pudiation of reform by a large majority
of level-headed inhabitants had reassuring and reenforcing effects.

Astute citizens, spectators of the fray--if indeed there were any--might
have remarked an unique and significant feature of that campaign: that
the usual recriminations between the two great parties were lacking.
Mr. Parks, the Republican candidate, did not denounce Mr. MacGuire, the
Democratic candidate. Republican and Democratic speakers alike expended
their breath in lashing Mr. Krebs and the Citizens Union.

It is difficult to record the fluctuations of my spirit. When I was in
the halls, speaking or waiting to speak, I reacted to that phenomenon
known as mob psychology, I became self-confident, even exhilarated; and
in those earlier speeches I managed, I think, to strike the note for
which I strove--the judicial note, suitable to a lawyer of weight and
prominence, of deprecation rather than denunciation. I sought to embody
and voice a fine and calm sanity at a time when everyone else seemed in
danger of losing their heads, and to a large extent achieved it. I had
known Mr. Krebs for more than twenty years, and while I did not care to
criticise a fellow-member of the bar, I would go so far as to say that
he was visionary, that the changes he proposed in government would,
if adopted, have grave and far-reaching results: we could not, for
instance, support in idleness those who refused to do their share of the
work of the world. Mr. Krebs was well-meaning. I refrained from dwelling
too long upon him, passing to Mr. Greenhalge, also well-meaning, but
a man of mediocre ability who would make a mess of the government of a
city which would one day rival New York and Chicago. (Loud cheers.) And
I pointed out that Mr. Perry Blackwood had been unable to manage the
affairs of the Boyne Street road. Such men, well-intentioned though
they might be, were hindrances to progress. This led me naturally to a
discussion of the Riverside Franchise and the Traction Consolidation. I
was one of those whose honesty and good faith had been arraigned, but I
would not stoop to refute the accusations. I dwelt upon the benefits
to the city, uniform service, electricity and large comfortable cars
instead of rattletrap conveyances, and the development of a large
and growing population in the Riverside neighbourhood: the continual
extension of lines to suburban districts that enabled hard-worked men
to live out of the smoke: I called atten