gains already made. Collective bargaining would be a fair 
 compromise, were collective bargaining not to degenerate 
 into collective dictating. The aristocracy of caste is re- 
 pugnant to democratic ideals, and hence the aristocracy of 
 unions is repugnant to democracy and Nature. Labor 
 unions would corner Labor in the interest of their members, 
 
 [7] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 and those who will not join them or whom they exclude from 
 membership, are denied the right to live. They undermine 
 the very foundations of our Government when they assail 
 the individual freedom of the workman; they attack the 
 fundamental law of Nature which gives every man a right 
 to use his energies in the struggle for existence. If there be 
 a corner in wheat, or cotton, or coffee, or coal, or any similar 
 article. Union Labor is unstinted in its condemnation. What 
 would it say if the corner were in air and sunlight.^ Yet 
 Labor is as necessary to Ufe as the air we breathe and the 
 sunlight that vivifies the world — what judgment, therefore, 
 should we pass on its corner in Labor. 
 
 Germany, in the days of her might, held an enviable 
 place in the forefront of nations. By industry, and thrift, 
 and marvelous organization she spread her influence through- 
 out the world. "Germany above all" was lisped in infancy; 
 "Germany above all" was the watchword of life; "Germany 
 above all" was almost a religion ; to many, in fact, it was so. 
 But she failed to realize that she was well off, and sought a 
 place in the sun. Ajax was not fool enough for that, fool 
 though he was. Even the fabled Icarus was content with a 
 lower flight, though even he came to grief. The waxen 
 wings of selfishness may lift us from the ground, but they 
 melt when we need them most; and the height to which they 
 raise us is the downward starting point of our ruin. Selfish- 
 ness impels us indiscreetly, selfishness dazzles and blinds us, 
 and few are they that can discern what is for their real good. 
 
 Nature indeed urges men to progress, and to force them 
 onward she has implanted in the human heart a spirit of un- 
 rest. But we should not allow envy and jealousy to supplant 
 
 [8] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 Nature and pervert and misdirect her forces. Nature 
 holds a fair and even balance, but jealousy and envy see 
 only one arm of it, and never stop to examine what is offered 
 by the other. The plowboy whistling in the fields at sunrise 
 envies the soft bed and late hours of his rich master; and the 
 rich master, after a sleepless night, envies the health and the 
 buoyancy of heart of the care-free plowboy. The Packard 
 owner is the envy of the possessor of a Ford ; and the owner 
 of the Ford is, in turn, envied by him that has to walk. We 
 weary ourselves with desires of things beyond our reach, and 
 vainly imagine that we will be happy then only when we 
 have more than another. The impulse is good but we must 
 wisely curb it. Like a generous horse it will bear us on our 
 way, but not safely unless kept well in hand. Nature spurs 
 the laggard but checks the reckless. Ambition there should 
 be in all to acquire more than the bare necessaries of life. 
 Nature blesses such ambition, for she wishes not only the 
 existence but the comfortable existence of her ofiFspring. 
 Without such incentive civilization would stagnate. But 
 while the impulse to betterment is common, it is not intended 
 in life to have a sameness of expression. The air in an organ 
 is the same but the pipes give forth a varying note, differing 
 in quaUty and pitch, but all attuned to blend into an entranc- 
 ing harmony. Some are lower, some higher, but all are pro- 
 portioned to the resultant unity. Such is Nature's plan in 
 the harmony of human activities. All men might like to be 
 president, few may be. Yet it would be silly to abolish the 
 presidential chair because few may sit in it. Human society 
 is an organic body. Not all its members have the same 
 function; nor, for mutual benefit, is it desirable that they 
 
 19] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 should have. What would our body be if it were all tongue? 
 Nature is wiser, and she has made the various parts different; 
 but so that without envy or jealousy and in mutual co-opera- 
 tion, each shall contribute to the welfare of all. These facts 
 are noted with the fleeting hope that their expression may 
 stir up thoughts tending to produce a contentment of mind 
 which is satisfied with the reasonable without striving for 
 the unattainable. 
 
 But do not imagine that we are of the class of mere fault- 
 finders who exempt themselves from the foibles and imper- 
 fections of our race. We have no sympathy with the self- 
 righteous. We are one of the many and ready to apply to 
 ourselves what we suggest to others, for it is by self-analysis 
 and criticism coupled with a willingness to accept criticism 
 from others, that Nature helps us on the road to self-improve- 
 ment, and that it is through this philosophy that she would 
 perfect us. In every human heart there is good; in none 
 absolute perfection. We are wary of the Pharisee with his 
 self-commendation. He is trying to sell his goods. "He is 
 not like other men." Thank heaven! We would pity other 
 men if he were. Ajax bragged too much of his deeds and 
 lost the arms of Achilles. "Behold," he said, "the Trojans 
 brought the sword, and fire, and the power of Jove himself 
 against the Grecian fleet; where was the eloquent Ulysses 
 then? And I, with my breast, defended your thousand 
 ships, your sole hope of return to your country." (Ovid, 
 Metamorphoses, Bk. XHI, 91-94.) A little modesty, Ajax, 
 would have shown your deeds to better advantage. 
 
 Nature supplies the power but has given us reason to 
 guide it. Without discretion, power is dangerous to its 
 
 1 10 J 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 possessor. A judge remonstrated with his clerk for carrying 
 a gun. The clerk, nevertheless, persisted in carrying it. In 
 court, one day, he called a man a liar. The latter, infuriated, 
 snatched a chair from the floor, but the clerk drawing his 
 gun, intimidated him and prevented the assault. Thinking 
 it an excellent opportunity of justifying his conduct in going 
 armed, he said to the judge, "You see, if I didn't have that 
 gun, he would have brained me." "Not at all," said the 
 judge, "for if you didn't have the gun you would have had 
 brains enough not to call him a liar." 
 
 And as with individuals in power, so is it with parties. 
 Had Germany not had her guns ready, she would not have 
 tried to force her will on the nations, and war would not 
 have resulted. But the guns that bombarded Paris, could, 
 had they reached the French coast, have bombarded London; 
 and the way was clear, she thought, since only a scrap of 
 paper barred her from the road through Belgium. So she 
 smiled, as she entered the contest, at the surprise she was to 
 spring upon an unsuspecting world. The man or nation 
 armed for trouble is not long in finding it. If all nations 
 would disarm, the dove of peace would not have to beat a 
 despairing wing above the troubled waters of international 
 peace. 
 
 Study as we may, we shall never fully comprehend the 
 wonders of Nature. "The mill will never grind with the 
 waters that have passed," sings the poet. "A moment," 
 says the scientist, "the thought is pretty, but it isn't true. 
 The mill will grind again and many, many times with this 
 very water." "But the law of Nature bears it away to the 
 distant sea," you say. True, but the laws of Nature will 
 
 [111 
 
Afax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 bear it back infallibly again. The sun will pick it up and 
 shape it into clouds, and the wind will bear the clouds upon 
 its bosom, and the air will be saturated, and the vapor will 
 condense into rain, and the hills and woods will receive it 
 and restore it to the stream, and the stream will sing on its 
 way, and the mill will grind again. It is a problem of per- 
 petual motion solved under our very eyes, but so common 
 that we give it little thought. There is no chance in the 
 matter. It is the result of clear and unvarying laws, indi- 
 cating the directive intelligence behind it all. And there is, 
 moreover, law, beneficent law, even where there seems a 
 deviation. 
 
 Take the phenomenon of expansion and contraction. 
 The general law is that things expand with the heat and 
 contract with the cold. Water follows this general law^ and 
 expands with heat and contracts with cold, contracts — but 
 behold the wisdom of provident Nature. The freezing point 
 is approached. The procedure is suddenly reversed. Ice 
 is formed and in its condensation we would have expected 
 that it would be heavier than water. The reverse, however, 
 is the case. Ice is lighter than water at the freezing point, 
 and the design and wisdom of Nature is apparent. Were 
 ice heavier than water, all aquatic hfe would be destroyed; 
 for the ice as formed would sink to the bottom instead of 
 floating, and each layer building up a solid structure of ice 
 would cause the whole to congeal; whereas now it forms a 
 protection against the external cold and the fishes swim in 
 their element protected by a barrier of ice. And Natm^e, 
 by a device equally simple and wise has preserved for her 
 children the use of immense tracts of ocean. Moving water 
 
 [12] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 freezes less readily than water at rest, and salt dissolved in 
 water lowers the freezing point; hence the ocean, over the 
 greater part of its extent, remains open always and air-breath- 
 ing sea mammals are preserved and thrive. 
 
 Nature has many detractors. Who is there that hasn't? 
 She is a hard mistress, we are told, and imposes much sick- 
 ness and suffering on her children. Have these complainers 
 ever entered into themselves and asked how they have kept 
 her laws? No, she is not a weak mother, we admit, for she 
 has too many vital interests at stake. A child soon learns 
 that it must not put its finger on a hot stove. Fire destroys 
 the hving tissue and the sense of pain is an efficient warning. 
 If grown-up children continue figuratively to place their 
 fingers on hot stoves, in spite of Nature's warning, they 
 must expect to burn their fingers. The penalty may not 
 always be apparent, but it is always there. Nature is a 
 patient mother and the child that offends in secret, is in 
 secret punished. Culpable selfishness begets greed, and 
 greed feeds on prudence and wisdom. Over-indulgence 
 weakens the faculties abused and renders them less fitted 
 for lawful pleasure. Reasonable self-love is not selfishness. 
 Selfishness is the culpable excess. Self-love is necessary to 
 Nature's children in her law of the Struggle for Existence 
 and Survival of the Fittest. She has given man inteUigence 
 to curb selfishness. InteUigence bids man not to be over- 
 vain, egotistical and wrapped up solely in self. Failure to 
 utifize properly the inteUigence bestowed on us, together 
 with the wide-spread self-delusion that we are smart enough 
 to cheat Nature, cause the greater part of life's troubles. 
 No one would be fooHsh enough to steal, were he certain of 
 
 [131 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 being caught and punished; yet many sin against Nature, 
 when intelligence tells them, or would tell them if they would 
 but listen, that there is no possible escape from detection 
 and from certain punishment. If you offend, then blame 
 yourself that the mistress is hard and the judge severe, from 
 whose decision there is no appeal. The fault is yours. 
 Why offend i^ You thought yourself too clever. You 
 imagined that you could break the law and escape. You 
 should have known that you cannot violate the most insig- 
 nificant of Nature's laws and escape the inevitable punish- 
 ment. "You can fool all of the people some of the time," 
 said Lincoln, "and some of the people all of the time; but 
 you cannot fool all of the people all of the time." Nature is 
 more vigilant than the people; you can never fool her. 
 
 Do you wonder why little children and those who by 
 lack of intelligence are incapable of personal responsibility, 
 are, nevertheless, subjected to suffering, the result of the 
 breaking of these laws unknowingly? The responsibility is 
 on parents and others. It is a double safeguard of Nature 
 thrown around her laws. Our own personal interests might 
 not be strong enough to restrain us; Nature would influence 
 us through the love of those who must suffer with us. The 
 fate of a wife or child is often dearer to us than our own. 
 We wiU hesitate twice before breaking the law, if they, too, 
 must suffer for our misdeeds. Moreover, even if these suf- 
 ferings be not penalty, what beautiful traits of character do 
 they not develop. The hunger of the infant stirs up all the 
 love and solicitude of the mother. Pity, sympathy, confi- 
 dence, generosity, and a host of the sweeter and tenderer 
 affections of our nature, draw their bloom and fragrance 
 
 [14] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 from the root of suffering. In prosperity, in affluence, in 
 our health and strength, we are prone to self-sufficiency, and 
 the ties that should bind us to our fellow mortals shrink and 
 shrivel because neglected; but a mother's loving hand upon 
 our fevered brow, the word of a friend revealing the depth 
 of his sympathy in our sorrow; help given when recompense 
 and self-interest have no part in the bounty; are gifts of 
 Nature more precious than those that glitter. 
 
 But to return from our digression: We insist forcibly 
 and earnestly that the breaking of Nature's laws or the at- 
 tempting to evade them is at the bottom of the misfortunes 
 that have befallen mankind. 
 
 Shakespeare wisely says: "There is a tide in the affairs 
 of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; omitted, 
 all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in mis- 
 eries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must 
 take the current when it serves." We must take the ciu*- 
 rent lest, when the tide turns, we be caught in the ebb. We 
 must keep on the crest of the tide, that our vessel be not 
 stranded and topple over in the mud, or be wedged in by 
 the drifting sands. A man does a great deed, and floats on 
 the waves of popular applause; he must be careful of the 
 shifting wind and tide, lest he drift into the shallows. 
 Heedlessness of Nature's laws invites destruction. Be he 
 over-selfish or over-ambitious he will take too many risks 
 and skirt a treacherous shore. If truly great, he will keep 
 his mental balance and give his ship due leaway. 
 
