My college training had biased me against all governmental schemes for the betterment of the social and industrial conditions of laborers, or for the control of corporations. The education which I afterwards received in these matters, and which completely changed my views, was gained partly from books, but more from actual experience in governmental work, and from a constantly widening and more intimate knowledge of the real life of different bodies of our people. My first step in this education began when, after leaving college, I joined, and endeavored to make myself count in, my local Republican association――instead of joining some parlor gathering of well-meaning dilettante reformers. The labor unions had been demanding legislation to stop the manufacture of cigars in tenement-houses, and during my second term in Albany the Assembly appointed a committee to look into the conditions. My belief is that the committee was appointed with the hope that it would not recommend any change in the law, and that I was put on because, on account of my education and social surroundings, it was supposed that I would naturally take this view; and I certainly expected to take it. One of my colleagues was a then well-known sporting Tammany politician who afterwards abandoned politics and became a professional racing man. There were many points on which our theories of ethics were as far asunder as the poles; but I soon discovered that there were other matters, and some of these of fundamental importance, on which we thought alike, and our association ended in mutual respect and good will. Soon after the investigation started I told him that I was a good deal shocked at what I had seen, and was wavering in my preconceived opinions. He answered by saying that, as far as he personally was concerned, he was pledged in advance against recommending any change in the law, but that he had known that I was a free agent and had all along believed that when I looked into the matter for myself I would be a very ardent advocate of the change. He was quite right in his supposition. The investigation convinced me beyond shadow of doubt that to permit the manufacture of cigars in tenement-houses, which necessarily meant their manufacture not only by the men but by the women and children of the poverty-stricken immigrants who were engaged in the task, was an evil thing from every standpoint, social, industrial, and hygienic. I accordingly cordially supported the bill; which made a large number of my friends regard me as erratic and dangerous, or else as influenced by demagogic motives. The bill was badly drawn. No lawyer of any note had been consulted; there was no one to pay such a lawyer. When it passed both houses, the then Governor, Grover Cleveland, appointed a day for a hearing, and the labor unions asked me to appear. Appear we did, several good counsel being against us, while on our side there were, besides myself, merely