Page:Back to the Republic.djvu/79

 a drug upon the market, and now the same agitators and newspapers who were clamoring for control, destruction and punishment of the railroads are asking that their rates be increased, that they be given a chance, that they actually receive charitable assistance from the government.

In this great war crisis commissions are being added and multiplied instead of subtracted and divided as they should be. It was the purpose of the Constitution that all governmental work aside from the legislative and judicial branches should be performed by heads of departments and their subordinates, and that we should be represented abroad by ambassadors, ministers or consuls.

When Franklin went to France in the early days, he went alone as an ambassador with a definite message, that of soliciting military and financial aid from France. When he had made his appeal to the French government he secured favorable action. I want to ask you, dear reader, what you think the result would have been if Franklin had been serving on a commission of five or more men and they had all gone together, and after he had finished making his appeal he had then said: "We have with us also Mr. Brown, who will now present the matter." Mr. Brown in presenting the matter would doubtless have