 Napoleon met his Waterloo, and most men who at the 
 flood-time of their fortunes have been lauded to the skies, 
 have met a similar fate. The exceptions to the rule are 
 
 [15] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning, 
 
 chiefly those who, like Lincoln, passed away before the ebb 
 set in. Admiral Dewey upon his return from Manila Bay 
 was honored as few of our countrymen have ever been. A 
 grateful people presented him with a home. Great in war, 
 his popularity sufl'ered shipwreck in peace. The gift was 
 made Avithout conditions, indeed, but owing to its personal 
 nature, deUcacy dictated that he keep it in his name. The 
 gift was to him. His popularity vanished when he trans- 
 ferred it to his wife. He died of a broken heart. Fortunate 
 is the man who does not place his supreme happiness in 
 fame. A bevy of gushing maidens was the undoing of Hob- 
 son, "The Hero of the Merrimac." He could navigate a 
 narrow channel but not when sirens hned the shores. "Hob- 
 son's choice" was "Thumbs down" for Hobson. Roosevelt, 
 though he will live in history as a great American, struck a 
 reef when he started the "Progressive Party." He will live 
 in history because in spite of mistakes he was truly great; 
 and he was truly great because he lived so close to Nature. 
 The great and fearless naturally make many enemies. We 
 say naturally, but it would be more exact to say unnaturally, 
 for envy and jealousy of greatness are not the effect of any 
 of the laws of Nature, but are the effect of the violation of 
 her laws. Nature is broad in her sympathies. The envious 
 and jealous are narrow. Others soar above them, and they 
 are unable or too lazy to follow. They would chp the pin- 
 ions of the eagle to keep him on the plane of the mud-hen. 
 But to be true to Nature, the great and fearless must, on 
 their part, preserve due mental balance. Greatness in it- 
 self receives fruition in its acknowledgment by the people. 
 Fictitious greatness may hold the popular fancy for a time, but 
 
 [16] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 the gilding inevitably wears off and displays the baser metal 
 beneath. Nature is the enemy of shame. But popular fancy 
 and public approval at their best are fickle. Trivial things will 
 win them ; trivial things destroy. Washington is better known 
 by the episode of the cherry tree than by his war-craft or 
 statesmanship. It is unfortunate that the little hatchet 
 should symbolize the "Father of our Country" rather than 
 some other symbol more worthy of the great truth-teller. 
 Had Wilson cast his anchor at the height of his tide on 
 November 11, 1918, he would have gone down in history as 
 a peer among men. But extravagant idealism drove his 
 bark upon the rocks. He was easily the first and foremost 
 man of the New World, but, like Alexander, he looked for 
 more worlds to conquer and turned his eyes yearningly to 
 the Old. He forgot that Europe was the graveyard of repu- 
 tations and fancied that, like Caesar, he had only to appear 
 on the scene and write for posterity, "I came, I saw, I con- 
 quered." He could not realize that Caesar's task was 
 child's play to his. He had lived in the clouds and thought 
 that he could lift Europe weighted with its traditions, its 
 prejudices, its diplomacy, to the airy heights of his favorite 
 abode. The reception given him was enough to turn any 
 man's head. He bore his own personality but he was more 
 than Wilson; he was the representative of the American 
 people. He was two in one, and he should ever have kept 
 clearly before his mind the real distinction that existed be- 
 tween the two. It was not Wilson that was feted. It was 
 the American people. The hand of royalty clasped the 
 hand of republicanism. At least so it should have done. 
 It is unfortunate that it found only the hand of Wilson. He 
 
 [17] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 thought that he was to be the new savior of humanity, 
 when Nature intended, if indeed it so intended, that it should 
 be America. He was the prophet of high American ideals; 
 but the prophet is only the mouthpiece, not the source of 
 inspiration. He confounded the two and fell. He had 
 reached the topmost rung of the ladder of fame, and, losing 
 his balance, as the winds of national contentions swept 
 around him, and the currents of secret intrigue and agree- 
 ments shocked him, he had but one way to go and that was 
 downward. On the way up the ladder of fame, the man 
 striving may have many hands to help him; on the way 
 down the number is doubled, and a lot of others would gladly 
 help the descent, could they only get near enough to be of 
 assistance. Alas that the period of only a few short months 
 should separate the top of fame's ladder from the mud at 
 its foot! Had he alone suffered, it would not be so bad. 
 But Wilson as Wilson, and Wilson as America's president, 
 were unfortunately coupled together, and, as one fell he 
 dragged the other with him. Nature requires the ballast of 
 discretion to give poise to her other gifts, and nowhere is it 
 needed more and more rarely found than on the giddy 
 heights of fame. Ajax lacked it and all the race of Ajax. 
 
 We have jotted down these thoughts on the laws of Na- 
 ture, their observance, their benefits, their violations and 
 sanctions, without much attention to logical order or se- 
 quence. For we think that Ali Baba was happier in his 
 cave with his treasures scattered about him than if he lived 
 in a museum with every article tagged and in perfect order ; 
 and so we are happier with our thoughts, taking now this, 
 now that — at random — and offering it to our friends, content 
 
 fl8] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 if it have some value in itself, or even if it be deemed by 
 them to have some out of kind consideration. 
 
 We shall now proceed to consider some details of our 
 legislation which do not seem to us conformable to the jus- 
 tice of natural law. 
 
 It is a regrettable fact, but one, nevertheless, of daily 
 experience, that when people go jazzing and jazzing around 
 and tread on the corns of others, there is only a playful 
 smile on the faces of the indifferent, or a rude guffaw from 
 those who like to see others suffer. The jazzers must touch 
 their own corns before connection is made with their intel- 
 lect. The Government needed revenue and Congress started 
 jazzing. Congressmen are always happy to jazz, except 
 when the salaries of Congressmen, or franking privileges, or 
 mileage, or similar important national interests are con- 
 cerned; on which occasions a balking mule could in a race 
 give them a generous handicap and win hands down. And 
 so in matter of taxes; for as they did not have to pay the 
 piper they jazzed with gusto and trod heavily on many a 
 com. But, after all, the corns were only those of the very 
 wealthy. Those whose corns had escaped smiled blandly ; *'We 
 would gladly pay the tax," they said, "if we had the income." 
 But the jazzer inevitably goes faster, and naturally becomes 
 more careless of his feet, and so the law, taxing incomes, 
 touched many another com, and the smilers no longer smiled, 
 for smiles and smarting corns are not on speaking terms, and a 
 great cry went up, "Unfair! Vicious! Confiscatory!" 
 
 The fundamental principle of our Constitution is equal 
 rights for all. It is the principle of Nature. On this foun- 
 dation we have reared the greatest nation upon earth. It 
 
 [19] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 is broad and solid and of prime material. But man may 
 spoil the best of Nature's works. Discriminating laws have 
 been passed, others will follow. The wedge has been driven 
 in; it is there for other blows to drive it deeper. Discrimin- 
 ating legislation is class legislation. Discriminating legis- 
 lation is the legal separation of the common mass into dis- 
 tinct bodies, with separate and distinct interests, and severs 
 where it should unite. It aggravates and renders acute the 
 disease it pretends to cure, and is a most serious set-back 
 on the road to progress. Great Britain makes one set of 
 laws for the EngUsh; another for the Irish. The union is 
 a union of physical force in favor of the stronger. Impar- 
 tiahty begets peace and contentment; partiaUty, unrest and 
 rebellion. We have said that the law of Nature is opposed 
 to exemptions. No law, therefore, that is based on par- 
 tiahty can be fair. Privilege is the state of being set or the 
 act of setting self above the law. How can others be ex- 
 pected to be content under the law.J^ Such principle, or 
 lack of principle, foments jealousy and stirs up conflict. 
 Under our Government, everyone should contribute to its 
 expenses in proportion to the benefits he reaps. This is 
 the principle of natural fairness in taxation. He who is 
 benefited more should pay more; he who is benefited less 
 should be taxed less. This is Nature's way of taking toll 
 and man should imitate it. Does Smith care how the Gov- 
 ernment spends Jones' money if Smith goes Scott-free.^ If 
 wasted, the waste has cost him nothing; if poorly spent, he 
 reaps gratis some profit at least. Having contributed noth- 
 ing, he would be considered impudent were he to insist on 
 regulating its use. But if Smith contributes proportionally 
 
 [20] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 to the expense, even if the amount be small, he has done 
 his part fully, and has a right to exact and a personal inter- 
 est in exacting the full return in benefits, of what he has 
 given. But the Congressional viewpoint is different. It is 
 not fairness, it is votes. There are hundreds of Smiths to 
 every Jones. The voting power of the Smiths must be con- 
 ciliated and won; and the Jones family will be allowed to 
 pay for all. So the Jones family is duly taxed. The Joneses 
 pay; the Smiths vote; and Congress divides the melon among 
 its favorites. All are satisfied except the Jones minority, 
 and, being a minority, may be overlooked. Where fairness 
 has lost sway, minorities have no rights. They are safely 
 tucked away in the non-payers' pockets. 
 
 A doctor, who, when he is in the same condition as his 
 patient, balks at his own medicine and fights tooth and nail 
 to avoid taking it, shows how he values it in his heart of 
 hearts. The convention of doctors in Congress rose in open 
 rebelHon when they were asked to take their dose of Income 
 Tax patent medicine. The bottle had been labeled "The 
 pure essence of honey; good for all diseases and some others; 
 so pleasant to the taste that the hardest heart would be 
 pained at having to refuse the patient in his pleadings for 
 more." But suddenly the same bottle filled with the same 
 ingredients is held up in Congress, but its label has been 
 changed. Its chief ornaments are the skull and cross-bones, 
 and the label has been simplified into "Fatal to Congress- 
 men, no matter how small the dose. Poison! Beware!" 
 The thing just couldn't be done. The salaries assured them 
 would be virtually reduced. The salaries of the people 
 could be reduced all right, for the benefit of the people; but 
 
 [21] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 the salaries of the servants of the people must remain in- 
 tact, for the benefit of themselves. They, surely, were 
 those who were drawing least benefits from the Govern- 
 ment and why should they be taxed? As if sauce for the 
 goose were not sauce for the gander. It was unfair, so ar- 
 gued Congressmen, for the Government to assure them a 
 salary and then deduct a part; but it wasn't unfair for the 
 Government to assure the people four per cent on Liberty 
 Bonds and then take back a portion of the interest in In- 
 come Tax. Congressional consistency, thy name is mud! 
 
 The first Income Tax law granted a three thousand dol- 
 lar exemption for each unmarried man and woman; but 
 allowed a married couple only two thousand apiece. 
 Was it the purpose of Congress to discourage marriage? 
 Or was it a simple problem of Congressional arithmetic 
 that, as two now made one it had really increased the al- 
 lowance instead of diminishing it? 
 
 But in the Inheritance Tax there are other things against 
 Nature's fairness. A man spends his life and energy in 
 building up a business. He has been industrious and sav- 
 ing, and has acquired a fortune which is still bound up in 
 the business. He has children and Nature imposes on him 
 the duty not merely of rearing them in the present, but of 
 providing for them in the future. Could he live here for- 
 ever, future provision, perhaps, would be less needed. But 
 Nature's law is inexorable and he must obey it. The chil- 
 dren must one day play their own part in the struggle for 
 existence; and he who brought them into life must, in duty, 
 so far as in him lies, help them on to success. In this he is 
 but working with Nature and obeying her law. The squirrel 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 is urged by Nature to work industriously to lay up a 
 winter's supply of food, that he may carry his family safely 
 over the period where existence has so many odds against 
 it. Because the parent squirrel passes away, there is no 
 reason in the world why his young should give up a portion 
 of what he has accumulated for them. Nor is there more 
 reason in humankind. Nay, there is often far less, since 
 the offspring of man is less fitted, at certain ages, to provide 
 for itself than the young squirrel is. Yet when a successful 
 provider for his family dies, the Government steps in and 
 demands a part of the store laid up, a large part if the busi- 
 ness be considerable; and demands it even to the extent of 
 loss of control of the business, on which the well-being of 
 the family depends. And this is the more unfair, seeing 
 that the business has, year by year, been taxed heavily on 
 its income, and the residue left the owner to bequeath to 
 his family, was considered only his due. And the business 
 will still go on being taxed despite the fact that the Govern- 
 ment has claimed and received its legacy. But it is again 
 the case of Smith claiming Jones' money. What does Smith 
 care? And yet the Government, if true to Nature, should 
 care; for the tax discourages thrift and encourages the 
 spendthrift. But as Congress is notably a spendthrift we 
 have not far to seek the inspiration of the law. Subversive, 
 nevertheless, it is of the law of Nature. Ajax looks only 
 to himself in the division of the spoil. 
 
 Reasonable self-love is Nature's law, and reasonable 
 self-love dictates self-preservation, and self-preservation 
 includes the preservation of wife and children, for they are 
 our second selves. This self-preservation makes tax- 
 
 [23] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 slackers of us all, especially when the taxing power pursues 
 us as if we were its prey. Everyone, therefore, clamors for 
 exemption. Take the other fellow and spare me and mine. 
 Yet for everyone exempted, someone else must pay. The 
 total sum demanded is in no way diminished on account 
 of exemptions. All that results is that a larger share is 
 demanded of those who bear the burden. Exemptions do 
 not solve the tax problem, for nothing is really solved until 
 it is solved right. The masses would be exempt from taxes. 
 They would therefore be the objects of the munificence of 
 the rich. The Stars and Stripes would wave above them by 
 the grace of the few. Selfishness raises a barrier around 
 each of us and few can see beyond it. Are our people blind 
 to danger? Have they never read how the Roman Republic 
 fell? The Roman people looked to the Government for 
 largesses. "Rread and the Circus" became their cry: a 
 life without toil, a life of amusement. It is attractive but 
 it is not the law of Nature. And the Romans who had loved 
 their liberty for centuries as well as we love ours, became 
 slaves, and a Nero and a Caligula reigned over them. Had 
 this been foretold to Rrutus, or Cincinnatus, or any of the 
 sturdy patriots of earlier years, they would have hooted the 
 prophet as a madman. Yet we are reciting history. Rome 
 fell. Nature's laws of labor, and personal exertion and 
 sacrifice, was violated and the stagnant pool became busy 
 with its deadly miasmata. The Roman Government had 
 to supply the needed money. It began by plundering the 
 provinces. It ended by the plunder and conscription of 
 its wealthy citizens. It had to supply the masses with 
 "Bread and the Circus," and Government and people went 
 
 [24] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 down in a common ruin. The American Republic has no 
 provinces to plunder. It has therefore begun on its wealthy 
 citizens. We are madmen, we will be told, to cry disaster. 
 But he who will hsten no longer hears the cry of confisca- 
 tion muttered in secret among the few, he will hear it openly 
 advocated by many, and the cry is swelling. The Govern- 
 ment has led the way. 
 
