try and individual enterprise remain open to their
children? Is it more important to grow men or make money? Shall we
transform the Republic into a huge money-stamping machine and turn its
freemen into slaves who tend this machine, at the command of a master?
The people will answer these questions!"

Bivens gave a cynical little chuckle.

"Then I'm sure we'll get the wrong answer, Doctor," was the response.

"They will get it right bye and bye. The nation is young. You say you
believe in God. Well, see to it--a thousand years are but a day to Him!
Among the shadows of eternity He is laughing at your follies. Nature in
her long, slow, patient process is always on the side of Justice."

Bivens rose with a movement of impatience.

"I'm sorry you can't see your way to listen to any proposition from me,
Doctor. I'm a practical man. I wish to incorporate your business into
the general organization of the American Chemical Company on terms that
will satisfy you----"

"Such terms can't be made, Bivens," the doctor said impetuously. "Your
purpose is to squeeze money out of the people--the last dollar the
trade will bear. That is your motto. I simply refuse. I refuse to
devote my life to gouging out my neighbours' eyes to increase the
profits of my trade. I put myself in his place, the place of the
forgotten man, the consumer, the man you are organizing to exploit. The
strong and the cunning can always take advantage of the weak, the
ignorant, the foolish and generous. I have an imagination which makes
vivid the sense of fellowship. I meet, in the crowds I pass, thousands
of friends I never speak to, but the world is brighter because I've
seen them."

"But if I don't see them?" the little black eyes mildly asked.

"Certainly! You can't see them. To you the city is merely a big flock
of sheep to be sheared, while to me its myriad sounds are the music of
a divine oratorio, throbbing with tears and winged with laughter! To
you, the crowd are so many fools who may be buncoed out of their goods;
while to me, some of their eyes, seen but for a moment, look into mine
with infinite hunger and yearning, asking for friendship, comradeship,
and love. And so, I call them my neighbours--these hurrying throngs who
pass me daily. Because they are my neighbours, they are my friends.
Their rights are sacred. I will not rob, maim, or kill them, and I will
defend them against those who would!"

With the last sentence the stalwart figure t