But also she cajoles these fellows, and touches their hearts. Once upon a time they were children, and some of them went to school; now they have children of their own, and these are going to school; do they want to steal the children’s money? And then she goes after the big fellows, and sometimes she finds that even they have hearts! When she was fighting for this new school on Locust Point, she tackled not merely the mayor and the school board and the Catholic hierarchy, she tackled the president of the Baltimore Dry Dock and Ship Building Company. She wanted a park around the school, so that it would have room to grow, and she got this mighty magnate to the point of declaring that if the politicians wouldn’t vote the forty-five thousand dollars, he would put it up himself and he would spend another forty-five thousand to find out why he had had to do it! So, of course, the politicians fell all over themselves, and the school has its park. Here was a second case of plutocratic generosity in Baltimore, and I began to fear for the thesis of “The Goslings”! I asked Mrs. Bauernschmidt about it, and she made a face. They will never be able to fool her again, said she. Four years ago the schools wanted six million dollars, and all the civic agencies of Baltimore were fighting for a bond issue; they went to the business organizations, which endorsed their program cordially, and there was thanksgiving among the educators. But then it was discovered that a group of politicians and land-speculators intended to tack on another bond issue of forty-two million dollars for a “port loan”! The people of Baltimore were invited to put up this enormous sum to provide harbor facilities for Big Business, and the six million dollars for the schools was to provide the “human appeal.” The combined propositions were carried in a whirlwind campaign, and a “Port Commission” was appointed, which has been drawing fat salaries for four years—but not a single dock has been built to date! No, I do not expect to get very much for the people’s schools from the plutocracy; but you note that I am perfectly willing to take what I can get. For example, I take Mrs. Bauernschmidt! I don’t think she knows much economics, and I am sure she never met a Socialist before; but she has a robust mind, and she faces facts, whatever they may be. When there was a strike of the ship-workers on Locust Point, she faced the fact that the children were starving, and she helped raise money to feed them. That, of course, was a terrible thing; everywhere throughout the United States it is one of the worst offenses you can commit against the plutocracy, because they rely upon the cries of the starving children to break down the morale of strikers.