 The Luxury Tax is not opposed to the law of Nature. 
 The vine that is wisely pruned and the fruit-tree lopped, 
 give better fruit and a more abundant yield. Nature is 
 aided, not thwarted. Both vine and tree are healthier 
 when the super-abundant is trimmed; and Roman inde- 
 pendence flourished while its sumptuary laws were wisely 
 enforced. But tree and vine must be carefully handled. 
 It is not sufficient to take pruning-hook, and shears, and 
 saw, and hatchet, and cut and hack away at random. The 
 superfluous will surely go, but tree and vine will have lost 
 not only their symmetry and beauty, but their fruitfulness 
 and vitality as weU. Nature's law does not limit life to its 
 bare necessities. It encourages reasonable comforts. But 
 our Government has gone out into our lives and hacked at 
 everything; and then it opens its eyes in wonder at the popu- 
 lar discontent that is spreading. Instead of wisely cor- 
 recting the evil by a proper use of brains, it foolishly centers 
 its hopes in the strong arm of repression. 
 
 The masses clap their hands and throw up their caps in joy 
 that luxuries are taxed. They fancy that the burden has been 
 lifted from their own shoulders. Has it really been lifted? 
 Let us see. We have stated that the law of Nature 
 is not the law of bare necessities only, but of reasonable 
 
 [25] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 comforts. A nest of twigs would suffice a bird for the 
 mere containing of its eggs and perhaps for the bringing up 
 of its young. But the bird lines its nest with wool or horse- 
 hair. It would supply for its tender brood warmth and 
 comfort. Its work is much more artistic and elegant than 
 the law of bare necessities requires: and the same impulse 
 to comfort and more than bare necessities is as firmly im- 
 planted in the heart of man. Hence as wages rise, the 
 tendency to comfort waxes stronger. The masses too 
 would have comforts and luxuries. But these are taxed, 
 and hence the masses too must pay. To really enjoy ex- 
 emption, the masses must be content with conditions that 
 would not be privations in primitive conditions, but which 
 are privations in those that obtain at present. And lo! 
 the hands have ceased to clap, and the caps are pulled down 
 grumbhngly about the ears, as the luxury tax puts its greedy 
 hand into the pockets of labor. And let us not forget that 
 luxuries are produced by the masses. The purely luxurious 
 never produce what they consume. Limitations must 
 curb excess but must stop there. We are not opposed, 
 therefore, to a sane luxury tax, and the man that considers 
 it a nuisance has probably the same opinion of his grocery 
 bill. We are merely caUing attention to the fact that the 
 playful practice of passing the tax "buck" usually ends in 
 having the "buck" returned to the permanent possession 
 of the passer. Be careful, Ajax, Ulysses will get his turn. 
 
 Nature's law postulates equal rights for all who are in 
 equal conditions. She does not, however, make all condi- 
 tions equal. The soil of the bare and wind-swept mountain 
 is not as fertile as the rich loam of the sheltered valley. 
 
 [26] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 The pure and crystal waters of the leaping stream have a 
 life and vigor and motive power which are denied the low- 
 lying festering pool. Tree differs from tree and plant from 
 plant, in age, and vigor, and beauty and productiveness, 
 even though they belong to the same species. No two 
 leaves even on the same tree are exactly alike, though they 
 conform to a general type. Diversity in sameness is Na- 
 ture's law of harmony and beauty; but man would reverse 
 it and make it sameness in diversity. Nature, therefore, 
 gives all an equal right to engage in the struggle for existence, 
 and favors success by the very diversity of conditions in 
 which she places her children. It seems a paradox that 
 were all rich, all would be poor; yet such is the fact, for in 
 such a condition no one would be inchned to perform the 
 less agreeable offices of life. This is already apparent in 
 conditions among us. Our sewers would not be constructed, 
 our streets repaired, our railroads built, were it not for im- 
 ported labor. Housemaids are becoming an extinct species, 
 and cooks — well, we have reached the limit. The law of 
 Nature is labor. Where labor ceases disintegration sets in 
 — insensible, perhaps, to the human eye, because often slow 
 and patient in the process. The paint on our house loses 
 color, wears off ultimately, the boards blacken, the nails 
 rust and the wind dislodges them; the small boy, more im- 
 patient and less long-suffering than the elements, takes a 
 hand. Sun and air, wind and rain can now take a nap and 
 confide their interests to the small boy. We would not 
 labor. Nature is never idle. It is her law and it cannot 
 be changed. We thought that we had fooled her and 
 again she has fooled us. 
 
 [27] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 There are two brothers; one will labor, is industrious 
 and thrifty, a benefit and credit to his family and his fellow 
 men. The other is lazy and prodigal, easy come, easy go, the 
 drone that would feast on the honey gathered laboriously by 
 his busy kindred. He pohtely, or more often impolitely, 
 decUnes to enter into Nature's struggle for existence. The 
 only struggle he will make is to get all he can of the honey 
 already in the hive. He will buzz and buzz about that 
 endlessly, grumbling that he is not getting his share. Half 
 the energy wasted in his buzzing would make a lot of honey. 
 But he is not a honey-maker. Honey-making is out of his 
 bee-line. He considers his industrious brother merely lucky. 
 Why, he asks, does luck never come his way.^^ He forgets, 
 or blinds himself to the fact, that in Nature, Luck usually 
 chums with Industry. If Luck now and again has a chance 
 acquaintanceship with Idleness, it soon drops it. You may, 
 indeed, bump into Luck without looking for it, but the 
 harder you try to find it the oftener you will bump into it. 
 And so the human drone would evade Nature's law of strug- 
 gle. There is no evasion. She has made it for an excellent 
 purpose and will not be thwarted. The struggle for exist- 
 ence is for the survival of the fittest. The race must ad- 
 vance or go under. The individual must struggle if he 
 would survive. 
 
 Nature is ever attentive to the carrying out of her laws. 
 If she sleeps it is with one eye open. The masses contin- 
 ually grumble and criticize the Government for the manner 
 in which it rules. They are merely finding fault with them- 
 selves, without being candid enough to recognize their fault, 
 or sincere enough to try to correct it. It is within their 
 
 [28] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 power and their right to operate the Government as they 
 see fit. They are the sovereign people. For this, they 
 gave themselves the right to self-determination by vote. 
 They can change every law in the land by exercising their 
 right. Their power is supreme. When matters are left 
 to the votes of the people, we can safely trust the majority, 
 for it will have the best interests of all at heart. So long as 
 this right remains sacred to the masses and is exercised by 
 them in a spirit of fairness, there is no more chance of a 
 Bolshevistic revolution in this country than there is for a 
 snowball to exist in the place which Sherman considered 
 the synonym for war. The doctrine of the Bolshevik, 
 like that of the infidel, blasts all hope and gives nothing in 
 return. The Bolshevik gives everything to the state and 
 leaves the individual nothing. Nature, on the contrary, 
 gives her fruits to those who labor. Who would labor in 
 the Bolsheviki commonwealth, if indeed it be a com- 
 monwealth and not a confiscation for the prime benefit of 
 the spoilers? Not the rulers, for they have the disposal of 
 everything. Not the subjects, for they have no incentive. 
 Those who have been robbed of their possessions will not 
 be fools enough to strive to hoard again. It would, more- 
 over, be crime. Those who have been prospered by the 
 robbery of others will not easily desert the spoiler's trade. 
 "But all will be forced to work. The tasks will be assigned 
 and exacted." But this is slavery of the lowest type. The 
 rulers are masters, the subjects slaves, and the masters will 
 never willingly return to be lost in the masses. You cut 
 the tree of human progress at the very root when you de- 
 stroy human initiative and the proximate hope of self- 
 
 [29] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 betterment. You destroy ambition and self-effort when you 
 drag everything down to a common level. And, after all, 
 no common level is possible in a world which ceaselessly 
 changes with the changing moment. The principle, there- 
 fore, is as false to human nature as it is to the laws of Nature 
 in general. It would not eliminate the evils of other forms 
 of human government, but would add to them. It would 
 not destroy classes, for ruler and ruled would still be in es- 
 sentially different conditions. Those would assign the 
 tasks, exact the fulfillment, punish disobedience, handle 
 and divide the profits. These would have to accept the 
 tasks, labor to execute them, accept punishment for failure, 
 and turn over the proceeds, accepting what moiety their 
 masters would assign them. Self-preservation would ever 
 keep alive a scramble for power. Self-preservation would 
 cause those who possessed it to cling to it for dear life. All 
 would be officers, none privates. Jealousies, intrigues, 
 favoritism, peculations would flourish. We have all these 
 in Russia to-day. We had them in the French Revolution, 
 and France survived only through the despotism of Napoleon. 
 We do not want salvation through despotism. We do not 
 want, consequently, the Bolshevistic state. If to-day in 
 our own country, politicians court and favor those who can 
 help them into power; if they give the plums of office to 
 relatives and friends; if the division of the pork-barrel so 
 whets human greed, what would be the condition when the 
 whole country would be the crop of plums and the pork- 
 barrel to be divided? We would have not only to change 
 human nature but Nature itself to succeed. We cannot 
 equalize human intelligence and energies, much less the 
 
 I3Q] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 moral qualities of the heart. We cannot equalize climates 
 and soils and the rays of the sun and the amount of wind 
 and rain. We cannot have all sea-coasts, or rivers, or cities 
 or smiling valleys; and even if we could we would have to 
 change them to make them equal, for all are of infinite 
 varieties. And if, by impossibihty, we had made them other- 
 wise equal, all could not be equidistant from the same point. 
 Some must be nearer the railroads and similar facilities; 
 some must be farther. No human intelligence could por- 
 tion out tasks in justice and fairness and satisfy a hundred 
 millions of different inclinations and characters. Human 
 nature tires of the same place and work, especially when 
 place and work are not a matter of choice, and when there 
 is no self-interest underlying. Every socialistic colony has 
 been a rank failure, though the problems have been a bil- 
 lion times smaller than they would be in a nation like ours. 
 The system could only bring chaos into human society, and 
 the inevitable consequence — savagery. 
 
 Superstition plays its part in retarding human progress, 
 for superstition is no friend of Nature. Ignorance of natural 
 phenomena is its fruitful parent. It exists among savage 
 tribes and is not unknown among so-called civilized peoples. 
 Even men of high intelligence in other things are not totally 
 free from its traces, believing in the Ouija board, luck and 
 unluck and shuddering at the number thirteen. The darkey 
 who carries the rabbit's foot for luck, forgets the fact that 
 the rabbit was very unlucky when he himself had it. The 
 Sultan of Turkey not so many years ago forbade the impor- 
 tation of talking machines because they were "devil ma- 
 chines." Doubtless afflicted with a harem, he had talking 
 
 f31] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 machines enough; but he need not have fled to superstition 
 for a reason. The world would have believed him without 
 the reason he assigned. Superstition vanishes with enUght- 
 enment, and because the sources of many naturaJ phenomena 
 are still unknown there is no reason for seeking the explana- 
 tion in superstition. 
 
 Nature in effecting her works employs the most fitting 
 means. Man would do well to imitate her wisdom. Run- 
 ning the Government of the United States is running the 
 biggest business upon earth. It involves more than the 
 management of governmental affairs, since Congress lays 
 the foundations on which all private enterprises among us 
 are built. Nature, had she the job on her hands, would 
 choose the best fitted instruments. We do otherwise to 
 our sorrow. Congress that shapes the destinies of business 
 is itself an exceedingly ill-balanced business organization. 
 About ninety per cent of its members are lawyers; and it is 
 a well-known fact that lawyers, as a rule, are not business 
 men. The fact could not be otherwise. Lawyers have 
 never had the proper training. It is no fault of theirs. 
 Their study and training follow different lines. Everyone 
 to his own trade. It requires a lifetime of application to 
 become proficient even in a single branch of the law, not to 
 speak of the immense forest of laws through whose devious 
 ways our modern lawyers must wander; just as it takes a 
 business man a lifetime to master one branch of business. 
 It is to the discredit of neither that he is not proficient in 
 the specialty of the other. A prudent business man would 
 never attempt to handle a complicated legal matter, lacking 
 as he does the legal training and experience of the lawyer; 
 
 [32] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 and should such case turn up in his affairs he at once com- 
 mits the matter to the lawyer's hands. Does not common 
 sense teach us that, conversely, the lawyer should do the 
 same in business matters; and this the more so as to-day is 
 the day of speciahsts? The day of "Jack-of-all-trades and 
 master-of-none" is done for with the passing of primitive 
 conditions. The struggle for existence is keener, and we 
 must meet it as it is. Congress, therefore, deahng as it 
 must with highly specialized and momentous problems, 
 should, above all, be a well-balanced body of specialists 
 selected from the varying interests that represent our national 
 life. If progressive Nature rejects the Jack-of-all-trades in 
 private business, where after all the interests are subordi- 
 nate and often petty, much more does she insist on rejecting 
 him in public business on which depend not only the well- 
 being but the very existence of the nation. It is plain, 
 therefore, that a large proportion of the members of Congress 
 should consist of experienced and successful business men. 
 What would the last war have been, had practical organiza- 
 tion been left to Congress? But the best business men of 
 the country in a true spirit of patriotism took the matter 
 in hand, and the war was won. It is true that the condi- 
 tions of peace are different from those of war, but the differ- 
 ence of these conditions has no bearing on the fundamental 
 and essential principle of efficiency. Theorists and ideal- 
 ists may suggest. Restricted in their sphere, they may be 
 of incalculable help; but in the practical sphere, which is the 
 sphere of Congress, we need the practical man, for he, and 
 he alone, will know whether in given conditions the theory 
 will or will not work. Thus it is that many laws of Congress, 
 
 [331 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning, 
 
 the pet fads of unpractical theorists, have imposed unwork- 
 able conditions on business, to the common detriment of 
 the whole nation. Ajax defied the lightning and that was 
 bad enough. It was only when he was completely daft, 
 however, that he mixed himself with the practical commis- 
 sariat of the camp and threw it into complete disorder. 
 But this, at least, must be said of him, he didn't pretend, in 
 his folly, to be serving the public interests. 
 
