A Gentleman from Mississippi Part 12

Langdon smiled.

"I've never been in Pittsburg, but they tell me it looks as if it could take care of itself."

The visitor shrugged his shoulders.

"That's true enough; but give and take is the rule in political matters, Langdon."

This remark brought a frown to Langdon's face.

"I don't like bargaining between gentlemen, Peabody. More important still, I don't believe American politics has to be run on that plan.

Why can't we change a lot of things now that we are here?"

Langdon became so enthused that he paced up and down the room as he spoke.

"Peabody, you and Stevens and I," continued Langdon, "could get our friends together and right now start to make this great capital of our great country the place of the 'square deal,' the place where give and take, bargain and sale, are unknown. We could start a movement that would drive out all secret influences--"

The secretary noticed Peabody's involuntary start.

"The newspapers would help us," went on Langdon. "Public opinion would be with us, and both houses of Congress would have to join in the work if we went out in front, led the way and showed them their plain duty.

And I tell you, Senator Peabody, that the principles that gave birth to this country, the principles of truth, honesty, justice and independence, would rule in Washington--"

"If Washington cared anything about them, Langdon," interjected the Pennsylvanian.

"That's my point," cried the Mississippian--"let us teach Washington to care about them!"

"Langdon, Langdon," said Peabody, patronizingly, "you've seized on a bigger task than you know. After you reform Washington you will have to go on and reform human nature, human instincts, every human being in the country, if you want to make politics this angelic thing you describe. It isn't politics, it's humanity, that's wrong," waving aside a protest from Langdon.

"Anyway, your idea is not const.i.tutional, Langdon," continued Peabody.

"You want everybody to have a share in the national government. That wouldn't meet the theory of centralization woven into our political system by its founders. They intended that our Government should be controlled by a limited number of representatives, so that authority can be fixed and responsibility ascertained."

"You distort my meaning!" cried Langdon. "And, Senator, I would like to ask why so many high-priced const.i.tutional lawyers who enter Congress spend so much time in placing the Const.i.tution of the United States between themselves and their duty, sir, between the people and their Government, sir, between the nation and its destiny? I want to know if in your opinion the Const.i.tution was designed to throttle expression of the public will?"

"Of course not. That's the reason you and I, Langdon, and the others are elected to the Senate," added Peabody, starting to leave. Then he halted. "By the way, Senator," he said, "I'll do my best to arrange what you want regarding aluminium hydrates for the sake of the South, and I'll also stand with you for Altacoola for the naval base. Our committee is to make its report to-morrow."

Langdon observed the penetrating gaze that Peabody had fixed on him.

It seemed to betray that the Pennsylvanian's apparently careless manner was a.s.sumed.

"H'm!" coughed Langdon, glancing at Haines. "I'm not absolutely committed to Altacoola until I'm sure it's the best place. I'll make up my mind to-day definitely, and I _think_ it will be for Altacoola."

The boss of the Senate went out, glaring venomously at Haines, slamming the door.

A moment later a page boy brought in a card. "Colonel J.D. Telfer, Gulf City," read the Senator.

"Bud," he remarked to the secretary, "I'm going to send my old acquaintance, Telfer, Mayor of Gulf City, in here for you to talk to.

He'll want to know about his town's chances for being chosen as the naval base. I must hurry away, as I have an appointment with my daughters and Mrs. Spangler before going before ways and means."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SENATOR ACCEPTS AN INVITATION TO TEA.]

CHAPTER XI

ON THE TRAIL OF THE "INSIDERS"

Colonel J.D. Telfer (J.D. standing for Jefferson Davis, he explained proudly to Haines) proved a warm advocate of the doubtful merits of Gulf City as a hundred-million-dollar naval base. His flushed face grew redder, his long white hair became disordered, and he tugged at his white mustache continually as he waxed warmer in his efforts to impress the Senator's secretary.

"I tell you, Mr. Haines, Gulf City, sah, leads all the South when it comes to choosin' ground fo' a naval base. Her vast expanse of crystal sea, her miles upon miles of silvah sands, sah, protected by a natural harbor and th' islands of Mississippi Sound, make her th' only spot to be considered. She's G.o.d's own choice and the people's, too, for a naval base."

"But, unfortunately, Congress also has something to say about choosing it," spoke Haines.

"To be shuah they do," said Gulf City's Mayor, "but--"

"And there was a man here from Altacoola yesterday," again interrupted the secretary, "who said that Gulf City was fit only to be the State refuge for aged and indigent frogs."

"Say, they ain't a man in Altacoola wot can speak th' truth,"

indignantly shrieked the old Colonel, almost losing control of himself; "because their heads is always a-buzzin' and a-hummin' from th' quinine they have to take to keep th' fever away, sah!"

The Mayor sat directly in front of Haines, at the opposite side of his desk. Regaining his composure, he suddenly leaned forward and half whispered to the secretary:

"Mah young friend, don't let Senator Langdon get switched away from Gulf City by them cheap skates from Altacoola. Now, if you'll get th'

Senator to vote fo' Gulf City we'll see--I'll see, sah, as an officer of th' Gulf City Lan' Company--that you get taken ca-ah of."

Haines' eyes opened wide.

"Go on, Colonel; go on with your offer," he said.

"Well, I'll see that a block of stock, sah--a big block--is set aside fo' Senator Langdon an' another fo' you, too. We've made this ah-rangomont else-wheah. We'll outbid Altacoola overall time. They're po' sports an' hate to give up."

"So Altacoola is bidding, too?" excitedly asked Haines.

"Why, of co'se it is. Ah yo' as blind as that o' ah yo' foolin' with me?" questioned Telfer, suspiciously. "Seems to me yo' ought to know more about that end of it than a fellah clear from th' gulf."

"Certainly, certainly," mumbled Haines, impatiently, as he endeavored to a.s.sociate coherently, intelligently, in his mind those startling new revelations of Telfer with certain incidents he had previously noted in the operations of the committee on naval affairs.

Then he looked across at the Mayor and smiled. Apparently he had heard nothing to amaze him.

"Colonel," he returned calmly, dropping into a voice that sounded of pity for the gray hairs of the lobbyist, "about fifty men a day come to me with propositions like that. There is nothing doing, Colonel. I couldn't possibly interest Senator Langdon, because he has the faculty of judging for himself, and he would be prejudiced against either town that came out with such, a proposition."

"Lan' speculation is legitimate," protested, the Colonel, cunningly.

Haines agreed.

"Certainly--by outsiders. But it's d--d thievery when engaged in by any one connected with putting a bill through. If I were to tell Senator Langdon what you have told me it would decide him unalterably in favor of Altacoola. Senator Langdon, sir, is one of the few men in Washington who would rather be thought a fool than a grafter if it came down to that."

The Mayor of Gulf City jumped to his feet, his face blazing in rage, not in shame.