lavishly to their children," he said, "and count how few are valuable
members of society or hold the respect of their fellows.
"On the other hand, look at the successful in every vocation of life,
and note how many have literally dug their way to success."
The more Dru saw of Selwyn, the better he liked him, and knowing the
inner man, as he then did, the more did he marvel at his career. He and
Selwyn talked long and earnestly over the proper disposition of his
fortune. They both knew that it was hard to give wisely and without
doing more harm than good. Even in providing for his friends, Selwyn was
none too sure that he was conferring benefits upon them. Most of them
were useful though struggling members of society, but should competency
come to them, he wondered how many would continue as such. There was
one, the learned head of a comparatively new educational institution,
with great resources ultimately behind it. This man was building it on a
sure and splendid foundation, in the hope that countless generations of
youth would have cause to be grateful for the sagacious energy he was
expending in their behalf.
He had, Selwyn knew, the wanderlust to a large degree, and the
millionaire wondered whether, when this useful educator's slender income
was augmented by the generous annuity he had planned to give him, he
would continue his beneficent work or become a dweller in arabs' tents.
In the plenitude of his wealth and generosity, he had another in mind to
share his largess. He was the orphaned son of an old and valued friend.
He had helped the lad over some rough places, but had been careful not
to do enough to slacken the boy's own endeavor. The young man had
graduated from one of the best universities, and afterwards at a medical
school that was worthy the name. He was, at the time Selwyn was planning
the disposition of his wealth, about thirty years old, and was doing
valuable laboratory work in one of the great research institutions.
Gifted with superb health, and a keen analytical mind, he seemed to have
it in him to go far in his profession, and perhaps be of untold benefit
to mankind.
But Selwyn had noticed an indolent streak in the young scientist, and he
wondered whether here again he was doing the fair and right thing by
placing it within his power to lead a life of comparative ease and
uselessness. Consequently, Selwyn moved cautiously in the matter of the
distribution of his great wealth, and invoked Dru's aid. It was Dru's
supernormal intellect, tireless energy, and splendid constructive
ability that appealed to him, and he not only admired the Administrator
above all men, but he had come to love him as a son. Dru was the only
person with whom Selwyn had ever been in touch whose advice he valued
above his own judgment. Therefore when the young Administrator suggested
a definite plan of scientific giving, Selwyn gave it respectful
attention at first, and afterwards his enthusiastic approval.
CHAPTER XLVII
THE WISE DISPOSITION OF A FORTUNE, CONTINUED
"If your fortune were mine, Senator Selwyn," said Philip Dru, "I would
devote it to the uplift of women. Their full rights will be accorded
them in time, but their cause could be accelerated by you, and
meanwhile untold misery and unhappiness averted. Man, who is so
dependent upon woman, has largely failed in his duty to her, not alone
as an individual but as a sex. Laws are enacted, unions formed, and what
not done for man's protection, but the working woman is generally
ignored. With your money, and even more with your ability, you could
change for the better the condition of girlhood and womanhood in every
city and in every factory throughout the land. Largely because they are
unorganized, women are overworked and underpaid to such an extent that
other evils, which we deplore, follow as a natural sequence. By proper
organization, by exciting public interest and enlisting the sympathy
and active support of the humane element, which is to be found in every
community you will be able to bring about better conditions.
"If I were you, I would start my crusade in New York and work out a
model organization there, so that you could educate your coadjutors as
to the best methods, and then send them elsewhere to inaugurate the
movement. Moreover, I would not confine my energies entirely to
America, but Europe and other parts of the world should share its
benefits, for human misery knows no sheltering land.
"In conjunction with this plan, I would carry along still another.
Workingmen have their clubs, their societies and many places for social
gathering, but the women in most cities have none. As you know, the
great majority of working girls live in tenements, crowded with their
families in a room or two, or they live in cheap and lonely boarding
houses. They have no chance for recreation after working hours or on
holidays, unless they go to places it would be better to keep away from.
If men wish to visit them, it must needs be in their bedrooms, on the
street, or in some questionable resort."
"How am I to change this condition?" said Selwyn.
"In many ways," said Dru. "Have clubs for them, where they may sing,
dance, read, exercise and have their friends visit them. Have good women
in charge so that the influence will be of the best. Have occasional
plays and entertainments for them, to which they may each invite a
friend, and make such places pleasanter than others where they might go.
And all the time protect them, and preferably in a way they are not
conscious of. By careful attention to the reading matter, interesting
stories should be selected each of which would bear its own moral. Quiet
and informal talks by the matron and others at opportune times, would
give them an insight into the pitfalls around them, and make it more
difficult for the human vultures to accomplish their undoing. There is
no greater stain upon our vaunted civilization," continued Dru, "than
our failure to protect the weak, the unhappy and the abjectly poor of
womankind.
"Philosophers still treat of it in the abstract, moralists speak of it
now and then in an academic way, but it is a subject generally shunned and
thought hopelessly impossible.
"It is only here and there that a big noble-hearted woman can be found
to approach it, and then a Hull House is started, and under its
sheltering roof unreckoned numbers of innocent hearted girls are saved
to bless, at a later day, its patron saint.
"Start Hull Houses, Senator Selwyn, along with your other plan, for it
is all of a kind, and works to the betterment of woman. The vicious, the
evil minded and the mature sensualist, we will always have with us, but
stretch out your mighty arm, buttressed as it is by fabulous wealth, and
save from the lair of the libertines, the innocent, whose only crime is
poverty and a hopeless despair.