 The mismanagement of the railroads is £in illustration 
 of my point. From a profit-paying business under compe- 
 tent and efficient management, to a bankrupt concern in- 
 volving in the last eighteen months a loss of nearly a half 
 a billion of dollars under Jack-of-all-trades inefficiency has 
 been the appaUing but inevitable decline of our railroads. 
 Nature's law of efficiency and fairness was set at nought, 
 and the resultant failure includes not the monetary consid- 
 eration alone, but the degeneration of roads and roadbed, 
 degeneration of equipment, degeneration of service, increased 
 rates. There were four elements to be harmonized in the 
 problem: the interests of the pubhc, those of labor, those 
 of capital, and those of individual Congressmen. The last 
 element does not belong by right to the problem, for Con- 
 gressmen are the servants of the people; self-interest, how- 
 ever, insisted on its retention. It became, in fact, the main 
 element. The Congressmen, therefore, to hold their position, 
 which depends on popular vote, sought to curry favor with 
 the pubhc and with labor. It was not a question of fair- 
 ness all around. It was a question of personal political 
 expediency ; and, as in the present condition of popular senti- 
 ment. Capital could more easily be sacrificed. A law 
 
 [34] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 regulating railroad rates was passed. The suffering public 
 accepted it; restless and defiant Labor pocketed the pecun- 
 iary profit ; two legs of the Congressional tripod were strength- 
 ened, the third, Capital, had to bear the whole strain. So 
 Congressmen clapped one another on the back. They could 
 fool the people some of the time, and Congressmen often 
 think that the people enjoy the process no matter what the 
 cost. But we cannot repeat too often that Nature cannot 
 be fooled; and, we should add, it is dangerous to fool with 
 Nature. The problem was not solved because not solved 
 fairly. Labor looked to its own interests alone. It was 
 ready to paralyze industry and cause no end of suffering to 
 the nation if its excessive demands were not complied with. 
 *'Yield, or we strike," it said, and Congress yielded. But 
 Labor so placated is only the fire when new material is thrown 
 upon it. Its flames subside for the moment, only to rage 
 more fiercely with the super-added wood. Labor's demand 
 had brought compliance; there was no limit any longer to 
 what it could demand. It could always "strike"; and this 
 is the condition of the roads that Congress has turned back 
 to Capital. Congress has the billions of the country to prey 
 upon. Capital has not. Congress can run the railroads at 
 a loss and tax the public to cover its inefficiencies. Capital 
 cannot. Receipts must cover the outlay. They must do 
 more if human energy is to be employed in it. Exorbitant 
 rates kill business. Exorbitant rates are required to satisfy 
 the exorbitant demands of labor. The industrial life of the 
 country is hanging by a thread. No wonder that Mr. 
 McAdoo skipped out of the muddle. The laws of Nature, 
 for success, require, as we have said, a proper balance. Just 
 
 [35] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 as water strives to keep its level, so everything, to be stable, 
 must balance perfectly. Unbalanced things in Nature are 
 impossible. The aviator falls to his death, when, by some 
 derangement in his machine, the balance is lost. To fly, 
 his machine and his actions must be shaped by Nature's 
 laws; and by Nature's laws must human laws be shaped, 
 else those who use them inevitably fall as falls the aviator. 
 Every intelligent man sees that the unbalanced condition 
 of railroads threatens ruin. The railroads are the arteries 
 of our national hfe. A railroad war prevents the necessary 
 distribution of materials throughout our national system. 
 Even without a railroad war, present conditions bleed the 
 carrier, who perishes on the way. The only solution is a 
 reduction of Labor's demands, and Labor is demanding 
 more. The fault is in the radical element of Labor whose 
 only thought is plunder; plunder under the law, if may be; 
 plunder outside the law if necessary. It would kill the 
 goose that lays the golden eggs to feast on the goose. And 
 provided that there are enough geese for themselves to feed 
 on, and they are the only ones in their idea fit to five, the 
 rest of humanity may feast on the feathers. It is to be 
 hoped that the conservative element in labor will prevail, 
 for in a labor revolution they would fare no better than our- 
 selves. The seeds of unfairness are not of American origin. 
 The conditions of American life are not favorable to their 
 growth. We are confident, therefore, that matters will 
 finally adjust themselves and that the unnatural and irra- 
 tional legislation that caused the unbalancing of our rail- 
 roads vnll be repealed in favor of compulsory arbitration. 
 We regret, indeed, that matters should come to this, much 
 
 [36] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning, 
 
 preferring as we do the milder method of friendly compro- 
 mise. But our Jacks-of-all-trades insisted on playing the 
 part of the doctor, and the natural result is a very sick patient. 
 Nature is not wasteful. To the unscientific eye she may 
 seem to be so, but science teaches that she is the most 
 thrifty of housewives. She wastes nothing. The giant of 
 the forest, having fulfilled its purpose, sinks into mold. It 
 is only that this mold may nourish a more vigorous successor. 
 It is always so when she is left to herself. It is man, who 
 does not leave her to herself, that is the cause of waste. He 
 is wasteful because it is her treasures that he is using. It 
 is Smith with Jones' money, and the Postal Service of our 
 country has all the other Smiths green with envy at its suc- 
 cess in wasting. It is practically a monopoly, and having 
 no competitors, business necessarily flows to it even without 
 its seeking. It needs no drummers, advertising is free, it 
 deals with a commodity that is a general necessity of every- 
 day life. It has everything that Nature can bestow to make 
 it a success. It has, however, been operated for years by 
 the Government at a loss. Postmasters, imposed by the 
 exigencies of party or appointed for political reasons, too 
 often serve as mere, though expensive, ornaments. Assist- 
 ant postmasters do the real work at salaries half the size of 
 what are donated to their figure-head chiefs. In private 
 business, these latter would be stirred to energy by the pros- 
 pect of advancement; if, indeed, the necessity of efficiency 
 for the keeping of their jobs did not stimulate them to energy. 
 Were the Post Office a private enterprise, there would be 
 natural incentives to work diligently. Here there are none. 
 The officials work for a salary. Their position is political, 
 
 [37] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 secure if they have a drag, insecure if they haven't no mat- 
 ter what their experience and competency. And, more than 
 this, efficiency is the surest door to dismissal if exertion and 
 activity on their part cast a headlight on the supineness of 
 a political pet. MiUions of dollars are thus wasted yearly. 
 No private business could succeed under such conditions. 
 Neither does the Post Office succeed. Its failure is taken 
 for granted by all, remains unexplained, uncorrected, and 
 is allowed haphazardly to continue. Inefficiency, irrespon- 
 sibiKty and lack of purpose drag on and we do not seem 
 to care. 
 
 Do not say that we are not interested in the matter. We 
 are all interested. It is our business. The money that 
 could have been saved in the Post Office Department in the 
 last ten years without loss of efficiency, had sound business 
 practice instead of slipshod political methods been followed, 
 would have built a perfect system of highways throughout 
 our country and property values would have been increased 
 by biffions of dollars. Everything follows good roads — 
 homes, farms, manufactures — for perfect transportation 
 faciUties lessen costs and consequently increase profits. 
 And even where profits are not increased the diminished 
 price of the article puts it within the means of the ordinary 
 consumer. Prosperity and happiness, pleasures and com- 
 forts, are the result. The wasted money deprives the pub- 
 lic of comforts to which all are entitled. To say that it is 
 necessary to run the Post Office at a loss for the good of the 
 people is unsound and silly. There is no such necessity. 
 It is only an application of the old quack theory that pre- 
 scribed blood-letting for all the ills that flesh is heir to. The 
 
 [38] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 ordinary man is none too rich. Keep the blood, then, in the 
 veins of the nation, but render it sound and healthy by purg- 
 ing the system of mismanagement and graft; and if you do 
 not wish to employ the savings in public benefits, do a public 
 benefit by affording lower rates and we will do the saving. 
 Nature distributes her energies. She has made two 
 hemispheres divided by oceans. She has established natural 
 boundaries on the continents and divided her children into 
 races and nations. The Government naturally loves con- 
 centration of power. It is un-American, for our constitution 
 divided the functions of Government precisely for this pur- 
 pose, that concentration, the principle of monarchy, should 
 never sap the strength of democracy. The framers of our 
 constitution sought the development and perfection of our 
 people with the minimum of authority consistent with this 
 purpose. The war, as an abnormal condition of affairs, 
 demanded, perhaps, the concentration of pubhc utilities. 
 We were in the war to win it at any price. If concentration 
 would help, as it should and did help, we were willing to 
 make the sacrifice. We speak only of the effect of such 
 concentration, namely the deterioration of public utilities 
 under the control of the Government. Perhaps it is better 
 that the opportunity was given, as it practically showed the 
 fallacy of what some theorists advocated. Railroads, 
 shipping, telephones and telegraph supplied matter for the 
 experiment. The result is denied by no one. He who runs 
 may read. Compared with private enterprise, the Gov- 
 ernment was a failure. If such was the result in a limited 
 field, what would it have been in a field covering all the 
 lines of production and distribution? Its management of 
 
 [39] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 the Post Office is a failure ; its administration of lEiilroads a 
 failure. So much is it a failure tha' railroad employees 
 think that they could run the railroads better by themselves. 
 If the Government will stand the loss, that is, if the people 
 will, for the burden will fall upon them, it might be well for 
 general peace to make the trial. The private capital, how- 
 ever, invested in the railroads should be protected; for rail- 
 road employees have no right to experiment with other 
 people's money. Were such right once established, even in 
 a single case, the employees of every business would claim 
 the right to run such business, to the nation-wide spoliation 
 of property, confiscated merely on the plea that the owner 
 had hired them to do his work. We merely say that with 
 due safeguards of justice, the experiment of railroad em- 
 ployees though costly, would pave the way to peace; since 
 they and the public would realize that outsiders should be 
 careful about mixing in what they are ignorant of, and 
 subordinates would learn that there are more difficulties in 
 management than ever entered into their heads. The sane 
 way would be to return the railroads to their rightful owners 
 for operation, limit their profits to a fair rate of interest, 
 provide for a definite percentage to be put aside for repairs 
 and betterments, and if there be a surplus establish lower 
 rates for the public benefit, or establish bonuses for efficiency 
 of service. 
 
 Did Government control show efficiency in our Merchant 
 Marine? It was built by the Government under Govern- 
 ment management at almost twice the cost at wliich it 
 could be produced in England ; and was built to compete with 
 other countries that can operate ships at half the money we 
 
 [40] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 have to pay. How is competition possible with such a 
 handicap? Let us grant the need of an American Merchant 
 Marine. We are not condemning it. We are condemning 
 solely the waste of Government construction and operation. 
 If its existence be of public utility and necessity, let us 
 choose the method of greatest efficiency and least expense, 
 and that is to leave the construction and management to 
 private ownership, assisting with such Government help as 
 may be needful to success. Had this method been followed, 
 American ships would not have vanished from the seas. 
 Business men have again and again demonstrated their 
 abihty to make successes out of political failures. 
 
 Nature never fails and yet she adapts herself to circum- 
 stances. So wise are her laws that she never gets into a 
 rut. She does not make doctors that lose every patient, as 
 we make Congressmen out of lawyers to cure our social 
 diseases. She is not apathetic as to the expenditure of her 
 forces, as voters who will not correct the abuses of the waste- 
 ful employment of their money. She is not the slave of 
 custom nor is she the enemy of novelty. She is not afraid 
 of a Burbank and others of his kind, in the improvement of 
 flower and fruit. She willingly adapts herself under their 
 hand to show forth the wealth of her treasures. She was 
 not jealous of Franklin that he indicated the way to the 
 utilizing of her powers. She loses nothing by the process, 
 and her children gain much. She is no slave to custom, 
 and, loving work, she is proud of inventors who show what 
 she can do. yet man, her beneficiary, is often blind even 
 to his own interests. Year after year improvements are 
 fought. The efforts of inventors are ridiculed. The thing 
 
 [41] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 is held to be impossible because it never has been done. 
 Electricity could not be stored on account of its diffusive- 
 ness, so it was asserted, and if stored would be a constant 
 menace, as electricity is when stored in the storm cloud. 
 The electric light was useful as a scientific experiment in 
 the cabinet, but could never be used for ordinary fighting 
 in our homes. The machinery needed was too clumsy and 
 expensive, the light too dazzling and harmful to the eyes, 
 the current could not be divided practically. Could not? 
 Ignorance, precisely because ignorance cfings too tenaciously 
 to the word "cannot." It itself cannot and it measures 
 possibility by its own incapacity. Civilization wiU reaUy 
 exist then only when people have lost their terror of new 
 ideas. 
 
