“All the conditions of the time were favorable to rapid economic progress. McKinley had come and gone; [see Chapter V] Roosevelt was sitting in the saddle, riproaring and swinging the big stick. The high tariff and the steel trust had made the country safe for plutocracy and were filling up with new types of immigrants who lowered our living standards while they increased our production and our markets. Mr. Bryan, a voice fated to futility, was still chasing rainbows. Locally, Tom L. Johnson, having cleaned out the Augean stables of the city council was riding high on his hobby horse of three-cent railroad fare with Newton D. Baker, pipe in hand, argent of tongue and ardent of spirit , holding on to his leader’s stirrup straps until he could get into his own stride”  (p. 12)