ears of
experience in this line had enabled him to prepare a paper on the
condition of the gas-payers in the mayor's city.

The commission was not a little surprised by this, but signified its
willingness to hear the expert as counsel for the city, and as his
statement was read a very clear light was thrown upon the situation.

Counsel for the various gas corporations interrupted freely. The mayor
himself was constantly drawn into the argument, but his replies were so
simple and convincing that there was not much satisfaction to be had in
stirring him. Instead, the various counsel took refuge in long-winded
discussions about the methods of conducting gas plants in other cities,
the cost of machinery, labor and the like, which took days and days, and
threatened to extend into weeks. The astounding facts concerning large
profits and the present intentions of not only this but every other
company in the State could not be dismissed. In fact the revelation of
huge corporation profits everywhere became so disturbing that after the
committee had considered and re-considered, it finally, when threatened
with political extermination, voted to reduce the price of gas to eighty
cents.

It is needless to suggest the local influence of this decision. When the
mayor came home he received an ovation, and that at the hands of many of
the people who had once been so fearful of him, but he knew that this
enthusiasm would not last long. Many disgruntled elements were warring
against him, and others were being more and more stirred up. His home
life was looked into as well as his past, his least childish or private
actions. It was a case of finding other opportunities for public
usefulness, or falling into the innocuous peace which would result in
his defeat.

In the platform on which he had been elected was a plank which declared
that it was the intention of this party, if elected, to abolish local
grade crossings, the maintenance of which had been the cause of numerous
accidents and much public complaint. With this plank he now proposed to
deal.

In this of course he was hampered by the law before mentioned, which
declared that no city could abolish its grade crossings without having
first submitted the matter to the people during three successive years
and obtained their approval each time. Behind this law was not now,
however, as in the case of the gas company, a small $500,000
corporation, but all the railroads which controlled