 Nature in her wisdom brings harmony out of inequalities, 
 and renders each useful to the other. Beauty in variety 
 is her law. What would music be if limited to a single note 
 no matter how charming? What the beauty of the human 
 body if restricted to a single part or feature? Each has its 
 own function and aU conspire to the common welfare. Not 
 all functions are the same; not all, perhaps, equal in the 
 estimation of mankind; but all are of supreme utifity; most 
 of absolute necessity. If aU were head, there would be 
 neither hands nor feet. If all were eyes, we would lack the 
 other senses save touch, and this would be useless in regard 
 to the perception of external things, for the eye closes when 
 brought into contact with them. In Nature there is no 
 jealousy. The hands and feet work in wilfing harmony 
 with the head. Nor does the head busy itself in plotting 
 ways and means to thwart and paralyze the efforts of the 
 
 [42] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 stomach. It is in the social organism alone that such things 
 happen because men are false to Nature. The stomach is 
 the Capitalist of the human frame. It gathers the materials 
 that are to be distributed through the body. It needs the 
 direction of the head, just as Capital, in society, needs the 
 direction of social authority. It should neither by unwise 
 selfishness seek to retain everything for itself, nor by foolish 
 inertia deprive the rest of the body of what it imperatively 
 needs. The hands and feet are better off by having a stom- 
 ach to help them, and the stomach is better off by having 
 the assistance of the hands and feet. It is false and untrue 
 to Nature, therefore, to consider Capitalists and Laborers 
 as dissociated and antagonistic members of the social body. 
 Both are merely human; each with its particular function; 
 each looking to its own welfare, but, precisely for its own 
 welfare, considerate of others. And this the more so in the 
 social body, as in the turning of the wheel of fortune, one 
 member may be converted into and replace the other. 
 What is foot to-day may be changed into stomach tomorrow; 
 what was stomach may be converted into foot; not only may, 
 but actually is, so converted daily. And lol the change of 
 principles and ideas in virtue of the change of place and 
 function. The Laborer becoming Capitalist turns out 
 Capitalist through and through; the Capitalist, becoming 
 Laborer, is true to the type. 
 
 The conflict is due to over-selfishness, often on one side, 
 more commonly on both. The stomach, taken up with it- 
 self, would give as little as possible to hand and foot, blind 
 to the fact that without the healthful exercise of the other 
 parts it itself must suffer; and the hand and foot want to 
 
 [43] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 be stomach, thinking that it is so much better off than they. 
 Each, shirking its own part, blames the other for the result. 
 The law of self-preservation properly understood would 
 make them work together in a sound and healthy mutual 
 effort; ill-understood and practiced, it brings mutual ruin 
 to both. Nature is fair. It asks a sacrifice in all the mem- 
 bers, but makes compensation a hundred fold in the common 
 welfare of all. The hand and foot, could they think, might 
 be inclined to believe that because the stomach of itself does 
 not move about as they do it is lazy and idle; just as the 
 Laborer may think that the Capitalist has nothing to do 
 but to enjoy his money. But the stomach labors even when 
 the other members rest; and the Capitalist in the compe- 
 tition of business has oftentimes many a worry when the 
 Laborer with the day's work over is at rest in the bosom of 
 his family. Nature has attached to every state a counter- 
 balance which easily escapes the notice of those who are not 
 placed in it. Short-sighted humanity balks at present sac- 
 rifice. None wish to give and all are demanding to receive. 
 All would feast at the banquet, but none will cook the vict- 
 uals, and hence the mutual recriminations between selfish 
 capital and selfish labor that fill the air and the consequent 
 discontent and soreness. The Capitalist who listens to 
 Labor only when Labor is strong enough to grasp him by 
 the throat and force him to give ear, is as unfair and unjust 
 as the Laborer who when fairly treated will give no ear to 
 Capital; and because he believes he can grasp it by the throat 
 strikes for higher wages and unfair hours, though reason 
 tells him that Capital must go out of business, or, if it re- 
 mains in it, either pay less to those who are not defended by 
 
 144] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 Labor or raise proportionally the price of the product, and 
 the Laborer is really no better off than before. The amount 
 of money is indeed greater, but its purchasing value is less. 
 The high cost of living must, while this unnatural contest 
 rages, perforce remain. 
 
 Of all the problems, therefore, confronting the lawmakers 
 and people in our country to-day, the most acute and far- 
 reaching is the struggle of Capital versus Labor, or Labor 
 versus Capital, as you choose to put it. Upon the fair 
 solution of this problem hangs the peace and welfare of the 
 United States. The disease that afflicts us is acute nervous 
 prosperity, but nervous exaltation even more perhaps than 
 nervous depression is fatal to the nerves. Both Labor and 
 Capital should realize that peace, agreement, mutual under- 
 standing, equal rights and justice, cannot be secured by 
 violence. We cannot continue as we are. There must be 
 a readjustment, a readjustment in the fair spirit of com- 
 promise in which each side yields something to obtain in 
 return mutual harmony and effort which are of greater 
 value. A tug-of-war exhausts both. Compromise is Na- 
 ture's way. In every chemical compound the elements 
 sacrifice some of their properties to be enriched by others. 
 Oxygen is a fierce burner, but in a compromise with hydro- 
 gen we have the cool and refreshing water. Nature will 
 repay whatever fair compromise is made. Better is it for 
 humanity that oxygen and hydrogen can compose their 
 differences, and better is it for the elements themselves. 
 They must exist side by side in Nature, and, as clashing 
 factions, they would be the source of eternal war. How 
 much better to combine in forming the dew and the rivulet, 
 
 [45] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 the brook and the lake, the majestic river and the unfath- 
 omed deep. You may hook horns with Nature, if you wish, 
 but do not be astonished if you see stars. You have wasted 
 your energy and must nurse your bones. The constitution 
 she has framed for man is not subject to his amendment. 
 She indicates the way, man deviates from it at his peril. 
 Put an end to strife in the smaller units of society and you 
 will pave the way to universal peace. 
 
 Nature labors and her children must labor with her. 
 Work is the key to success in the struggle for existence. 
 Labor, therefore, is the main thing of real value to us. It 
 is for this reason that she supplies her materials in such 
 abundance and leaves to us the finished product. Money 
 is nothing more than a convenient means of measuring effort. 
 If no one worked, money would have no value. If you have 
 money and will not work, you will find yourself surrounded 
 by others who will work and work ceaselessly to separate 
 you from it. You cannot, therefore, avoid individual effort 
 in life's struggle, and you must work intelligently or faiL 
 Reason is given to direct us that we work aright. Right 
 reason gives birth to sound judgment, sound judgment be- 
 gets success. The farmer who does not cultivate his land 
 and the farmer who sows bad seed neglect reason's guidance, 
 judge badly and fail in fife's struggle. Nature says "As 
 you sow, so shall you reap." She has established the meas- 
 ure. You cannot change it. Neither wiU she, for she never 
 goes on a strike, never refuses to perform her part — she 
 leaves to you alone failure or success. 
 
 If money is but a convenient measure of effort, it is 
 naturally flexible, for convenience has no absolute standard. 
 
 [46] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 But man has made it more arbitrary than need be, making 
 inroads on it at various points and readjusting it tempo- 
 rarily to meet the exigencies of the moment. Many heads, 
 much confusion; more confusion where there are less brains, 
 or where there are plenty of brains not honestly employed. 
 As money is a measure of effort, so conversely, effort be- 
 comes a measure of money. And if more money be given 
 for less effort, less effort demands more money. Higher 
 wages have naturally brought about a higher cost of living, 
 since the same amount of effort that cost less before costs 
 more now. Money's purchasing value has depreciated. 
 The real value of effort is still the same, the money value is 
 less. Labor organizations powerful enough to enforce their 
 demands have obtained higher wages. Weaker unions or 
 individuals whose wages have not proportionately advanced 
 suffer. As the stronger unions get more pay, the price of 
 articles advances to meet the imfair drain. Members of 
 the weaker unions must purchase at prices proportioned to 
 the higher wages of the others. When the wages of all are 
 raised, the price goes still higher and people begin to howl. 
 Everybody wants everybody else to come down but no one 
 will lead the procession. Like the cats across the clothes- 
 line, we are up in the air clawing each other. If it is a 
 struggle of Nature, the survival, namely, of the one that 
 can last longer, the advantage is with Capital; for Capital 
 has it in its power at any time to cut the line, scamper to 
 a place of safety and subsist on what it has hoarded. With 
 the line cut and Capital in retirement. Labor will have to 
 hustle to keep from starvation. A Bolshevistic revolution 
 with its murder and rapine never benefits the people at large, 
 
 [47] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 nor does it ultimately benefit the leaders themselves, for the 
 measure that they deal out to others is dealt out to them in 
 turn. Where one part of Labor profits at the expense of 
 the other part, as is usually the case. Labor pays the peneJty, 
 for a house divided against itself must fall. Nothing good 
 is accompfished by travehng in circles. A fair way must 
 be found to solve the problem, a way based on the real value 
 of effort which will work automatically and eterngdly, as do 
 the tides of the sea. 
 
 Nature goes to the root of the evil, so should a fair-minded 
 Congress. Temporary legislation to cure this or that symp- 
 tom or partial ailment only aggravates the evil when the 
 medicine is prescribed without a careful examination of the 
 patient. A medicine that will alleviate rheumatism will 
 stop heart action if the heart be weak. There are times 
 when Labor does not think and Capital does not feel, and 
 hence the need of laws to prevent and correct excesses. 
 But clear-eyed justice must rule here; blind justice tumbles 
 everyone into the pit. For years Congress has been looking 
 at one side — the regulation of Capital's tendency to combine 
 in restraint of trade, and of the railroads to demand the 
 limit of what traffic will bear. These are the sins of Capital. 
 Correct them. But for the same reasons and as equally 
 detrimental to society must organized Labor's tendency to 
 limit production be curbed, for scarcity inflates prices and 
 causes multipUed and needless hardships. Arbitration in 
 fairness is the only road, and the sooner we take to it the 
 sooner shall we reach the haven of peace. 
 
 Nature is thrifty. It doesn't fike roundabout ways in 
 which energy is wasted. Were we to copy her, we could 
 
 [48] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 remedy in great part the evils of the moment. The highest 
 wage and lowest cost of living, consistent with fairness, 
 should be the common aim. We could come nearer to the 
 ideal by correcting our selling system. In this we are ex- 
 travagantly wasteful. Save expense by getting the prod- 
 uct to the consumer by the most direct route. Herein 
 lies much of the solution of the high cost of living. At pres- 
 ent the consumer gets the article, plus the producer's profit, 
 plus the profit of all the intermediate handlers. Reason 
 should guide us. In the primitive wilderness wild animals 
 break the first trails. Usually they make them in lines 
 that lead straightest to food and water. They choose the 
 shortest, not the most labor-saving way. For them it is 
 generally a question of life — to leave their haunts and return 
 to them with the least possible time, beset as they are on all 
 sides by enemies. The pioneers came and converted these 
 trails into roads. The wild animals had done part of the 
 labor. To take advantage of what they had done cheap- 
 ened expense and hastened the road's completion. More- 
 over, the pioneer himself was beset by enemies, travel was 
 not great, the articles transported were comparatively few. 
 The road was far from ideal but it sufficed for his needs. 
 Later, with the increase of civilization and its requirements, 
 reason showed that the easiest way is really the shortest in 
 the end, and roads were built to move heavy loads safely 
 and easily. The pack-train with its inconveniences was 
 discarded, the taverns along the road were no longer needed, 
 a sign-board took the place of a guide, expense was corre- 
 spondingly reduced and efficiency promoted. The trouble 
 at present is that in distribution we are still following pack- 
 
 [49] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning, 
 
 train methods. We have guides in our drummers, we have 
 our road-house men in our middle-men under whose roofs 
 our goods pass many a night, and the consumer must pay 
 for it all. Our development has been so rapid, our resources 
 so great that economy has been thrown to the winds. When 
 a ten-cent piece would close a hole, we plastered the hole 
 with a dollar and didn't even take the time to see whether 
 the dollar would stick. What is the difference? The con- 
 sumer will be content to pay. 
 
