erworks had also been enlarged and the rates reduced. The
streets were clean.

Then the mayor made another innovation. During his first term of office
there had been a weekly meeting of the reform club, at which he appeared
and talked freely of his plans and difficulties. These meetings he now
proposed to make public.

Every Wednesday evening for a year thereafter a spectacle of municipal
self-consciousness was witnessed, which those who saw it felt sure would
redound to the greater strength and popularity of the mayor. In a large
hall, devoted to public gatherings, a municipal meeting was held. Every
one was invited. The mayor was both host and guest, an individual who
chose to explain his conduct and his difficulties and to ask advice.
There his constituents gathered, not only to hear but to offer counsel.

"Gentlemen," so ran the gist of his remarks on various of these
occasions, "the present week has proved a most trying one. I am
confronted by a number of difficult problems, which I will now try to
explain to you. In the first place, you know my limitations as to power
in the council. But three members now vote for me, and it is only by
mutual concessions that we move forward at all."

Then would follow a detailed statement of the difficulties, and a
general discussion. The commonest laborer was free to offer his advice.
Every question was answered in the broadest spirit of fellowship. An
inquiry as to "what to do" frequently brought the most helpful advice.
Weak and impossible solutions were met as such, and shown to be what
they were. Radicals were assuaged, conservatives urged forward. The
whole political situation was so detailed and explained that no
intelligent person could leave, it was thought, with a false impression
of the mayor's position or intent.

With five thousand or more such associated citizens abroad each day
explaining, defending, approving the official conduct of the mayor,
because they understood it, no misleading conceptions, it was thought,
could arise. Men said that his purpose and current leaning in any matter
was always clear. He was thought to be closer to his constituency than
any other official within the whole range of the Americas and that there
could be nothing but unreasoning partisan opposition to his rule.

After one year of such service a presidential campaign drew near, and
the mayor's campaign for reelection had to be contested at the same
time. No gas monopoly evil was