The Ramrodders Part 41

"You haven't answered my question, sir. I asked you what your State Committee has done."

"What is there we can do when every interest in this State sits back on its wallet like a hen squatting on the roost, and won't stand up and let go until some a.s.surances are given out? It isn't my fault! I went to you! I laid the case down! You didn't give me anything to carry back to 'em."

"I'm here to talk business, Mr. Chairman. You are too vague."

"Well, I'll talk business, too." Presson snapped out of his chair. He stood up and wagged his finger. He was too angry to choose words or gloss brutal facts.

"You want to be Governor, don't you? You're asking men to support you and back you with money? That's what it amounts to. Campaign funds don't come down like manna--there's nothing heavenly about 'em--and you know it as well as I do, General. You've scared Senator Pownal's crowd with that anti-water-power-trust talk; they've got money to put into the legislature, but none for you. The corporations won't do anything; your tax commission talk has given them cold feet as far's you're concerned.

Even the office-holders are sore; you've been talking about abolishing fees, and if that's the case they'd just as soon give up the offices.

And where's your party, then? You say you're going to enforce the prohibitory law! I can get a little money out of the express companies, the jobbers in gallon lots, and the fellows that get the promise of the State liquor agency contracts. But the big wholesalers, the liquor men's a.s.sociations, the retailers--the whole bunch that's got the real money and is willing to spend it haven't a cent for you--they'll even back the Democrat against you! You wanted business talk. There it is."

He strode up and down the centre of the room in agitation, and then sat down.

The other committeemen sighed with relief. Their chairman had said what they wanted to say, said it bluntly and boldly, and they were glad it was over.

"That is," drawled Thelismer Thornton, "the State Committee says, as the fork says to the cook: 'I'm willing to be used for all reasonable purposes, but not to pick your teeth with or pull out carpet tacks.'"

The pleasantry did not relieve the gloom.

"The State Committee can't do anything without money, General Waymouth,"

added the chairman, getting bolder as he allowed his rancor full play.

"You've fixed it so that we can't get the money."

"Then the State Committee would be able to go ahead and do what it ought to do if I should a.s.sure Senator Pownal that he and his crowd may help themselves to the water-powers of this State--if I let the rumsellers sell and the office-holders filch? It's on those terms, is it, that I'm to get the help of the men the Republican party has selected as its executives?"

"That isn't a square way to put it," objected Mr. Presson, with heat. "I simply say it was all right to open this campaign with prayer, as we did at the State Convention, but as to carrying it through on the plane of a revival meeting, that's a different proposition! You've asked for business talk, General. I've given you straight business. You're asking something from some one else, just now. In politics it's nothing for nothing, and d--n-d little for a dollar! You know it just as well as I do. Now suppose we have some business talk from you!" There was a sneer in the last sentence.

General Waymouth swung one thin leg over the knee of the other. He leaned back in his chair. His elbow rested on the chair-arm, his fingers were set, tips on his chin, and over them he surveyed his listeners with calmness. He did not raise his voice. It was his mild manner that made what he said sound so balefully savage. Bl.u.s.ter would have weakened it.

"The legitimate expenses of a campaign are considerable, even when the party organization, from you, Mr. Presson, down to the humblest town committeeman, does full duty in time and effort. But if one has to buy it all, it needs a deep purse. From what you say, it is plain to me that I am now left to run my own campaign. I tell you very frankly, gentlemen, my means are limited. I have not made money out of politics.

One course only is left open to me. I notify you that I shall issue a statement to the people of this State. I shall inform them that I have been abandoned by the State Committee and the party machine. I shall state the reasons very plainly. I shall say I am left to defeat because I refused to betray the people's interests. Then I shall appeal to the people as a whole--to Republicans and Democrats alike--for support at the polls. If there are enough honest men to elect me, very well. If the majority wants to hand the thing over to the looters and tricksters after the fair warning I give them, they will do so with their eyes open, and I'll accept the result and leave this State to itself."

Chairman Presson pushed himself slowly up out of his chair, his arms propping him, his face shoved forward.

"You mean to say, General Waymouth, that, being a Republican, a man who has had honors from our hands, you'll advertise your party management as crooks simply because we don't cut our own throats, politically and financially?"

"I say, I shall state the facts."

"Let me inform you that I've got a little publicity bureau of my own.

I'll post you as a deserter and a sorehead. I'll fix it so you can't even throw your hat into the Republican party and follow in to get it.

I'll--"

"One moment, Luke," broke in the elder Thornton. "For some weeks now, when things have come to a crisis, you have set yourself up as the whole Republican party of this State. But when you get to talking that way you represent it about as much as Parson Prouty represents the real temperance sentiment. There's quite a bunch of us who are not in the ramrodding business. General Waymouth is the nominee of our convention.

No one has delegated to you the job of deciding on his qualifications.

It's your job to go ahead and elect him. If you don't propose to do it, then resign."

"No, sir!" shouted Presson.

"Then get busy--collect a campaign fund and make these last three weeks hum! This is largely a matter between friends, right here now. I've told Vard what I think of him, and I haven't minced words. It's bad enough for a man to try to be absolutely honest in politics. That's where he's making his mistake. But he can get past with the people--they'll think it more or less bluff, anyway, even it's Varden Waymouth talking. But the kind of dishonesty you're standing for, Luke, won't get past.