 And yet the producer is not always to blame, or perhaps 
 we should say the fault is not solely his. The consumer is 
 wasteful. The factory that makes automobiles could de- 
 liver them directly to the user for about half the price that 
 he pays at present, and make the very same profit, if the 
 buyer did not oblige the manufacturer to incur so much ex- 
 pense in getting the auto to him. Making the estimate a 
 very high one, the car that costs ultimately $2,000 costs 
 actually $800 in the making. The car, direct from the 
 factory, could be put in the hands of the buyer for $1,200, 
 and the profit of the maker would be greater than at present. 
 The $800 difference has gone in advertising, in salesmen, 
 managers, bookkeepers, stenographers, rents and other 
 overhead expenses. Each buyer should know the type of 
 car he wants. Suppose that he doesn't know. Surely the 
 investment of a few dollars would obtain the needed informa- 
 tion; but now he is paying the $800 and does so uncom- 
 plainingly, or if he complains he will make no effort to cor- 
 rect the method. From factory to user has been tried many 
 times and as often has been abandoned as a failure. The 
 fault is not in the system but in the public. It is hard to 
 
 [501 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 introduce new methods. Apathy combined with prejudice 
 against innovations which are for its welfare retard the prog- 
 ress of humanity. From factory directly to buyer would 
 force us to change our expensive selling methods. As lovers 
 of the antique we will not change. A single factory or a 
 dozen could not effect the reform, and we must jog on in our 
 **one-hoss shay" until people are sufficiently educated or 
 interested to support advanced methods. 
 
 Let us take another instance. A town of some five 
 thousand people has six meat markets where two would sup- 
 ply the demand. What is the result? Instead of the ex- 
 pense of two markets, double rents, fixtures, ice, telephone, 
 delivery, etc., we have the expense practically six-fold or 
 tripled; or making an allowance for the increased personnel 
 of the new markets and more extensive quarters, let us say 
 four-fold or doubled. The same routes are worked over, 
 books for six stores must be kept, and there are six managers, 
 each expecting to make more than a clerk's salary in interest 
 on his investment. Two shops handhng the meat of the 
 six could do so, therefore, at a greatly decreased expense; 
 and while making a better profit give the meat to the cus- 
 tomer at a lower price. The six barely eke out a living. 
 The two would be healthy and prosperous concerns. Apply 
 the principle to groceries, bakeries, dairies, etc., and we shall 
 begin to reaUze our national waste. 
 
 Here again we should follow Nature's lead, for we are all, 
 under different aspects, producers and consumers. The 
 closer that production and consumption balance, the less the 
 waste. Our aim, therefore, should be to strike an even bal- 
 ance. For any number of consumers, a definite number of 
 
 [51] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning, 
 
 producers and distributors are necessary and sufficient. 
 When this number is exceeded waste follows. Let us illus- 
 trate the matter by Roosevelt's African expedition. All 
 food that could not be obtained in the jungle had to be car- 
 ried. For a month's trip, each packer could carry only 
 twenty pounds over and above what sufficed for his per- 
 sonal needs, the limit of his load being sixty pounds. Now 
 these packers had to provide, not for themselves only but 
 for the guides, the head-man, the equipment-packers and all 
 others connected with the party. How, therefore, was the 
 party organized? How would any reasonable man organize 
 it? By providing everything required by necessity and 
 proper comfort, and by eliminating the superfluous. There 
 were the packers of food. Ten were required for each hunter. 
 There were the packers of hunting equipment. There were 
 also the packers of the camping outfit. The packers of food 
 and hunting equipment represent the producers of necessi- 
 ties in life, for the expedition was a hunting expedition and 
 no hunting could be done without them. The camp-outfit 
 carriers represent the producers of comforts and luxuries. 
 They do not enter directly into the hunting, but in providing 
 due means for rest and refreshment they enter indirectly 
 and most efficiently. The absence of any of the elements 
 would have spoiled the trip. But here is where common 
 sense enters. Every person that is not needed is a hindrance ; 
 every superfluous pound carried is waste. Production and 
 consumption should exactly balance if we would have the 
 perfect hunting party. Production and consumption bal- 
 anced is the perfect rule. This, therefore, we should keep 
 in view, though in the uncertainties of human life and the 
 
 [52] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning, 
 
 need of providing for unforeseen difficulties, prudence dic- 
 tates that production should moderately exceed estimated 
 consumption. But this excess should be pruned as much as 
 possible, for what is unconsumed is waste. 
 
 In a community, therefore, the same common sense should 
 be used and the same rule applied. When in any trade we 
 have more people in production and distribution than are 
 needed to supply consumption, we have over-production and 
 consequent waste. The balance is destroyed and efficiency 
 is impaired. The excess of production is energy wasted. 
 It adds nothing really to production, for what is not wasted 
 by being unused is actually wasted in the support of the over- 
 producer who is not required for social efficiency. He who 
 eats up what he produces adds nothing to the common hoard. 
 The same principle should be applied to the professions and 
 to those that contribute to the comforts and luxuries of life. 
 Lawyers and physicians and other professional men we must 
 have, and a moderate number should be considered as ne- 
 cessities of modern and civilized life; but most of our pro- 
 fessions are over-supplied and the ranks of producers are de- 
 pleted to swell those of mere consumers. We need head- 
 men and guides in the defense of our civil rights and the care 
 of our bodies, but not too many. We need suppliers of our 
 camping outfit when the toils of our daily hunt for life's ne- 
 cessities and comforts are over, for we need to go back solaced 
 and refreshed to the hunt of the morrow; but here too we 
 should never lose sight of the principle we have established, 
 for it is of universal application. Moderate comforts and 
 pleasures are not against Nature but in accordance with 
 Nature. She wishes us to take necessary food. She adds 
 
 [53] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 to it the pleasure of taste. She does not measure us by in- 
 animate machines, though even they need rest and oihng to 
 properly perform their functions. She has made comfort 
 and rest and pleasure a reward of past work and an incen- 
 tive to future, and she allows the earth to rest in winter that 
 it may awake to the activities of spring. She has no sym- 
 pathy with socialistic doctrines for she has not made man on 
 socialistic principles. She has estabhshed our individual 
 struggle in which we must compete with our fellows, spurred 
 on by the prize of honor and success. She has not estabhshed 
 a class that would keep all on a level of inferiority, fostering 
 apathy and ciubing ambition. All that she asks is that in 
 this struggle for advancement we so combine our efforts that 
 we are not in one another's way; that we so divide our ef- 
 forts that everything receives a duly proportioned care; 
 that things be not spoiled by being over-done like the roast 
 in the oven and energies wasted that are needed for soUd 
 progress. With this economic system sweetened by reward 
 for extra effort and efficiency the world would advance more 
 in a decade than it would advance in a century hampered by 
 the socialistic straight-jacket. The remedy for the evils of 
 our condition is not in cutting off energy in production, but 
 in utihzing and fostering and increasing energy directed into 
 proper channels, as we have shown in the law of production 
 and consumption. 
 
 If Labor would, therefore, give the same attention to 
 selling that it gives to wages, it would save twenty-five per 
 cent on its purchases, and improve its condition in the same 
 proportion. But just as in a crowd the cry "Stop Thief!" 
 will raise a commotion and draw tradesmen from their work, 
 
 [54] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 even though the cry be false; and when no thief is found the 
 crowd will return to its labors convinced that a theft has, 
 nevertheless, been committed; so the cry of "Profiteer'* is 
 raised and all is hubbub and turmoil. That there is profit- 
 erring is readily conceded just as it is conceded that there is 
 theft, from which profiteering often diff'ers little. But the 
 loss of the article that raised the cry "Stop Thief!" may be 
 due to the negligence of the owner who lost it, but who, sore 
 at the mishap and not taking time for reflection, pounces on 
 some bystander that excites his suspicions. So the cry of 
 "Profiteer" is raised to account for the loss of money en- 
 tailed by higher prices, and the impression remains even 
 when the manufacturer or merchant shows that he is barely 
 making an honest profit. He is still suspected. The loss 
 is mainly due, however, to the expensive selling system fos- 
 tered and approved, at least tacitly, by the consumer, and 
 in which billions of dollars are yearly lost. 
 
 But it is objected that our scientific selling would throw 
 many out of employment, and that it is Labor's aim to em- 
 ploy as many as possible. Hence the unions have special- 
 ized labor, and forbidden the plumber to touch the carpen- 
 ter's hammer; and forbidden the carpenter to stop a leak, 
 however trivial, that will put a dollar in the plumber's pocket. 
 Suppose we grant it. What follows? This only, that Labor 
 does not wish the evil remedied. It wants all this unnec- 
 essary expense to be incurred for Labor's profit. It imagines 
 that the public is being fleeced for Labor's special benefit, 
 that the super-added expense is a pure gain for itself. It in- 
 creases its membership by fostering those that divide the 
 waste. Then let Labor honestly admit that it is responsible 
 
 [55] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 for the high cost of Uving and not cast the slur of profiteer- 
 ing on others, since this very thing is profiteering on a gigan- 
 tic scale. It is demanding that biUions be paid for unneces- 
 sary labor. And when from being Labor it turns Consumer, 
 let it patiently bear the consequent loss of money, consid- 
 ering it as its contribution to Labor's welfare. But we do 
 not think that if our principle were applied, the evils appre- 
 hended by the objection would follow. People would turn 
 to other occupations more useful. Similar assertions have 
 been made again and again and as often have been refuted 
 by facts, whenever machinery has been introduced to super- 
 sede manual work. What would become of weavers, it was 
 asked, if machinery were introduced into weaving? Of 
 farm help, if into farming? Of carriers, if into transporta- 
 tion? Of typesetters, if into printing? I would never end 
 were I to continue the list. Yet machinery has been ap- 
 plied to all of these, not to the detriment, but to the 
 benefit of Labor. In the rearrangement those that were not 
 needed turned their activities into other channels to the ad- 
 vantage of humanity. It was like throwing a stone into a 
 brook: there was a splash for the moment, then the waters 
 closed around it, even sang as they passed it, and danced 
 down into the valley as clear and limpid and joyous as ever. 
 And here the benefit would be even greater than when ma- 
 chinery took the place of hands, for then the laborers super- 
 seded were mere normal producers and consumers; here they 
 are not producers but abnormal consumers. The change 
 then would be of abnormal consumers into normal producers 
 by a diverting of unprofitable energy into profitable channels. 
 Croakers will croak because it is their nature to croak. They 
 
 [56] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 make the night hideous with their discord, but the sun rises 
 iust the same in the morning to flood the earth with its 
 radiance. If prophecy of evil would have ended the world, 
 it would have gone out of business long ago. Unnecessary 
 work is wasted work, and wasted energy is loss of efficiency. 
 Nature wastes neither materials nor effort, as we have pre- 
 viously asserted. The principle is so important that we may 
 be allowed to again illustrate it. To the ordinary eye the 
 burning of a log is merely the using up of the wood to obtain 
 heat by liberating stored energy donated by the sun. The 
 smoke and gases that escape through the chimney, and the 
 ashes thrown out into the field, are to the unscientific mere 
 waste. Not so in Nature's scheme. Her magic hand 
 gathers the gases of the air and mingles the ashes with the 
 soil, and, with the liberated energy again made available, 
 she builds up new logs out of the seeming waste of the old. 
 In the utilizing of matter and energy she is one hundred per 
 cent efficient. Not an atom of material, not a spark of 
 energy, escapes her. 
 
 Nature is bounteous and has spread out a whole world 
 of material before us that we may adapt it to our needs and 
 comforts. No nation in the world has been so favored as 
 ours, not only in the abundance of raw material of every 
 type lavishly stored up for us, but stored in a climate spe- 
 cially adapted to the exercise of energy. She has given us 
 the sturdiest race on earth, as was proved in the late war. 
 So favored, there is no reason, if we are but true to ourselves 
 and Nature, why we should not take the lead among nations 
 and keep it for all time. Abundance, however, has added its 
 part in making us wasteful. We have not been compelled, 
 
 [57] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 as I stated before, to be economical. If we practised 
 the thrift that Old World conditions made a necessity to its 
 peoples, if we used all of our energies for useful production, 
 if we eUminated wasteful effort, it would not take many 
 centuries to develop our country to its fullest possibilities. 
 Our very Government, prodigal as at is, could be supported 
 on our waste. Why neglect what Nature has given us.^^ 
 Why not evolve the useless consumer into the useful pro- 
 ducer that we may call all our potentialities into play? Our 
 public lands would be settled by a thrifty race, and many, 
 who, now spoiled by the example of our wastefulness, fill the 
 alleys of our congested cities, would be nerved to take up 
 life's struggle and become contented in the new opportunities 
 afforded them. The lack of the small capital needed keeps 
 many chained to an unhappy and degraded life. They are 
 of races who have tilled the soil for ages, and whose wealth 
 consisted of a few acres of land no better, if as good as our 
 own, on which generation after generation lived, proud of 
 the Uttle home that sheltered them. What better invest- 
 ment for the Government than a loan to such as these? Our 
 raw materials would be developed, our production acceler- 
 ated and increased. The probable loss would be extremely 
 small through failure or dishonesty — perhaps two per cent. 
 Were our loss even a billion, which is not probable, our na- 
 tional wealth would increase twenty-five bilhons in ten years, 
 with an increase of a healthy population and an immense 
 revenue in governmental taxes. 
 
