tinued. "Day after day crowds of men gather here and
anxiously wait for the _News_ to appear, as this paper contains more
'Want' advertisements than any other Chicago daily." I waited until the
boys rushed from the office with the newly printed papers, and saw the
men hurriedly buy copies. I noticed how scores upon scores of eyes
searched the "Help Wanted" columns, and how, one by one, they started in
quest of work. I noticed the countenances of the weary watchers. Among
them were to be seen almost all types of faces, but all, save one, were
anxious, careworn, or stolid. I shuddered as, standing inside the
restaurant unobserved, I beheld this sight of appalling misery and
national shame. The faces of these men have haunted me ever since.
Hunger was there, hate was there, despair was hovering over more than
one countenance. There were wan, dull eyes, wolfish eyes, and eyes
eloquent with mute appeals for kindness. There was the hunted look of a
beast at bay, and the craven expression of a broken spirit. One only
among the throng seemed able to be merry, though his thin face and worn
clothes indicated his wretchedness. The tragedy of these lives remains
with me. I know that this awful condition is unnecessary. I know that a
little more conscience, a little more love, a keener sense of justice,
and a little honest concern for the rights of men and the enduring
welfare of the state, a settled determination to overcome this condition
and place the good of the people and the cause of justice above a
shortsighted policy of selfishness, would change the whole aspect of
things, now so ominous, so menacing, and so essentially unjust. This
panorama of exiled industry, seeking vainly for employment, may be
witnessed from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

I am not of that number who can regard these spectacles with
indifference, nor can I feel, as do some others, that because the
present order is essentially unjust in its practical workings it is well
to turn a cold shoulder to movements calculated to arrest the downward
drift of life and lessen the unfathomable misery of the poor in order
that the crisis may be hastened. For while I believe that the present
order is as surely outgrown as was feudalism in the sixteenth century,
and though I believe most profoundly that this order must pass away or
civilization perish, as have perished the civilizations of former ages,
yet I also appreciate the fact, which to me is very important, that the