Page:Forty years of it (IA fortyyearsofit00whitiala).pdf/150

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own nature. I have done what it has always been hardest for me to do."

"What?" I asked.

He sat in silence for a moment, and then he said:

"You know, it has always seemed to me that the most remarkable thing that was ever said of Jesus was that when he was reviled, he reviled not again. It is the hardest thing in the world to do."

The struggle over the renewal of the franchise grants to the street railway company had already begun, and the council had attempted to grant it the franchise it wished, renewing its privileges for another twenty-five years. When Mayor Jones vetoed the bill, the council prepared to pass it over his veto, and would have done so that Monday night had it not been for two men—Mayor Jones and Mr. Negley D. Cochran, the editor of the News-Bee, a newspaper which has always taken the democratic viewpoint of public questions. Mr. Cochran, with his brilliant gift in the writing of editorials, had called out the whole populace, almost, to attend the meeting of the council and to protest. The demonstration was so far effective that the council was too frightened to pass the street railway ordinance. The attorney for the street railway company was there, and when there was a lull in the noise, he sneered:

"I suppose, Mr. Mayor, that this is an example of government under the Golden Rule."

"No," replied Jones in a flash, "it is an example of government under the rule of gold."

Unless it were because of his interference with the