 Present production is strained to the utmost to supply 
 the demands at home and abroad, and will be so strained 
 during the period of reconstruction. As production will 
 
 [58] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning, 
 
 increase in other countries, demand for our products will 
 naturally diminish. With the same production united to 
 diminished demand, the price must fall and living become 
 cheaper. The relation of supply and demand regulates 
 price. Plenty makes the thing easily obtainable: many have 
 it. If it exceeds demand, it becomes a drug on the market 
 and is disposed of, not rarely, as a sacrifice. If diamonds 
 were as plentiful as beans, they would be less valuable than 
 beans, for these latter nourish life and diamonds do not. 
 The world is at present in our debt. During the war our 
 materials and labor were so much in demand that they 
 transferred the balance of credit to our side. The money of 
 the world flowed into our coffers, and what we have lent will 
 come back in the labor-products of the various peoples. 
 Their efforts for us will repay our efforts for them. They 
 must upbuild themselves meanwhile and supply their own 
 necessities. But inevitably a balance will be struck, their 
 products will have paid the debt, and, exceeding home de- 
 mand, will enter our markets as simple competitors. The 
 situation, therefore, will be this: We have over-produced to 
 provide for them, and now that they can provide for them- 
 selves their surplus will naturally make its way to our shores. 
 The double surplus will glut our markets and many now 
 employed will be discharged. Labor should make hay while 
 the sun shines and not lose the golden opportunity in bick- 
 erings and strikes. Nature presents the chance, man must 
 avail himself of it. She will not force compliance. Nature 
 gave Ajax his physical forces. He had to use them. 
 
 The tendency of certain classes has been to turn up their 
 noses at Labor. They forget that all they have is due to 
 
 [59] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 Labor, labor mental or physical, of themselves or their fore- 
 fathers. If what they have is not due to labor but to theft 
 from the people or the Government, their scorn should be a 
 boomerang on themselves. This class pride most intense 
 in those who have least reason for it, is responsible for many 
 inroads on our efficiency. What is looked down upon is 
 naturally avoided. We all have our self-respect and pride. 
 We may not care for the open approval of others, conscious 
 that we are doing right and content with our condition, but 
 contempt hurts all and is cheerfully borne by the exceptional 
 few. We avoid it if we can and submit from sheer necessity 
 when we can't. When necessity ceases our submission 
 ceases with the necessity. And yet human life is such and 
 human needs are so varied that either life cannot exist at all 
 or cannot exist comfortably without the performance of 
 offices humble in themselves. Take the cook, for instance. 
 Who more needful for human existence? We need food 
 several times a day. Food in turn needs proper preparation. 
 The appetite is apathetic, the stomach in rebellion, the nerves 
 fussy and irritable, if proper food be lacking. With internal 
 discord, how can we have external peace? The cook is 
 really the master of the world, while we, in our short-sight- 
 edness, foolishly look down on him. Nature tells us it 
 should not be so. The artist who charms the eye stands 
 high in the social scale ; the musician who with the seductive- 
 ness of his melodies, wooes the ear; the perfume maker who 
 gratifies the sense of smell; the maker of soft fabrics grateful 
 to the touch; all are held in honor. By what principle of 
 common sense is the cook excluded who appeals to the 
 sense of taste? This sense is, in fact, more intimately 
 
 [601 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 connected with material life than any of the others, and in 
 itself is nobler than the sense of touch. It is even taken 
 in our language as a standard for artist, and musician, and 
 perfumer, and designer of our fashions, for no condemnation 
 is more severe than to say that a thing is not in good taste. 
 As a sense, therefore, it has no reason to hang its head. 
 Those, then, that cater to it should participate in its honor; 
 and if we followed the dictates of Nature it would not be 
 so hard to find good cooks. 
 
 We often think we are following Nature when we are 
 merely submitting to the slavery of custom. It is hard to 
 cast off the fetters of custom and get into the line of real 
 progress. The German soldier trained in the goose-step 
 carries it with him into ordinary life. A farmer, writing on 
 "Daylight Saving," said that the good old sun-time he had al- 
 ways followed was good enough for him, and that he saw no 
 reason for changing his methods in the interests of the rail- 
 roads or anybody else. He was not aware that probably in 
 all his life he had never used the true sun-time. What 
 farmer has ever bothered himself about the exact meridian 
 of his farm or worried over the fact that with every step east 
 or west the true meridian changed. As a practical man he 
 adopted a practical rule without bothering about astronom- 
 ical exactness. The practical principle he adopted was the 
 practical principle advocated by the Government. The 
 scale was larger, the principle the same. The variations of 
 true time were ehminated within certain areas in favor of 
 common convenience. In 1882 the Government divided the 
 country into various sections and standardized the time for 
 each, to the immense advantage of all. Fixed standards 
 
 [61] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 replaced uncertainties, and though they could not eliminate 
 the uncertainties of individual watches, they estabUshed that 
 by which these uncertainties could be known and regulated. 
 The railroads, to whom time is a matter of vital importance, 
 welcomed the reform. The public, beUeving itself less in- 
 terested, moved slowly. Two hour-hands were used on the 
 clocks, one to indicate standard time, the other to indicate 
 popular time. The latter was called sun-time, but, as we 
 have seen, so called by common error. Like the farmer, 
 people were not going to change in favor of the railroads or 
 anybody else. It took time to change them. They awoke 
 finally to the appreciation of the fact that they were the 
 beneficiaries, and clocks had henceforth but one hour-hand, 
 the hour-hand of standard time. Like the people at large when 
 the innovation was first introduced, the farmer now objects 
 because he fancies that the regulation of time is a tampering 
 with his rights. There is not a shadow of infringement. 
 He can regulate his day to suit himself. The clock marks six. 
 He can begin his day an hour earlier or an hour later and dis- 
 tribute the day to meet his personal needs. The law leaves 
 him perfectly free. It is a common convenience established 
 for the whole people. He is no more obliged to use it than 
 he is to use tractors if he prefers his one-horse plow, or his 
 six-horse, whichever it may be. In sun-time there is an hour's 
 difference between Ohio and Nebraska, yet the standard 
 clocks of the farmers in both states mark the same identical 
 time. Neither, however, has experienced any inconven- 
 ience, for the sunhght is the same however it be marked, 
 and each one uses it to suit himself. Neither farmer has 
 ever complained about hardships inflicted by the system. 
 
 [62] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 But when President Wilson proposed that ''Daylight 
 Saving" be continued, the farmers were up in arms. The 
 plow-share was turned into the political sword and the cita- 
 del of Congress stormed. The direct benefit was for the city 
 people. What benefited the city injured the country inter- 
 ests, they said. Nothing more foolish. The city lives on 
 the products of the country. The city, therefore, cannot be 
 benefited without benefiting the country. The farmer 
 thought it could, and as he considered that he was entitled 
 to "a pound of flesh," he looked around for good, racy, well- 
 fed flesh, and so got Congress' "goat." Is it a case of mere 
 thoughtlessness, or pure, unadulterated, short-sighted sel- 
 fishness? Nature gave the farmer the sun-light clock, 
 which, without inconvenience, he can always use. The case 
 is not the same in the city. Not that it is not the same sun 
 that shines, or that the sun shines differently, but that city 
 conditions are different, and that comfort, convenience and 
 economy demand another standard. The farmer's business 
 is more individual and is simpler. He is little concerned 
 with what his neighbor does — when he rises, or works, or 
 goes to bed. But city business is an intricate maze of allied 
 and intertwined efforts, and so it must foUow other rules. 
 The city man depends on his neighbor in a score of ways and 
 is impotent without him. It was said of old, "A brother 
 helped by a brother is like a strong city." Modern life has 
 made the converse true: "A strong city is a brother helped 
 by a brother." The farmers who need clocks mainly that 
 when they deal with the railroads they may time them- 
 selves with the railroads, protest against an improvement 
 highly important to city folk who need clocks to time 
 
 [63] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning, 
 
 themselves with one another, and whose energies must ab- 
 solutely be regulated by the clock and not by the sun. But 
 human nature is, at times, cranky and the crank often 
 works the wrong way. For once Wilson was right. It is 
 a grievous crime against Nature to rob a poor man of the 
 little he has, and this is what Congress did when it robbed 
 President Wilson of even this moiety of glory. 
 
 Nature has many children, and for their preservation 
 and betterment divides them into many groups. The in- 
 tensely selfish love of a mother for her child is a clear example 
 of the workings of one of the basic principles of Nature. 
 How else could she provide for the preservation of the indi- 
 vidual who is a tyrant of so many needs? Nature sweetens 
 the labor that money cannot purchase. Maternal love must 
 necessarily be selfish, but its very selfishness is ordered to a 
 higher end, the preservation of the family. And here again 
 Nature shows her wisdom. The family in turn reacts and 
 becomes the preserver of its members. The family is the 
 unit of the community and perpetuates it; the community 
 defends and safeguards the family. The circle increases. 
 The community forms the state, the state the nation, the 
 nation the world of humanity; and each repays its preserva- 
 tion by preservation in turn. But as the circle widens each 
 individual is less needed and his contribution is smaller. In 
 return, the benefits received because more widely diffused, 
 and as they are less intimately directed to individual advan- 
 tage they are more apt to escape a thoughtless eye. So we 
 are inclined to overlook Nature's benefits when they are 
 universal and abundant, as typified in water, and air, and 
 simlight. We do not suffer from individual need of them as 
 
 [64] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 a rule, and, as a rule, forget the hand that blesses us. Hence 
 it is that in proportion as our contribution to state preserva- 
 tion becomes inappreciable, we cease to connect state-pres- 
 ervation with self-preservation. We, however, soon connect 
 it when state government ceases, as happens when a calamity 
 befalls a city and unruly passions no longer feel the hand of 
 restraining authority. All of Nature's children form one vast 
 family, and the duty of each individual stretches out beyond 
 community, and state and nation, to the world at large, to 
 each individual of our common humanity. As the world is 
 one family, children of a common parent, every civilized 
 country should recognize its duties both national and inter- 
 national. The barbarian has the same duties as civilized man 
 but his mind lacks the culture to perceive them. If, for the 
 preservation of its national life, free access to the sea be 
 needed, such access should not be denied by a larger and 
 stronger nation. A fair arrangement will be of mutual bene- 
 fit, and honesty and justice are ever the best policy. Just as 
 individuals for self-preservation must preserve the family and 
 tribe, so must families preserve the nation. The individual 
 may do so out of well-ordered self-interest, and there is noth- 
 ing in reason against nations acting from the same motive. 
 In fact, as self-interest is the most powerful incentive to in- 
 dividual effort, so is self-interest in nations the strongest in- 
 centive to national effort. Americans, British, French, Ital- 
 ians, Germans, must look first to their own immediate interests 
 according to the law of self-preservation. What they have 
 to guard against is the so limiting themselves to these in- 
 terests that they neglect the duties which lie beyond. Self-love 
 is the law of Nature and we would not have it otherwise. 
 
 [65] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 When the self-preservation of one individual comes in 
 conflict with the self-preservation of another, the struggle 
 becomes acute and the fitter will survive. Aggregation of 
 individuals and families into communities and states tends 
 to lessen the frequency of such conflict, for where many are 
 banded together mutual effort can provide more abundemtly 
 for all, since power united has a wondrous efficacy where 
 forces disunited are impotent. It is plain that in forming 
 this union each element must yield something, to be repaid, 
 however, by something immensely better. Nature gives 
 nothing for nothing. The savage entering civilization gives 
 up his unrestricted freedom, but he obteuns in return a peace 
 and security unattainable before. He has now defenders of 
 his rights, protectors against oppression, knowledge and laws 
 of life that render him worthy of the name of mgui. The 
 League of Nations with due limitations, must follow similar 
 principles. Something of independent national action must 
 be sacrificed, leaving national existence and rights intact, 
 that disputes may not end in war and that peace universal 
 may reign. 
 
 We want peace for the world because each individual 
 wishes peace for himself. The world cannot be at war and 
 the individual at peace. But peace is true only when based 
 on justice. A peace based on unfairness is a building built 
 on quicksands. We want peace for the world, but we 
 want peace for ourselves, and we are willing to make efforts 
 and sacrifices to obtain it. But we should not be asked to 
 make sacrifices that would introduce a principle of perpetual 
 unrest into our own national existence. The League of 
 Nations proposed that for the welfare of others we bind 
 
 [661 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 ourselves to things in which we have no immediate interest, 
 as, for example, that we send our boys whenever called upon 
 to fight on foreign soil. We fought shoulder to shoulder with 
 other nations in the last war because our rights were assailed 
 and our citizens murdered in cold blood. We fought for our 
 national existence, because we knew that German militarism, 
 dominant in Europe, would have attacked us next. We 
 fought for our very manhood, for Germany and the world 
 believed that, as a peaceful and commerce-loving country, 
 we so adored the almighty dollar that we had not the red 
 blood to fight for our rights and were impotent in our unpre- 
 paredness. For these reasons we fought, nor reckoned we 
 the cost, and for the same reasons we would fight again. 
 Humanity was benefited, for its cause was linked with ours. 
 As the war progressed, idealism forced itself into the lime- 
 light. The real causes that justified our entrance, and, in 
 virtue of which alone. Congress could according to the con- 
 stitution declare war, were huddled into a heap in the comer 
 and platitudes on humanity took their place. So far there 
 was no harm. We were fighting for ourselves and humanity ; 
 preference did not matter; the law, moreover, curbed tongue 
 and pen. Excited passions and alert suspicion were prone 
 to misinterpret criticism, however just, into sympathy for 
 the enemy and a hindrance to united effort. Idealists took 
 silence for consent, and the Paris conference that framed the 
 League was held under this stem hand of repression. The 
 other nations had preyed upon our idealism and generosity 
 during the war. They were loth to part with them after 
 the war. In their heart of hearts and in their own selfish- 
 ness, we were Lady Bountiful to scatter our millions and 
 
 [67] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 Uncle Easy Mark to listen to a tale of woe which was not, 
 however, altogether without foundation. They clapped 
 idealism on the back, told it what a good fellow it was, loaded 
 the dice and pocketed the profits. No wonder that a League 
 was bom which meant every advantage to them, none to us. 
 The law of national self-preservation, the first and essential 
 law of national peace and existence, was overlooked in a 
 good-fellowship that was limited to goodness to themselves. 
 It is time to leave idealistic altitudes and get down to prac- 
 tical fife. The mirage is beautiful to contemplate but it has 
 no substance. Our thirty billions of debt that will weigh us 
 down for generations, our internal unrest, our labor troubles, 
 the high cost of living, call for our best energies at home; and 
 while a man's own household is in disorder, as usually hap- 
 pens with idealists, it is well to let the affairs of others alone. 
 We do not want another war. The boys that came back 
 from France do not want it. The mothers that have spent 
 years that seemed decades scanning the lists of the dead and 
 wounded and missing, fearing daily that some loved name 
 should be found in them, do not want it. The wives and 
 mothers of those who have made the supreme sacrifice pray 
 earnestly that others may be spared their agony. And yet 
 there are those who would have us waste the fives of our boys, 
 waste our property, our peace and happiness, to promote the 
 selfish interests of peoples whose chief aim is to increase their 
 territory or gain an economic advantage over their rivals. 
 They would like to have us cats' paws to draw the chestnuts 
 from the fire, while they wink at our simplicity and grow fat 
 in eating them. "Let each one attend to his own business," 
 such is Nature's law. 
 