"In your propaganda for good," continued Dru, "do not overlook the
education of mothers to the importance of sex hygiene, so that they may
impart to their daughters the truth, and not let them gather their
knowledge from the streets.
"You may go into this great work, Senator Selwyn, with the consciousness
that you are reaching a condition fraught with more consequence to
society than any other that confronts it, for its ramifications for evil
are beyond belief of any but the sociologist who has gone to its
foundations."
CHAPTER XLVIII
AN INTERNATIONAL COALITION
Busy as General Dru had been rehabilitating domestic affairs, he never
for a moment neglected the foreign situation. He felt that it was
almost providential that he was in a position to handle it unhampered,
for at no time in our history were we in such peril of powerful foreign
coalition. Immediately after receiving from Selwyn the information
concerning the British-German alliance, he had begun to build, as it
were, a fire behind the British Ministry, and the result was its
overthrow. When the English nation began to realize that a tentative
agreement was being arrived at between their country on the one hand,
and Germany and Japan on the other, with America as its object of
attack, there was a storm of indignation; and when the new Ministry was
installed the diplomatic machinery was set to work to undo, as nearly as
could be, what their predecessors had accomplished.
In the meantime, Dru negotiated with them to the end that England and
America were to join hands in a world wide policy of peace and
commercial freedom. According to Dru's plan, disarmaments were to be
made to an appreciable degree, custom barriers were to be torn down,
zones of influence clearly defined, and an era of friendly commercial
rivalry established.
It was agreed that America should approach Germany and Japan in
furtherance of this plan, and when their consent was obtained, the rest
would follow.
Dru worked along these lines with both nations, using consummate tact
and skill. Both Germany and Japan were offended at the English change of
front, and were ready to listen to other proposals. To them, he opened
up a wide vista of commercial and territorial expansion, or at least its
equivalent. Germany was to have the freest commercial access to South
America, and she was invited to develop those countries both with German
colonists and German capital.
There was to be no coercion of the governments, or political control in
that territory, but on the other hand, the United States undertook that
there should be no laws enacted by them to restrain trade, and that the
rights of foreigners should have the fullest protection. Dru also
undertook the responsibility of promising that there should be no
favoritism shown by the South and Central American governments, but that
native and alien should stand alike before the law so far as property
rights were concerned.
Germany was to have a freer hand in the countries lying southeast of her
and in Asia Minor. It was not intended that she should absorb them or
infringe upon the rights as nations, but her sphere of influence was to
be extended over them much the same as ours was over South America.
While England was not to be restricted in her trade relations with those
countries, still she was neither to encourage emigration there nor
induce capital to exploit their resources.
Africa and her own colonies were to be her special fields of endeavor.
In consideration of the United States lifting practically all custom
barriers, and agreeing to keep out of the Eastern Hemisphere, upholding
with her the peace and commercial freedom of the world, and of the
United States recognizing the necessity of her supremacy on the seas,
England, after having obtained the consent of Canada, agreed to
relinquish her own sphere of political influence over the Dominion, and
let her come under that of the United States. Canada was willing that
this situation should be brought about, for her trade conditions had
become interwoven with those of the United States, and the people of the
two countries freely intermingled. Besides, since Dru had reconstructed
the laws and constitution of the big republic, they were more in harmony
with the Canadian institutions than before.
Except that the United States were not to appoint a Governor General,
the republic's relations with Canada were to be much the same as those
between herself and the Mother Country. The American flag, the American
destiny and hers were to be interwoven through the coming ages.
In relinquishing this most perfect jewel in her Imperial crown, England
suffered no financial loss, for Canada had long ceased to be a source of
revenue, and under the new order of things, the trade relations between
the two would be increased rather than diminished. The only wrench was
the parting with so splendid a province, throughout which, that noble
insignia of British supremacy, the cross of St. George, would be forever
furled.
Administrator Dru's negotiations with Japan were no less successful than
those with England. He first established cordial relations with her by
announcing the intention of the United States to give the Philippines
their independence under the protection of Japan, reserving for America
and the rest of the world the freest of trade relations with the
Islands.
Japan and China were to have all Eastern Asia as their sphere of
influence, and if it pleased them to drive Russia back into Europe, no
one would interfere.
That great giant had not yet discarded the ways and habits of
medievalism. Her people were not being educated, and she indicated no
intention of preparing them for the responsibilities of self
government, to which they were entitled. Sometimes in his day dreams,
Dru thought of Russia in its vastness, of the ignorance and hopeless
outlook of the people, and wondered when her deliverance would come.
There was, he knew, great work for someone to do in that despotic land.
Thus Dru had formulated and put in motion an international policy,
which, if adhered to in good faith, would bring about the comity of
nations, a lasting and beneficent peace, and the acceptance of the
principle of the brotherhood of man.
CHAPTER XLIX
UNEVEN ODDS
Gloria and Janet Selwyn saw much of one another in Washington, and Dru
was with them both during those hours he felt necessary for recreation.
Janet was ever bubbling over with fun and unrestrained humor, and was a
constant delight to both Gloria and Dru. Somewhere deep in her soul
there was a serious stratum, but it never came to the surface. Neither
Gloria nor Dru knew what was passing in those turbulent depths, and
neither knew the silent heartaches when she was alone and began to take
an inventory of her innermost self. She had loved Dru from the moment
she first saw him at her home in Philadelphia, but with that her
prescience in such matters as only women have, she knew that nothing
more than his friendship would ever be hers. She sometimes felt the
bitterness of woman's position in such situations. If Dru had loved her,
