The Ramrodders Part 26

When Committeeman Wasgatt came into the room in tow of Harlan Thornton he found silence prevailing there. It was silence that was marked by a little restraint. The band outside was quiet now. A human voice was bellowing. It was Arba Spinney's voice--a voice without words.

Wasgatt, short, stout, habitually pop-eyed and nervous, clutched his papers in one hand and held his eyegla.s.ses at arm's-length in the other.

The others were in their chairs now, ranged about the sides of the room.

The General, alone, was standing near the table. Wasgatt turned to him after a rapid scrutiny of the make-up of the party.

"I'd like to have the resolutions read," remarked the General, quietly.

"Go ahead, Wasgatt," commanded Presson; and the committeeman advanced to the table under the chandelier and began to read.

The preamble was after the usual stereotyped form; the first sections endorsed the cardinal principles of the party, and Mr. Wasgatt, getting into the spirit of the thing, began to deliver the rounded periods sonorously. General Waymouth leaned slightly over the table, propping himself on the knuckles of his one hand. The light flowed down upon his silvery hair, his features were set in the intentness of listening.

"'We view without favor the demagogic attempts to throttle enterprise, check the proper development of our State, lock up the natural resources away from the fostering hands of commerce and labor, thereby preventing the establishment of industries that will extend their beneficent influence to the workingman, dependent upon his daily wage.'"

"One moment, Wasgatt!" The General tapped a knuckle on the table, and the reader waited.

Waymouth turned his gaze full upon the Senator when he spoke.

"Gentlemen, understand me aright at the start. I'm not here to try to dictate. That would be presumptuous in me, for I am not yet your candidate. To-morrow is not here."

Wasgatt's pop-eyes protruded still more. He stared from man to man, and it became necessary for Thelismer Thornton to take one more into the secret. He did it a bit ungraciously. He had not expected the General to be so blunt and precipitate. The candidate waited patiently until the brief explanation was concluded and Wasgatt had pledged fidelity.

"I want you fully to understand my spirit in this," went on the General.

"We'll be honest with each other; we know that the floor of a convention is not the place to discuss the platform frankly; I don't want to wash our linen in public. We'll settle it now between ourselves. That plank, there, comes out of the platform if you expect me to stand on it."

The Senator, challenged by his eyes, spoke.

"You don't take exceptions to honest efforts to develop our State, do you, General Waymouth?"

"I do not. But that proposition, no matter how good it sounds, is the sugar-coated preface to an attempt to steal the undeveloped water-powers of this State."

The Senator's fat neck reddened.

"You may be inclined to modify that rather rash statement, General Waymouth, when I tell you that I suggested the insertion of that resolution."

"I recognized it as yours, Senator. Some time ago my bankers gave me the personnel of the group behind the Universal Development Company. In making my statement, I understand perfectly what legislation that resolution is leading up to."

"Vard," broke in the Duke, conciliatingly, "don't take so much for granted. Why, there are folks suspicious enough to accuse Saint Peter of starting Lent and ticking off Fridays from the meat programme simply because he was in the fish business. Let's not get to fussing about a set of convention resolutions. They're mostly wind, anyway."

But General Waymouth was not appeased.

"I know what resolutions stand for--how much and how little. I'm taking this occasion, gentlemen, to set myself right with you. That resolution will do for a text! I want no taunts later that I led you on into a trap."

He struck the table with the flat of his hand.

"I'm laying my cards face up. Here's my hand! I halt right here on that resolution. I'm certain I know what it means, no matter how it sounds.

I'm willing to take my hat and walk out right now. But if I stay--if you promise to nominate me--I propose to have the saying of what kind of a Governor I shall be!"

"That's rather blunt talk to make to gentlemen," protested the Senator, showing a spark of ire.

"At my age there isn't time to make long speeches to shade the facts,"

returned General Waymouth. He was calm but intensely in earnest.

"Then you are all for reform--one of the new reformers, eh?" inquired the Senator. He cast a look of reproach at Thornton, as though that trusted manager had loosed a tiger on their defenceless party.

The General smiled--smiled so sweetly that he almost disarmed their resentment.

"No, the Arba Spinneys of this State are the reformers. I'm not under salary to run round and make disturbances in settled order. I'm not a bigot with a single idea, nor a fanatic insisting that the world ought to follow the diet that my dyspepsia imposes upon me. I'm merely an old man, gentlemen, who has got past a lot of the follies of youth and the pa.s.sions of manhood, and has had a chance to reflect for a few years. I have not asked to return to public life. But if I do return, if you put power into my hands, I propose to render unto the people the things that are the people's, and that term includes every man in this room. It is not a programme that should alarm honest gentlemen!"

There was appeal in the tone--there was a hint of rebuke in that final sentence that troubled the conscience of even Senator Pownal. Thelismer Thornton was in a chair close to him.

"Don't let a few little cranky notions about a platform scare you," he mumbled in the Senator's ear. "You know Vard Waymouth as well as I do.

He's safe and all right. Give him his head. You don't want Spinney, do you?"

"But that was devilish insulting," growled Pownal.

"Tipping backward a little, trying to stand straight, that's all. Blast it, a Governor can't run the State. What are you afraid of? You've got a lobby and a legislature, haven't you?"

If Waymouth noticed this _sotto voce_ conference he gave no sign.

"General," said Pownal, getting hold of himself manfully, even desperately, "the resolution is not essential. I fear you misunderstand what it really means, but we'll not discuss it now. I withdraw it."

The General bowed acknowledgment, and signed to Wasgatt to resume.

"'We believe in dividing the burden of taxation equitably and justly, and will bend our efforts to that end.'"

"That is simply empty vaporing!" cried the General. "And it has been in every platform for twenty years without meaning anything. The platform that I stand on this year must declare for a non-partisan tax commission, empowered to investigate conditions in this State--wild lands, corporations, and all--and report as a basis for new legislation."

In the silence that ensued they could hear Arba Spinney continuing his harangue.

"Gentlemen, you've got to do something in this party to stop the mouths of him and men like him," declared the General, solemnly. "You may make up your minds that you've either got to pay in money, or else you'll pay in votes that mean the bankruptcy of the party."

"I suppose you have the resolution all drawn," suggested Thelismer Thornton, dryly.

"I have, and drawn according to good const.i.tutional law," replied the General. He drew the paper from his breast-pocket.

"Incorporate it, Wasgatt, ready for the final draft, and we'll all go over the thing to-morrow morning." The Duke was grimly laconic. That resolution whacked his pet interests.

Senator Pownal gave the proposer of this prompt surrender a glance of mutual sympathy out of the corner of his eye, but the Duke remained imperturbable. Wasgatt received the paper and went on.

"'We reaffirm our belief in the principle of the prohibition of the liquor traffic, and pledge our earnest efforts to promote temperance.'"

Across the corridor revellers were bawling over and over in chorus:

"'Let's take a drink, Let's take it now, G.o.d only knows how dry I am!'"

"That's a good thing to reaffirm--I don't mean the song they're singing in that room across there! It's a good thing to pledge ourselves to promote temperance," said the General, "but that isn't the point at issue. I have another plank that I've written for our platform."