Two or three years ago, before I met Mr. Steffens, I thought that he knew only as much as he “let on”; and so I wrote him an “open letter,” to point out the consequences of this régime of “big business.” The story of this manuscript is an amusing one, and worth telling for the light it throws upon my argument. Mr. Steffens was so good as to say that it was the best criticism of himself that he had ever read; and it was scheduled for publication in one of our three or four largest magazines. But alas—it was purchased by the enthusiastic young editor, and then read by the elderly and unenthusiastic proprietor. When I rebelled at the long wait which followed, the proprietor invited me to dinner, and unbosomed his soul to me. He was the dearest old gentleman I ever met, and he put his arm about me while he explained the situation. “My boy,” he said, “you are a very clever chap, and you know a lot; but why don’t you put it all into a book, where you can’t hurt anyone but yourself? Why do you try to get it into my magazine, and scare away my half million subscribers?” So the letter was shelved. But the questions it asked are now the questions which events are asking of the American people; and so I shall take the advice of the elderly and unenthusiastic proprietor—and publish some of the letter in a book! It ran as follows: This is the question I have wished to ask you, Mr. Steffens. “A revolution has happened,” you tell us; we have no longer “a government of the people, by the people, for the people,”—we have “a government of the people, by the rascals, for the rich.” And if we find that that revolution, which has overthrown the law, and which defies the law, cannot be put down and overcome by the means of the law—what are we going to do then? Are we going to sit still, and content ourselves with saying it is too bad? Are we going to bear it—to bear it forever? _Can_ we bear it forever? And if we cannot bear it forever what are we going to do when we can bear it no longer? A revolution is a serious thing, Mr. Steffens. A man should not talk about a “revolution” except with a thorough realisation of what the word implies. A revolution means that the social contract has been broken, that rights have been violated and justice defied—that, in a word, the game of life has not been fairly played, that those who have lost may possibly have had the right to win. And the game of life is a pretty stern game for many of us, Mr. Steffens.