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it holds of my life, of regret, or sorrow, or wrong, is in the hands of the mighty love that can bring oil out of the rock and sweet waters out of the bitterest desert; the love that can make the wrong things right, and turn mourning into laughter. Save for the beautiful memories, sweet and tender, that linger like perfume of dried roses in the heart of the day that is gone, I have nothing to do with yesterday. It was mine; now it belongs to God.

And the other day I do not worry over, is tomorrow. Tomorrow, with all its possible cares, its burdens, its sorrows, its perils, its poor performings and its bitter mistakes, is as far beyond my reach of mastership as its dead sister, yesterday. Its sun will rise in roseate splendor, or behind a gloomy mask of weeping clouds. But it will rise, and it will be God's day. It is God's day. It will be mine. Save for the star of hope that gleams forever on the brow of tomorrow, shining with tender promise into the heart of today, I have no possession in tomorrow. All else is in the safe keeping of the same infinite love that holds for me the treasures of yesterday. I can trust all that tomorrow holds for me in the love that is wider than the skies and

deeper than the seas-I can, for whether I will or not, I must.

There is left for myself, then, nothing but today. And any man can fight the battle of today. Any man can carry the burdens of just one day. Any man can resist today's temptations. This is the strength that makes the way of my pilgrimage joyous. I think, and I do, and I journey but one day at a time; that is the human day. And while I do that, God, the Almighty and the all loving, takes care of yesterdays and tomorrows.

These beautiful gems of thought appealed to me very forcibly, and I thought to myself that if we could exemplify them in our lives, or live them, that instead of gloomy forebodings and inexcusable pessimism, our lives would be surrounded with a halo of sweetness and joy, the scintillations of which would go out into other lives and dissipate the dark clouds of disappointment and remorse and make them joyous and happy, and a reflex influence upon our own lives would have an ennobling effect, which would enable us to rise superior to the grovelling things of sense and time. It appealed to me like that beautiful phrase that brought peace to Whiteleld-"God in the Soul."

The Great Hope in the Heart.

BY CAPT. GEO. W. BARBER, SR.

A great traveler had just completed an address on Alaska. Admirers from the audience were crowding about him when a white-faced, poorly-clothed boy, with eager eyes, pressed forward and said: "I'm going there some day." "Isn't that pathetic?" a bystander whispered. "No," answered the traveler, "it is divine." "But you surely don't believe he can do it?" exclaimed the bystander in astonishment. “I am not sure," replied the great man, "it depends upon the strength of his hope." Today that boy is in Alaska, pushing a railroad into the far north.

Hide a great hope in your heart. Let it be as great as the best that is in you. Let its roots strike deep into your being. Let

it blossom into cheer and faith and indomitable purpose. You are a young man and your desire is for an education. You are a young woman with ambitions and strength for a man's sake. You are a politician with the public good at heart, and you enter the ranks of the men who do battle for the people. You desire to be a skilled mechanic, a capable business man, a minister, a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, or a first-class conductor, superintendent of a division, or general manager.

In any case, hide away a great hope in your heart. When temptations come it will help you to resist. Should you fall, it will help you to rise. If you win a measure of success, it will not allow you to rest con

tent. It will become an increasingly powerful suggestion, working day and night, strengthening your purpose, cheering your dark hours, holding you to persistent effort. It will awaken powers lying back in your sub-conscious mind-powers of which you do not dream. You will become not the ordinary man, who is born and lives and dies, but an inspired man, with consciousness of a victory unconsummated, to whom every buffet of fortune but serves to discipline and enrich the life.

And then some day, perhaps when you least expect, you will see the fulfilment of the hope you hid away. But should it never come to pass in just the way you wished, you will have grown to the size of your hope, and from a higher plane, with a truer perspective, you will look out upon life, doing your work manfully and understanding the struggles, the defeats and the victories of other men.

Hide a great hope in the heart to begin the New Year.

The National Civic Federation and its Work.
BY JOHN C. FREUND, IN "THE MUSIC TRADES."

On Monday and Tuesday of last week the Hotel Astor was the rallying point for the most extraordinary gathering of men and women that has been ever held in this country or in any other country, and it is not going too far to say that in no other country in the world could such a gathering have been held.

Fashionable society women and great labor leaders; presidents of vast railroad systems, trusts, banks, large commercial and industrial enterprises; editors of leading papers; doctors and lawyers of eminence; heads and professors of great colleges; millionaires and poor men, all met together for one common purpose-the social uplift, for it is this which, in brief, is the purpose of the National Civic Federation, which, started some nine or ten years ago, has today reached national and even international importance, and may be said to number among its members the best brains, the most influential and most representative men and women of the country.