 [68] 
 
Ajtuc Defied the Lightning. 
 
 Germany, because she had the power, wrongfully and 
 forcibly took Alsace and Lorraine from France, and the 
 peacemakers at Paris returned them, seemingly in accord 
 with the principle of the self-determination of nations. 
 What stock they took in the principle their subsequent ac- 
 tions showed. Germany had also taken Shantung from 
 China. The offender was the same; the theft less pardon- 
 able, for Alsace and Lorraine were countries adjacent to 
 Germany, many of their inhabitants were of Teutonic origin, 
 their incorporation was an additional defense to the German 
 people. Shantung was stolen merely because it helped German 
 trade and gave it a foothold in the Far East. The people 
 were pure Chinese, detached forcibly from the Chinese re- 
 public. Did the Peace Conference restore Shantung to 
 China, even though China was actually an ally and had 
 helped in the war? Not they. In giving back Alsace and 
 Lorraine, what had moved them was neither justice nor the 
 rights of peoples but the sheerest self-interest. And this 
 principle of selfishness they applied to weak China, canon- 
 izing in strong Japan what they bitterly condemned in strong 
 Germany. What was wrong in Germany was right in them 
 and their allies, and with shameless inconsistency, or rather 
 with the shameless consistency of self-interest divorced from 
 justice, they gave Shantung to Japan. And it is with such 
 nations unrepentant, nay openly glorying in their infamy, 
 that we are asked to form a League of Nations and fight 
 their battles, because, forsooth, we, ourselves, are too strong 
 for the wolves to tear. The idealism of self-determination 
 was coldly turned out of doors, and its friends, abandoning 
 it, are pounding on the door and craving admittance, 
 
 [69] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 yearning to enter even if they have to squeeze through the 
 windows. Shirt-sleeve diplomacy, nay mere manly diplo- 
 macy, is at a discount. Paris and London dictate the style. 
 Our boys gave their lives for principle. America should see 
 that their sacrifice be not in vain. 
 
 Wars will ever be so long as common justice does not rule 
 the nations, and so long as a people's standard is sordid self- 
 interest. Wars can alone end when each is willing to meet 
 the other in a spirit of fair compromise, each yielding for the 
 greater good of peace some minor advantages to themselves. 
 The stickler for rights is always in hot water. Wars should 
 end by common agreement founded on justice and not on a 
 scrap of paper. If men, however, will not be ruled by rea- 
 son, it is not impossible that Nature, like a justly irate mother 
 may, through fear, force them to be good. Invention may 
 be the scourge that she holds in her hand. It is not beyond 
 the realm of possiblity that a poisonous gas should be in- 
 vented, so deadly that in a single day a thousand aeroplanes 
 would work such havoc that nations must either be destroyed 
 or come to terms. Such invention would have the effect, 
 moreover, of reducing greatly the disproportion between 
 large and small nations just as the introduction of fire-arms 
 reduced the lordly knight to the level of the peasant soldier. 
 The element of might, so powerful in the hands of the un- 
 scrupulous, would no longer be the sole heritage of the fav- 
 ored few. It would be common to all and so deadly that as 
 the survival of our very race would be at stake terror would 
 force mankind to the observance of mutual agreements and 
 justice. Not the noblest motive, it is true, but in certain cases 
 the most efficient. Scraps of paper would be out of fashion. 
 
 170] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning, 
 
 Nature, through reason, tells her children how degrad- 
 ing war is when waged for the love of war. It is a last re- 
 source against an unjust aggressor when important rights 
 and liberties are at stake and when there is no other way of 
 defending them. The glory of militarism, save for defensive 
 purposes, is human shame and crime. A nation sends forth 
 her armies to kill the people of another nation and bids them 
 kill as many as they can. He who succeeds in killing most 
 becomes a hero and honors are heaped upon him. There is 
 nothing more repugnant to man than the shedding of human 
 blood. Even in defense of our life we hate to kill and do so 
 only when all other means have failed. It is barbarism to 
 sacrifice life for mere aggrandizement. It is murder, whole- 
 sale murder, to force a war that can in honor be avoided, and 
 the militarist who provokes conflict cannot be punished too 
 severely. Historians unthinkingly have sadly injured our 
 race in placing on the pinnacle of glory men who were mere 
 murderers and robbers on a gigantic scale, and whose names, 
 instead of praise, merit the execration of humanity. But it 
 is the same paradoxical spirit that applauds itself for its jus- 
 tice in putting the petty thief into jail, and putting the mil- 
 lionaire swindler into a magnificent palace. The slaying of 
 an individual is murder, the murder of milHons is virtue. 
 
 Many are heartily in favor of a League of Nations. Ajax 
 would have bitterly opposed it. They are in favor of it be- 
 cause they consider it synonymous with a League of Peace. 
 To be such in reality, there should be a common and high 
 standard of civilization. Such is not the condition of the 
 world at present. The nations are in all stages of civiliza- 
 tion. The standard in Europe is different than that in Asia. 
 
 [71] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 Each people has its own criterion of civilization and progress. 
 America has advanced rapidly, more rapidly than any other 
 nation, since less hampered by old ways and traditions. Any 
 attempt at a union of nations must take into allowance these 
 facts. We must not allow our normal progress to be im- 
 peded and held back by less progressive nations. When 
 people are tied together their pace is regulated by the slower. 
 The laggard resents being forced to a more rapid pace, espe- 
 cially if he believes that there is no reason for hurry. Nations 
 hide-bound in traditions do not thank us for our efforts to 
 free them. Our viewpoint and theirs is different, and it is 
 hard to bring them to ours. 
 
 We have not to go back so many years to live in times 
 when Americans found only quill pens in the leading hotels 
 of London and typewriters were a curiosity. We have not 
 to go back at all to find conveniences that are common even 
 to the ordinary among us lacking in Europe to classes that 
 are considered as living in luxury. It is easy, therefore, to 
 fathom why national jealously is, at times, so strong against 
 us, and why older nations begrudge us our commanding 
 position in the world. 
 
 Primitive civilization was centered in Asia. Thence it 
 passed through many nations, westward, westward, till 
 Greece and afterwards Rome became the centers of culture. 
 Westward it still traveled until the ocean stopped it for a 
 time, when it leaped the ocean, in accordance with its law. 
 It was in a wilderness that it took up its abode and its palace 
 was a log-house. But it breathed the invigorating air of 
 freedom and new life pulsed in its veins. It had l£inguished 
 in the effete monarchies of the Old World : it would show what 
 
 [72] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning, 
 
 it could do in the New. It had to look forward some cen- 
 turies, but age had given it wisdom. It had a domain, 
 materials, a race such as it never had before with which to 
 build its empire. It was for once satisfied with its surround- 
 ings. No wonder that we are satisfied with its work. Its 
 children would be called Provincials by those who, in reality, 
 were not even worthy themselves to be called Provincials, 
 as the limits of town, or village or city in which they had been 
 bom usually limited their horizon. A journey of twenty 
 miles was the event of a lifetime, and double the distance, 
 often less, wrought a change even in their very speech. The 
 European, circumscribed by his immediate surroundings, 
 was commonly only an approach to a Provincial. But ig- 
 norance was bliss, and he ascribed his own limitations to us. 
 On landing in New York if he did not have to fight the In- 
 dians on his way up to the Waldorf-Astoria, he had to be 
 careful to escape tomahawk and scalping knife if he ventured 
 without the walls of the city. Our "Wild West" moving 
 pictures, doubtless, helped the hallucination. 
 
 But civilization had done its work well and Europe awoke 
 from its dream and found an army of some two millions on 
 its shores. CiviHzation had crossed the water again to show 
 what it had effected, and millions were behind to follow if 
 needed. They were not needed. The sneers of Germany 
 had been answered and its eagle, pitted against ours, turned 
 and fled. The ' 'Watch on the Rhine' ' was no longer effective. 
 America could cross the Rhine. Xerxes with a bridge of 
 boats had crossed the Hellespont and ages recounted the 
 wonder of the exploit. America crossed the Atlantic with 
 a greater army, provisioned and armed, in the teeth of the 
 
 173] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 deadly submarine. "It is impossible," said Europe. "Be- 
 hold it accomplished," was America's answer. Europe had 
 aided in the transportation for its own immediate benefit. 
 For this benefit we had to pay. We crossed the fields of 
 France and died to save them for the nation. France would 
 have taxed us for the crossing. But we invited sordidness 
 by our over-generosity. The spirit that plucked our tourists 
 would pluck us as a nation. Will nothing open our eyes.^ 
 The clouds of war, the confusion of battle have passed. We 
 must pause to breathe and find out where we stand. We live 
 in a practical, not idealistic, world; and in practical Nature 
 action is followed by a corresponding reaction. Such is 
 Nature's law. Over-generosity can ruin the nation. Sym- 
 pathy we must have for others, but we must not forget those 
 that are our own. Other countries have suffered untold 
 hardships during the war. We have not escaped unscathed, 
 and though, like our boys on the battlefield, we bear our 
 wounds unmurmuringly, we should not neglect them. We 
 must not let our hearts run away with our heads. Return- 
 ing soldiers tell us that France's sufferings are less dire than 
 they have been painted. The French were not nearly as 
 willing to make sacrifices as we, and the middle classes in 
 France are materially better off than ever before, owing to 
 the billions of money left among them by the foreign soldiers. 
 We must not, we repeat, listen merely to sentiment. Nature 
 has given us judgment as the rule of life. 
 
 We hear of apparent ingratitude in the AlHes towards us. 
 It is to be expected. A peacemaker that enters into a neigh- 
 bor's quarrel, however good his intentions and however up- 
 right his conduct, generally gets the worst of it. Still we 
 
 1741 
 
Ajfix Defied the Lightning. 
 
 have no cause to regret our action. We were forced to fight 
 for ourselves as well as for Europe, and good will ultimately 
 result, as resulted in Cuba and the Philippines. Nature has 
 her varying seasons. The cold of winter must not dishearten 
 us. Every winter is followed by spring. Let us devote our 
 energies to ourselves and leave the rest to the calm decision 
 of the future. Nature and Time may not move fast enough 
 for our impatience, but they know their business. We did 
 not seek popularity and can get on without it. We told 
 the world that we wanted nothing, and it gave us less. 
 
 All human institutions, therefore, as we stated at the 
 beginning of our essay, must conform themselves to Nature's 
 plan. We cannot change it, devoid as we are of all control. 
 She has made and enforces the Supreme law. Not in con- 
 flict with her but in conformity is our path of progress. In- 
 telligent study of Nature's methods will solve our problems; 
 even, as we said, the problem of Capital and Labor, which 
 is ever recurrent, due to the violation of Nature's laws on 
 one side or the other. Let Nature's fairness be our rule. 
 Troubles, like shadows, fade in a counter light, and the shad- 
 ows of this problem which hang ominously over our national 
 peace at present will fade forever, if the counter light of in- 
 telligent effort and reasonable compromise be thrown upon it. 
 
 The cloud that hung over the plain and that Ajax defied, 
 bore in its bosom blessings untold for the responsive earth. 
 Let Nature have her way and she will shower her blessings 
 upon us through all the years to come. The atmosphere 
 will be purified, the birds resume their notes of gladness, ob- 
 jects will be seen in a clearer light, the blue arch of heaven 
 will smile upon us, the dust of conflict will be laid and peace 
 
 [75] 
 
Ajax Defied the Lightning. 
 
 reign. Let us work with Nature to sweeten human life. 
 She welcomes, nay pleads for, our aid, yet leaves the choice 
 to us. How much better to strew hfe's pathways with her 
 flowers than to line them with poison oak or ivy, or with 
 thistles and brambles obstruct the way. Let our kindliness, 
 like Nature's, live in the present, for we should ever remember 
 that our human hearts prize far more highly a simple bud of 
 spring, though plucked at random, while we can know and 
 love the hand that gives it, than the rarest blooms however 
 artistically blended that waste their fragrance on our unap- 
 preciative grave. 
 
 But most of all, and this is of the highest moment, let us 
 not like Ajax seek to change benignant into mahgnant forces, 
 or Zip! Zip! Crack! Unworthy children of Nature, we alone 
 are responsible for the result. 
 
 76] 
 
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