"You"re for it! You said just now that you were opposed to it."
"Not to the reformatory, Mr. West. Not at all. I"m only opposed to spending a hundred thousand dollars for it in a poverty year."
"Oh! You want the reformatory, but you don"t want it now. That"s where you stand, is it?"
"Yes, and everybody else that understands just what the situation is. I believe in this reformatory--the _Post_ converted me, that"s a fact--and if you"ll only let her stand two years, take my word for it, she"ll go through with a whoop. But if you"re going to hurry the thing--"
"What"s your idea of hurry exactly? The war has been over forty years--"
"And look how splendid we"ve got along these forty years without the reformatory! Will you care to say, Mr. West, that we couldn"t make it forty-two without bringing great danger to the State?"
"No, certainly not. But the point is--"
"The point is that if we spend all this money now, the people will kick the party out at the next election. I wouldn"t admit this to many, "cause I"m ashamed of it, but it"s gospel truth. Mr. West," said Plonny, earnestly, "I _know_ you want the _Post_ to stand for the welfare of the party--"
"Certainly. And it has been my idea that evidence of sane interest in public morals was a pretty good card for--"
"So it would be at any ordinary time. But it"s mighty different when the people from one end of the State to the other are howling economy and saying that all expenses must go to bed-rock or they"ll know the reason why. There"s the practical side of it--look at it f"r a minute. The legislature was elected by these people on a platform promising strictest economy. They"re tryin" to carry out their promise faithfully.
They turn down and postpone some mighty good plans to advance the progress of the State. They rejuice salaries in various departments"--(one was the exact number)--"heelers come up lookin" f"r jobs, and they send "em away empty-handed and sore. Old-established inst.i.tutions, that have been doin" grand work upbuildin" the State f"r years, are told that they must do with a half or three quarters of their appropriations f"r the next two years. You"ve seen all this happen, Mr.
West?"
West admitted that he had.
"Well, now when everything is goin" smooth and promisin", you come along and tell "em they got to sh.e.l.l out a _hundred_ _thousand dollars_ right away f"r a brand-new inst.i.tution, with an annual appropriation to keep it up. Now s"pose they do what you tell "em. What happens? You think there"s no poltix at all in this reformatory business, but I can tell you the Republicans won"t take such a view as that. They"ll say that the party spent a hundred thousand dollars of the people"s money in a hard times year, just to make a few more jobs f"r favorites. They"ll throw that up at us from every stump in the State. And when our leaders explain that it was done for the maw"l good of the State, they"ll give us the laugh--same as they did when we established the Foundling Hospital in "98. Now I tell you the party can"t stand any talk of that kind this year. We"re on shaky ground right now f"r the same reason that we"re all so proud of--spendin" money f"r the maw"l uplift of the State.
We either got to slow up f"r awhile or take a licking. That"s what all the talk comes down to--one simple question: Will we hold off this big expense f"r just two years, or will we send the old party down to defeat?"
West laughed, not quite comfortably.
In all this dialogue, Mr. Neal had over him the enormous advantage of exact and superior knowledge. To tell the truth, West knew very little about the reformatory situation, and considered it, among the dozens of matters in which he was interested, rather a small issue. Having turned the campaign over to his a.s.sistant, he had dismissed it from his mind; and beyond his general conviction that the reformatory would be a good thing for the State, he had only the sketchiest acquaintance with the arguments that were being used pro and con. Therefore Plonny Neal"s pa.s.sionate earnestness surprised him, and Plonny"s reasoning, which he knew to be the reasoning of the thoroughly informed State leaders, impressed him very decidedly. Of the boss"s sincerity he never entertained a doubt; to question that candid eye was impossible. That Plonny had long been watching him with interest and admiration, West knew very well. It began to look to him very much as though Queed, through excess of sociological zeal, had allowed himself to be misled, and that the paper"s advanced position was founded on theory without reference to existing practical conditions.
West keenly felt the responsibility of his post. To safeguard and promote the welfare of the Democratic party had long been a cardinal principle of the paper whose utterances he now controlled. Still, it must be true that Neal was painting the situation in colors altogether too black.
"You"re a pretty good stump performer yourself, Plonny. Don"t you know that exactly the same argument will be urged two years from now?"
"I know it won"t," said Plonny with the calmness of absolute conviction.
"A fat legislature _always_ follows a lean one. They come in strips, same as a shoulder of bacon."
"Well! I wouldn"t think much of a party whose legs were so weak that a little step forward--everybody knows _it"s_ forward--would tumble it over in a heap."
"The party! I ain"t thinking of the _party_, Mr. West. I"m thinking,"
said Neal, the indignation in his voice giving way to a sudden apologetic softness, "of you."
"Me? What on earth have I got to do with it?" asked West, rather touched by the look of dog-like affection in the other"s eyes.
"Everything. If the party gets let in for this extravagance, you"ll be the man who did it."
