petition restored. But monopoly had grown up under the protection of the government, although the officers of the government all had been avowed enemies of special privilege. This was the anomalous and very extraordinary condition, the Gordian knot that the nation. -Big Business as well as the people at large-desired to see cut. But it was a Herculean task that confronted the political parties, and the people everywhere were asking this question, Would a champion come forth who could command the strength to win?

The people had struggled for twenty years against trusts and monopolies, and they were now calling for a leader, a man of wisdom and integrity and power. And it mattered little from what political party he should come.

There were two great national leaders in the fulness of their power, and to them, more than to any others, the nation looked for guidance in the matter-one was William Jennings Bryan, a Democrat; and the other was Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican.

Mr. Bryan had been nominated for the Presidency of the United States three times and three times had been defeated; yet his leadership remained. He seemed to thrive on defeat. However, after his first defeat in 1896 he established a newspaper. From that and from the proceeds of his lectures he provided himself with freedom of action to go anywhere at any time and address the people on the issues of the day. The most

brilliant orator of his generation, he attracted great audiences wherever he spoke, and he went everywhere -he knew everybody and everybody knew him. He was the King of Chautauqua platforms. He possessed wonderful physical vitality and seemed never to tire. For sixteen years he had voiced the unrest of the nation, and there was no doubt that he felt as the people felt. He knew that something was wrong, and he spoke his feelings in such terms as to stir his audience wherever he went. In this way he contributed powerfully to arousing the people to a sense of their wrongs.

Theodore Roosevelt had been President of the United States for seven years. During his occupancy of that office his sayings and his doings continually held popular interest, and he, too, with the prestige of his high office giving force to his speeches, proclaimed that things were wrong. He was so powerful that he had not only been re-elected for a second term, but he had dictated the nomination of his successor, taken from his own cabinet, and had materially assisted in the election which followed. He was gifted with marvelous political sagacity, and he had the prestige of never having been beaten. He had contributed greatly to the spread of progressive ideas, and the full force of his dramatic personality was thrown into the campaign for the Presidency.

Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Bryan were the antithesis of each other. What the one was the other was not, and

willingly they agreed on nothing; yet each knew that something was wrong. They agreed as to many of the things that were wrong, but they differed fundamentally as to how to remedy the wrong. The year 1912 found both of them private citizens, and yet they were the two most powerful men in the nation because of their influence with the people.

All the forces of reform seemed to gather headway as the great national conventions of 1912 began to take shape, and striking scenes were witnessed. Mr. Roosevelt fought Big Business in the Republican party, but he was beaten in the Chicago Convention amidst the most dramatic scenes. He withdrew from the party, organized a third party, became its candidate for the Presidency, and began one of the most spectacular campaigns in the history of the Republic.

President Taft was renominated by the Republican party; but he was not a great leader. Neither his honesty, his patriotism, nor his ability was seriously questioned. But, when he was in the wrong, he did not have the adroitness to make his cause appear the better, and when he was in the right, he did not have the power to evoke popular support. He was characterized as "a very poor politician, with no instinct for reading the signs of the times or for discharging the high duties of his office in a way to arouse enthusiasm for inspiring leadership."

Scarcely had the echoes of the Republican convention

at Chicago died away when the struggle was renewed in the Democratic convention at Baltimore. There Mr. Bryan fought Big Business amidst scenes not less exciting than those at Chicago. As the contest continued and the agents of monopoly appeared more active, Mr. Bryan, in a dramatic attack on what seemed to be the attempt of Big Business to control the nomination, withdrew his support from one candidate and threw the weight of his great influence to a less favored son in the convention, and Governor Woodrow Wilson, of New Jersey, was nominated. Thus was ushered into the limelight a third great personality.

The Democratic nominee was referred to as "the scholar in politics." He had been a teacher of history and political economy, and had won distinction as an interpreter of modern sociological and political problems and institutions. Moreover, he was a recognized writer of force, and his books on government were widely used both in Europe and America. The teacher and writer became president of Princeton University in 1902, but his executive duties did not deter him from discussing political problems, and in the period from 1902 to 1910 while Mr. Bryan and Mr. Roosevelt were active in politics, Mr. Wilson was analyzing for the nation the problems of government and pointing to definite solutions.

But he did not enter politics until 1907, when his friends in New Jersey brought him out as a candidate

for the United States Senate. Three years later (1910) he was nominated for Governor. Only his most enthusiastic friends believed he could be elected. New Jersey had been under Republican rule, and for the most of that time under boss rule of the most distinct type. However, Mr. Wilson took the stump and at once loomed large as a political campaigner. His speeches were so effective that he rapidly obtained a large following. Metropolitan newspapers featured his addresses. He was again the interpreter of political institutions and in his own state he had a concrete illustration of private control of political institutions and the loss of individual freedom and initiative. elected, and this remarkable achievement made him a Presidential possibility, and in 1912 he was nominated for the Presidency by the Democratic convention.

He was

The three parties introduced their respective chiefs to the nation, compiled their platforms and came before the people, each asking for the election of its candidate. Each asserted emphatically that monopoly should be destroyed, and that in order to make the destruction natural as well as complete, the cause of monopolies should be removed. But men could not agree as to the cause of monopoly. Was the protective tariff the leading cause? That was the question. Mr. Taft, the candidate of the Republican party, said he was pledged in the Republican platform to "maintain a degree of protection." Mr. Wilson was opposed to