advantages; but such evils are transient, and the conditions which created them will suffice, ere long, to remove them.  The conflict between labor and capital is not permanent; it will yield to better knowledge of the true demands of political economy.  The indifference or corruption of law makers and dispensers will disappear when men realize that personal selfishness is self-destructive, and that only care for the commonweal can bring about prosperity for the individual.  The democracy is still in its swaddling clothes, and its outward aspect is in many ways ugly and unwelcome, and we sigh for the elegance and composure of old days; but these discomforts are a necessary accompaniment of growth, and will vanish when the growing pains are past.  The Press is the mirror of the aspirations, the virtues and the faults of the new mankind; its power is stupendous and constantly increasing; many are beginning to dread it as a possible agent of ill; but in truth its real power can only be for good, since the mass of mankind, however wedded to selfishness as individuals, are united in desiring honesty and good in the general trend of things; and it is to the generality, and not to the particular, that the Press, to be successful, must appeal.  It is the great critic and the great recorder; and in the face of such criticism and record abuses cannot long maintain themselves.  Men will be free, first of external tyrannies, and then of that more subtle but not less dangerous tyranny which they impose upon themselves.  As might have been expected, extremists have arisen who sought to find a short road to perfection, and they have met with disappointment.  The dreams of the socialists have not been realized; men will not work for one another unless they are at the same time working for themselves.  The communist and the nihilist are yet further from the true ideal; there will always remain in human society certain persons who rule, and others who obey.  There must always, in all affairs, be a head to direct as well as hands to execute.  Men are born unequal in intelligence and ability; and it will never be possible to reduce leaders to the level of followers.  The form of society must take its model from the human form, in which one part is subordinate to another, yet all work together in harmony.  Only time—­and probably no very long time—­is required to bring a recognition of these facts.  Meanwhile, the very violence of the revolts against even the suspicion of oppression are but symptoms of the vigorous vitality which, in former centuries, seemed to have no existence at all.  On the other hand, industrial co-operation seems to promise successful development; it involves immense economies, and consequent profit to producers.  The middleman has his uses, and especially is he a convenience; but it is easy to pay too dear for conveniences; and there seems no reason why the producer should not, as time goes on, become constantly better equipped for dealing direct with the consumer, to the manifest advantage of both.