"Because it stamps out hope and love and aspiration, all that is fine and true in life."
"Exactly. Men ought to love their work. But how can they love that which is always a.s.sociated in their minds with a denial of justice? Is it likely that men will work better under a system whereby they are condemned in advance to failure than under one standing rationally for a just and fair division of the fruits of labor? I tell you, Farnum, under present conditions the Juggernaut of progress is forever wasting humanity."
"I"ve always thought it a pity that the mainsprings of work should be fear and greed instead of hope and love," Jeff agreed.
"Why is it that poverty coexists with wealth increasing so rapidly? Why is it that productive power has been so enormously developed without lightening the burdens of labor?"
Marchant"s eyes were starlike in their earnestness. He had a pa.s.sion for humanity that neither want nor disease could quench, and with it a certain gift of expression street oratory had brought out. Even in private conversation he had got into the way of declaiming. But Jeff knew he was no empty talker. All that he had he literally gave to the poor.
"Because the whole spirit of business life is wrong," Farnum responded.
"Of course it"s wrong. It"s a survival of the law of the jungle, of tooth and fang. Its motto is dog eat dog. We all work under the rule of get and grab. What"s the result of this higgledypiggledy system? One man starves and another has indigestion. That"s the trouble with Verden to-day. Some of us haven"t enough and others have too much. They take from us what we earn. That"s the whole cause of poverty. The Malthusian theory is all wrong. It"s not nature, but man that is to blame."
Farnum knew the little Socialist was right so far. Here in Verden, under the forms of freedom, was the very essence of slavery. All the product of labor was taken from it except enough to sustain a mere animal existence. Something was wrong in a world where a man begs in vain for work to support his family. Given proper conditions, men would not rise by trampling each other down, but by lending a hand to the unfortunate.
The effect of efficiency would be to make things easier for the weak.
The reward of service would be more service.
"The principle of the old order is dead," Marchant went on, wagging his thin forefinger at Jeff. "The whole social fabric is made up of lies, compromises, injustice. The only reason it has hung together so long is that people have been trained to think along certain lines like show animals. But they"re waking up. Look at Germany. Look at England. What the plutocrats call the menace of Socialism is everywhere. Now that every worker knows he is being robbed of what he earns, how long do you think he will carry the capitalistic system on his back? From the beginning of the world we have tried it. With what result? An injustice that is staggering, a waste that is appalling, an inhumanity that is deadening."
Jeff let a hand fall lightly on his shoulder. "Of course it"s all wrong.
We know that. But can you show me how to make it right, except out of the hearts of men growing slowly wiser and better?"
"Why slowly?" demanded Marchant. "Why not to-day while we"re still alive to see the smiles of men and women and children made glad? You always want to begin at the wrong end. I tell you that you can"t change men"s hearts until you change the conditions under which they live."
"And I tell you that you can"t change the conditions until you change men"s hearts," Jeff answered with his wistful smile.
"Rubbish! The only way to change the hearts of most plutocrats is to hit them over the head with a two-by-four. Smug respectability is in the saddle, and it knows it"s right. We"ll get nowhere until we smash this iniquitous system to smithereens."
"So you want to subst.i.tute one system for another. You think you can eliminate by legal enactment all this fatty degeneration of greed and selfishness that has incased our souls. I"m afraid it will be a slower process. We must free ourselves from within. I believe we are moving toward some sort of a socialistic state. No man with eyes in his head can help seeing that. But we"ll move a step at a time, and only so fast as the love and altruism inside us can be organized into external law."
"No. You"ll wake up some morning and find that this whole capitalistic organization has crumbled in the night, fallen to pieces from dry rot."
Jeff might not agree with him, but he knew that Marchant, dreamer and incoherent poet, his heart aflame with zeal for humanity, was far nearer the truth of life than the smug complacent Pharisees that fattened from the toil of the helpless many who could do nothing but suffer in dumb silence.
Part 2
As the months pa.s.sed Jeff grew in stature with the people of the state.
In spite of his energy he was always fair. The plain truth he felt to be a better argument than the tricks of a demagogue.
A rational common sense was to be found in all his advice. Add to this that he had no personal profit to seek, no political axe to grind, and was always transparent as a child. More and more Verden recognized him as the one most conspicuous figure in the state dedicated to uncompromising war against the foes of the Republic.
Those who knew him best liked his humility, his good humor, the gentleness that made him tolerant of the men he must fight. His poise lifted him above petty animosities, and the daily sand-stings of life did not disturb his serenity.
Everywhere his propaganda gained ground. People"s Power Leagues were formed with a central steering committee at Verden. Politicians with their ears close to the ground heard rumbles of the coming storm. They began to notice that reputable business men, prominent lawyers not affiliated with corporations, and even a few educators who had shaken away the timidity of their cla.s.s were lining up to support Jeff"s freak legislation. It began to look as if one of those periodical uprisings of the people was about to sweep the state.
Big Tim found his ward workers met persistently by the same questions from their ordinarily docile following. "Why shouldn"t we tie strings to our representatives so as to keep them from betraying us?... Why can"t we make laws ourselves in emergency and kill bad laws the legislature makes?... What"s the matter with taking away some of the power from our representatives who have abused it?"
In the city election O"Brien went down to defeat. Only fragments of his ticket were saved from the general wreckage. Next day Joe Powers wired James Farnum to join him immediately at Chicago.
"I"m going to put you in charge of the political field out there," the great man announced, his gray granite eyes fastened on the young lawyer.
"Ned Merrill won"t do. Neither will O"Brien. Between them they"ve made a mess of things."
"I don"t know that it is their fault, except indirectly. One of those populistic waves swept over the city."
"Why didn"t they know what was going to happen? Why didn"t they let me know? That"s what I pay them for."
"A child could have foreseen it, but O"Brien wouldn"t believe his eyes.
He"s been giving Verden an administration with too much graft. The people got tired of it."
"What were Merrill and Frome up to? Why did they permit it?" demanded Powers impatiently.
"They were looking out for their franchises. To get the machine"s support they had to give O"Brien a free hand."
"If necessary you had better eliminate Big Tim. Or at least put him and his gang in the background. Make the machine respectable so that good citizens can indorse it."
James nodded agreement. "I"ve been thinking about that. The thing can be done. A business men"s movement from inside the party to purify it. A reorganization with new men in charge. That sort of thing."
"Exactly. And how about the state?"
"Things don"t look good to me."
"Why not?"
"This initiative and referendum idea is spreading."
Powers drove his fist into a pile of papers on the desk. "Stop it. I give you carte blanche. Spend as much as you like. But win. What good is a lobby to me if those hare-brained farmers can kill every bill we pa.s.s through their grafting legislature?"
The possibilities grew on Farnum. "I"ll send Professor Perkins of Verden University to New Zealand to prepare a paper showing the thing is a failure there. I"ll have every town in the state thoroughly canva.s.sed by lecturers and speakers against the bill. I"ll bombard the farmers with literature."
"What about the newspapers?"
"We control most of them. At Verden only the _World_ is against us."
"Buy it."
"Can"t be bought. Its editorial columns are not for sale."
"Anything can be bought if you"ve got the price. Who owns it?"
"A Captain Chunn. He made his money in Alaska. My cousin is the editor.
He is the real force back of it."
"Does the paper have any influence?"
"A great deal."
"I"ve heard of your cousin. A crack-brained Socialist, I understand."