* * *

Since the federation was started it has undertaken conferences on important public questions. Its great convention held in New York to throw light on the emigration question brought from all parts of the world, and even from Australia, representative citizens who added the weight of their experience to the discussions. It sent to Europe a commission composed of prominent labor men, publicists, writers, capital

ists, to investigate the question of municipal ownership at first hand and bring back to this country the results of their labors, which appeared in a majority and minority report of inestimable value, because it gave us facts on which we could base an opinion of the merits of this serious problem.

* * *

The annual meetings have come to have national importance, so that the press, which in years gone by held aloof, now chronicles them at length.

This year the annual meeting, held at the Astor the early part of last week, derived additional importance from the fact that not only were grave questions, such as the trade agreement, discussed by men eminent in all lines of human endeavor, but because so many representative women took part in them-social leaders and women of eminence, like Mrs. Andrew Carnegie, Mrs. William H. Taft, Mrs. Harriman, Miss Anne Morgan, daughter of J. Pierpont Morgan, and others equally prominent.

The various meetings held at the Astor culminated in a dinner, for which, although the price per ticket was placed at $5, there were over 4,000 applications from people all over the United States. No doubt many desired to hear President-elect Taft, who, before his nomination by the republican party as their candidate for the Presidency in the last election, has been for some time past the head of the welfare. department of the federation.

As the large dining-hall only seats some nine hundred, it became necessary for the federation to return the checks and money which had been sent to some 3,000 persons, in order to reduce the number of guests to the accommodations of the hall.

At the dinner, to give an idea of this notable event, all the more notable, not alone from the presence of ladies, but because of the mixture of interests and the entire wiping out of all social distinction, at one table were Mr. and Mrs. Harriman, Mr. and Mrs. Lydig, and some labor leaders. At another table were Seth Low, formerly mayor and now president of the federation; President-elect Taft, John Mitchell, of the Coal Mine Workers; Mrs. Carnegie, Mr. August Belmont, Mr. and Mrs. Alton B. Parker (candidate for the Presidency at the election before last), Me!ville E. Ingalls, the railroad president, and Mr. Garretson, head of the Railroad Conductors' Union.

At another table were Mr. Andrew Carnegie, Mrs. Taft, Hon. Mr. Batchelder, Commissioner of Labor in Massachusetts; Samuel Gompers, president of the Federation of Labor; Lyman Abbott, editor of the "Outlook"; Isaac Seligman, the banker, and so it ran.

After dinner, the proceedings were opened by Seth Low, who, in his speech, explained not only the aims and purposes of the federation, but gave some idea of its methods. It did not "butt in" in labor disputes between labor and capital. It did not work in the open, with a brass band and newspaper notoriety. It did its work in secret, so that the self-respect of both the parties in conflict could be preserved and their confidence in the good intent and independence of the federation be maintained. Mr. Low described how, over the telephone, he had received a message from a great banking house which was responsible for a large portion of the securities of a street railway company in a city of importance many hundreds of miles from New York, who had appealed to him to use his good offices to avert a strike of the employes, which threatened to tie up the traffic and cause serious injury to the company's securities and property. Mr. Low told how, over the 'phone, he had communicated with

Mr. Mahone, head of the street railway employes' organization, and had obtained from him a promise to withhold the strike pending an attempted settlement by arbitration. Mr. Low told how, by bringing the parties together in this way, over the telephone-they did not even meet-an adjustment had been made, yet nothing was ever heard of it in the papers.

John Mitchell, the great leader of the coal mine workers, followed, and told how he had accepted a position with the federation because he thought that perhaps, in that way, he might create better relations between labor and capital, but that if he felt that his usefulness was not what he expected, he would go back to the coal mines and the miners.

Andrew Carnegie then spoke in the highest terms of the work of the federation, expressed his growing interest in it and commended it to the support of all men who have the welfare of the country at heart. Mr. Carnegie particularly took occasion to pay a great compliment to Mr. Easley, who has been for some time the chairman of the executive committee, and to whose patient, unobtrusive and indefatigable work so much of the success of the federation has been due.

Samuel Gompers, president of the Federation of Labor, and who is one of the vicepresidents of the federation, stated frankly that when Mr. Taft became President that he would be his President as much as any other man's President, although he had opposed him during the campaign, a sentiment that was greatly applauded. Mr. Gompers also said that it must not be understood that in the councils of the federation there was unanimity of sentiment. There was not. Each side held to its own views and endeavored to convert the other side. But instead of being in angry conflict they conducted their discussions and endeavored to adjust their differences in an amicable way because they had a high respect for one another, even if they could not always agree.

