pledged to accomplish the beneficent purposes he avows by breaking up all the trusts and combinations and corporations so as to restore competition precisely as it was fifty years ago. If he does not mean this, he means nothing. He cannot do anything else under penalty of showing that his promise and his performance do not square with each other. Mr. Wilson says that "the trusts are our masters now, but I for one do not care to live in a country called free even under kind masters." Good! The Progressives are opposed to having masters, kind or unkind, and they do not believe that a "new freedom" which in practice would mean leaving four Fuel and Iron Companies free to do what they like in every industry would be of much benefit to the country. The Progressives have a clear and definite programme by which the people would be the masters of the trusts instead of the trusts being their masters, as Mr. Wilson says they are. With practical unanimity the trusts supported the opponents of this programme, Mr. Taft and Mr. Wilson, and they evidently dreaded our programme infinitely more than anything that Mr. Wilson threatened. The people have accepted Mr. Wilson's assurances. Now let him make his promises good. He is committed, if his words mean anything, to the promise to break up every trust, every big corporation-perhaps every small corporation in the United States-not to go through the motions of breaking them up, but really to break them up. He is committed against the policy (of efficient control and mastery of the big corporations both by law and by administrative action in coöperation) proposed by the Progressives. Let him keep faith with the people; let him in good faith try to keep the promises he has thus repeatedly made. I believe that his promise is futile and cannot be kept. I believe that any attempt sincerely to keep it and in good faith to carry it out will end in either nothing at all or in disaster. But my beliefs are of no consequence. Mr. Wilson is President. It is his acts that are of consequence. He is bound in honor to the people of the United States to keep his promise, and to break up, not nominally but in reality, all big business, all trusts, all combinations of every sort, kind, and description, and probably all corporations. What he says is henceforth of little consequence. The important thing is what he does, and how the results of what he does square with the promises and prophecies he made when all he had to do was to speak, not to act. APPENDIX C THE BLAINE CAMPAIGN In "The House of Harper," written by J. Henry Harper, the following passage occurs: "Curtis returned from the convention in company with young Theodore Roosevelt and they discussed the situation thoroughly on their trip to New York and came to the conclusion that it would be very difficult to consistently support Blaine. Roosevelt, however, had a conference afterward with Senator Lodge and eventually fell in line behind Blaine. Curtis came to our office and found that we were unanimously opposed to the support of Blaine, and with a hearty, good-will he trained his editorial guns on the 'Plumed Knight' of Mulligan letter fame. His work was as effective and deadly as any fight he ever conducted in the Weekly.” This statement has no foundation whatever in fact. I did not return from the convention in company with Mr. Curtis. He went back to New York from the convention, whereas I went to my ranch in North Dakota. No such conversation as that ever took place between me and Mr. Curtis. In my presence, in speaking to a number of men at the time in Chicago, Mr. Curtis said: "You younger men can, if you think right, refuse to support Mr. Blaine, but I am too old a Republican, and have too long been associated with the party, to break with it now." Not only did I never entertain after the convention, but I never, during the convention or at any other time, entertained the intention alleged in the quotation in question. I discussed the whole situation with Mr. Lodge before going to the convention, and we had made up our minds that if the nomination of Mr. Blaine was fairly made we would with equal good faith support him. Abbott, Lyman, 254 INDEX Africa, Hunting in, 34, 35 Alaska, enactment of game laws for, Alcott, Louisa M., reading of books Aldermen, deprived of confirming power, in New York City, 82, 83 Allison amendment to Hepburn Bill, American Tobacco Company suit, 430 Animals, seen in Yellowstone Park, Assembly, election of author to the, 63; experiences in the, 63-92 Bacon, Robert, 45, 357, 410, 468 Baird, Spencer, publications of, 18 Ballads, author's fondness for, 335, Ballantyne, R. M., stories by, 16 Barber, Captain H. A., letter by, 265, Bardshar, H. P., letter by, 264, 265 Barry, General T. H., 45, 505 Battle fleet, cruise of, around the Battle-ships, building of our new, 207, Bear hunting, 35-39 Bede, Congressman, 406 Big trees of California, 321 Blackmailing bills, New York Legis Bulloch, James Dunwoodie, 12, 13 lature, 69 ff. Blaine, James G., 86 Bonaparte, Attorney-General, 430, Boss rule in New York State, 273- Boughton, Captain, 243 Bourke, Edward J., 192-194 Boxing, lessons in, 28; later experi- ences in, 40, 41; as a first-class Brace, Charles Loring, 10 Brady, Governor of Alaska, 10 Bristow, Joseph L., investigation of Bulloch, Martha, mother of author, 11 Bunau-Varilla, Philippe, 524 Burley, John W., negro criminal, 374 Burton, Senator, 373 Business, combination between poli- ness Butterfield, Kenyon, 413 Calahan saloon affair, 193, 194 Canals, action in regard to New Cannon, Joseph, 351, 352 Capital punishment, views on, 248 Carter, "Modesty," 110 Cartoon, "His Favorite Author," 390 Chestnut trees, Sagamore Hill, 327 |