There was a silence, and then West said, rather n.o.bly:
"Well, I suppose I will have to stand that. I must do what I think is right, you know, and take the consequences."
"Two years from now," said Mr. Neal, gently, "there wouldn"t be no consequences."
"Possibly not," said West, in a firm voice.
"While the consequences now," continued Mr. Neal, still more gently, "would be to put you in very bad with the party leaders. Fine men they are, but they never forgive a man who puts a crimp into the party. You"d be a marked man to the longest day you lived!"
"Well, Plonny! I"m not asking anything of the party leaders--"
"But suppose some of your friends wanted to ask something for _you_?"
Suddenly Plonny leaned over the table, and began speaking rapidly and earnestly.
"Listen here, Mr. West. I understand your feelings and your position just like they was print, and I was reading them over your shoulder.
You"re walking with y"r eyes on the skies, and you don"t like to look at the ground to see that you don"t break nothing as you go forward. Your mind"s full of the maw"l idea and desire to uplift the people, and it"s kind of painful to you to stop and look at the plain practical way by which things get done. But I tell you that everybody who ever got anything big done in this world, got it done in a practical way. All the big men that you and I admire--all the public leaders and governors and reform mayors and so on--got where they have by doing practical good in a practical way. Now, you don"t like me to say that if you do so-and-so, you"ll be in bad with the State leaders, f"r that looks to you as if I thought you could be infloonced by what would be your personal advantage. And I honor you f"r them feelin"s which is just what I knew you"d had, or I wouldn"t be here talkin" to you now. But you mustn"t blame others if they ain"t as partic"lar, mebbe, as to how things might _look_. You mustn"t blame y"r friends--and you"ve got a sight more of them than you have any idea of--if they feel all broke up to see you get in bad, both for your own sake and f"r the sake of the party."
Plonny"s voice trembled with earnestness; West had had no idea that the man admired him so much.
"You want to serve the people, Mr. West? How could you do it better than in public orf"ce. Lemme talk to you straight f"r once--will you? Or am I only offendin" you by b.u.t.tin" in this way, without having ever been asked?"
West gave his admirer the needed a.s.surance.
"I"m glad of it, f"r I can hardly keep it in my system any longer.
Listen here, Mr. West. As you may have heard, there"s to be a primary f"r city orf"cers in June. Secret ballot or no secret ballot, the organization"s going to win. You know that. Now, who"ll the organization put up f"r Mayor? From what I hear, they da.s.sen"t put up any old machine hack, same"s they been doin" f"r years. They might want to do it, but they"re a-scared the people won"t stand f"r it. From what little I hear, the feelin"s strong that they _got_ to put up some young progressive public-spirited man of the reformer type. Now s"posin" the friends of a certain fine young man, sittin" not a hundred miles from this table, had it in their minds to bring _him_ forward f"r the nomination. This young man might say he wasn"t seekin" the orf"ce and didn"t want it, but I say public orf"ce is a duty, and no man that wants to serve the people can refuse it, partic"larly when he may be needed to save the party. And now I ask you this, Mr. West: What show would the friends of this young man have, if he had a bad spot on his record? What chance"d there be of namin" to lead the party in the city the _man who had knifed the party in the State_?"
West"s chin rested upon his hand; his gaze fell dreamily upon the table-top. Before his mind"s eye there had unrolled a favorite vision--a white meadow of faces focussed breathlessly upon a great orator. He recalled himself with a start, a stretch, and a laugh.
"Aren"t you wandering rather carelessly into the future, Plonny?"
"If I am," said Mr. Neal, solemnly, "it"s because you stand at the crossroads to-day."
West found the office deserted, his a.s.sistant being gone for lunch. He finished two short articles begun earlier in the day, and himself departed with an eye to food. Later, he had to attend a couple of board meetings, which ran off into protracted by-talk, and the rainy twilight had fallen before his office knew him again.
Not long after, Queed, already hatted and overcoated to go, pushed open the connecting door and entered. The two chatted a moment of the make-up of next day"s "page." Presently West said: "By the bye, written anything about the reformatory?"
"Anything!" echoed Queed, with a faint smile. "You might say that I"ve written everything about it--the best article I ever wrote, I should say. It"s our last chance, you know."
Queed thought of Eva Bernheimer, and a light crept into his ordinarily impa.s.sive eye. At the same time, West"s ordinarily buoyant face fell a little.
"That so? Let me see how you"ve handled it, will you?"
"Certainly," said Queed, showing no surprise, though it was many a day since any composition of his had undergone supervision in that office.
It was on the tip of West"s tongue to add, "I rather think we"ve been pressing that matter too hard," but he checked himself. Why should he make any explanation to his a.s.sistant? Was it not the fact that he had trusted the young man too far already?
Queed brought his article and laid it on West"s desk, his face very thoughtful now. "If there is any information I can give you about the subject, I"ll wait."
West hardly repressed a smile. "Thank you, I think I understand the situation pretty well."