August Belmont spoke briefly on the work of the federation, and was followed by Mr. Melville E. Ingalls, the railroad president, who spoke of the restrictions which are today laid upon great corporations. took the ground that these restrictions bear

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just as heavily, under the Sherman law, on organized labor as they do on capital, and that there was only one way out of it, and that was to meet the issue by an amendment to the Constitution, by repealing the Sherman Act and by extending the power of the Interstate Commission.

Mr. Garretson, the head of the railroad conductors' organization, a man of plain speech, gave a history of labor organizations from ancient times and endeavored to show that the combinations among workers, who had been forced to combine because of the oppression practiced upon them, had been the backbone of human liberties. He pleaded with all those present to endeavor to understand the principles of a labor union before they condemned it. He told how the labor unions did much to educate a man, once he became a member, to a regard for his fellowmen, and that so the union did a work which was not generally appreciated.

And then, at the last, when it was getting late, William H. Taft, the Presidentelect, rose. He was greeted with enthusiasm, which was doubled at the close of his speech.

He told how he had become interested in the federation. He told of its good work. He told of the many eminent men who had come to regard it with confidence, on the side of labor as well as on the side of capital. He paid a high tribute of regard to Mr. Easley, and then he took up what Mr. Gompers had said, and stated that,

never mind what differences there might have been before the election, now that the result was determined, so far as he was concerned all animosity had been wiped out.

With respect to the Sherman law, he stated that he thought what it needed was better enforcement rather than to be taken off the statute books; and with regard to the Constitution, he thought it was a pretty good old Constitution; that we had gotten along with it pretty well so far and he thought it would serve us a little while longer.

In his speech he impressed all thosewhether they were democrats or republicans, protectionists or tariff reformers, or professors with socialistic tendencies-with the fact that, while he was genial and kindly, and inclined to be conservative, at the same time he was every inch a man, that he had a will of his own, and that this would be made clear from the day he became President of these United States.

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Judge Wright Decides Against Mr. Gompers and Associates.

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and for applying punishment for disregard of them, one of these being applied to the laborer, singly or in groups, and the other to his employer. The other issue which would have been brought into strong relief, is the necessity for the immediate enactment of legislation which would place one upon at least a reasonable degree of parity with the other and which would not class the same act performed by two men as, in one man's case a crime and in the other, a peccadillo. But when you take into consideration the language in which the de

cision of this court was couched, the virulence displayed to the principle of combinations of laboring men for a purpose, regardless of its legitimacy or illegitimacy, the passionate denunciation instead of calm, dispassionate utterance, assumption seemingly based on preconceived opinion instead of upon actual occurrence, the conclusions that it will impress upon the minds of men in general, not of necessity only laboring men, but thinking, reasoning men of all classes, creates a condition, the gravity of which will not be underestimated by any man who is a careful student of the tendencies of mankind.

Every good citizen deplores that which tends to weaken respect for the courts in the minds of those who are affected by the decisions thereof and a spectacle like this, which, instead of upholding the traditions of the courts of the nation by the dignified, impartial demeanor which beseems and usually characterizes our courts, descends to rant and denunciation utterly unworthy of the judicial bench, an attitude which makes the phrase “judicial mind” a screaming farce and that breeds among fair play loving men a contempt for the methods of that particular court so absolute and universal that, unconsciously, the reflex of

that feeling operates to undermine the respect which should be had for all courts. It is this dragging of the ermine through the mud of partisanship that strengthens the hands of that element which eternally decries the uprightness of the courts and that tends to weaken their influence for good, which every true citizen of the republic desires to see fostered and upheld. One decision of this character can breed more anarchists than could the propaganda of that cult in a score of years, and it is in the creation and dissemination of that spirit that the gravest aspect of this whole question lies. If it is desired that such a spirit shall be sown broadcast among men and that "the pestilence which stalketh at noonday" shall canker the mind and heart of the people, that object can be surely attained by continuing upon the bench judges who have demonstrated that their sentiments regarding the rights of man are a survival of the feudal period, whose ethical conceptions have suffered from either over-fertilization or under-nourishment and whose limited resources in the way of that dignified, dispassionate, judicial spirit which does and should characterize our courts, would qualify them for appearance in bankruptcy proceedings.

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