They'll ride you out of this State on a rail--and I'll furnish the rail."

"I'll furnish something more!" cried Harlan, unable to restrain himself any longer. "To-morrow morning I shall put ten thousand dollars into General Waymouth's campaign fund--my own money."

"You see, Luke," drawled the Duke, "it really looks as though Vard would be elected anyway. I might subscribe a little myself if only I had a rich grandfather, the same as Harlan has."

The unhappy chairman sat down in his chair again and struggled with his anger. He could not give it rein--he realized that. Party and personal interests were all jeopardized. But he knew he could not afford to have utter personal disgrace accompany his defeat. Desertion of the party candidate, if advertised in the fashion the General threatened, meant ruin of his name as well as his fortune. He could have sulked and excused himself, but there was no excuse for inaction after demand had been made upon him in this fashion.

There was silence in the room.

"Fellow up our way used to be a mighty good mule teamster," said Thelismer Thornton, tipping his great head back into clasped hands, and gazing meditatively at the ceiling. "Had a gad for the wheel mules, whip for the swing team, and a pocketful of rocks for the leaders. One day the rocks gave out just as the wagon sunk into a honey-pot on a March road. But being a good teamster, he yanked out his pipe and threw it at the nigh leader just at the critical second. Sparks skated from crupper to mane along the mule's back, and he gave a snort and a heave, and away they went."

Chairman Presson, deep in his trouble, was disgusted by this levity, and growled under his breath.

"If a fellow had been off ahead of the team with a bag of oats perhaps the pipe wouldn't have been needed," pursued the Duke, meditatively.

"Anyway, gentlemen, I'll tell you what I'll do. I've been waiting to be called on for my contribution for the fund, but for some reason business hasn't been started in this campaign as soon as I hoped. Harlan was a little excited just now. I think, seeing that the State Committee is now going to take hold of the campaign, he'll be able to get out of it a little cheaper. A lot of the other boys will chip when they're asked.

For the Thornton family I lead off subscriptions with a pledge of five thousand dollars. I'm that much interested in seeing my--my original choice for Governor elected by a good majority."

Presson got up, and stamped down his trousers legs.

"I know when I'm licked," he admitted. "And I've been licked in the whole seventeen rounds of this campaign. Look here, General Waymouth, I'm done fighting. I simply throw myself on your mercy. I know how you feel toward me. But I've got just this to say: it's a poor tool of a man that won't fight for his own interests and his friends. I've done it.

And I'm no more of a renegade than the usual run of the men who have to play politics for results. I don't believe you are going to get results, General. But that's neither here nor there. There's no more squirm left in me. I'll take hold of this campaign and elect you. If there's any crumbs coming to me after that, all right! I'm at your mercy."

"I tell you again I've no time or inclination for petty revenge. That is not my nature." General Waymouth was as cold and calm as inexorable Fate itself. "I accept your pledge, Chairman Presson. Not one interest of yours that is right will suffer at my hands. On the other hand, not one interest that is wrong will be protected. It's simply up to you!"

"I don't suppose you care to go over the plans with me to night?"

"I shall ask you to confer with Mr. Harlan Thornton on all matters. He knows my wishes and plans. He will remain here at headquarters as my representative."

If the chairman felt that he was being put under guard and espionage, his face did not betray it. He took leave of the General, and escorted out his a.s.sociate committeemen.

"Reminds me of the time Uncle Stote Breed went with the boys on a fishing-trip," remarked the Duke, after they were gone. "They ate the sardines out of the tin before Uncle Stote got in off the pond, and put in raw chubs they'd been using for live bait. Uncle Stote ate 'em all.

'Boys, your ile is all right,' said he, when he cleaned 'em out, 'but it seems to me your leetle fish is a mite underdone.' But Luke will eat anything you hand him after this, Vard."

He took his grandson by the arm, and started him toward the door.

"Let the General get to bed," he advised, jocosely. "He ought to have pleasant dreams to-night."

Harlan expected that his grandfather would have some rather serious talk for his ear. But he merely remarked, leaving him at the door of his room: "If you keep on, son, I'll be pa.s.sed down to posterity simply as 'Harlan Thornton's grandfather.'"

CHAPTER XXII

FROM THE MOUTH OF A MAID

Under a sudden stimulus of rallies, red fire, and band-music, the campaign blossomed promisingly. Democracy's dark hints that the dominant party had been rent by factional strife were suddenly answered by an outrush of spellbinders from Republican headquarters, a flood of literature, and an astonishing display of active harmony. Chairman Luke Presson received compliments for the manner in which he had held his fire until he "had seen the whites of the enemy's eyes." He replied to such compliments with fine display of modest reserve, and in private gritted his teeth and swore over the statement that General Waymouth issued to the voters of the State--a doc.u.ment that bound the party to a professed programme of honest reorganization. The treasurer of the State Committee drew checks amounting to more than fifteen thousand dollars to pay for the printing, postage, and mailing of those statements--a bitter expense, indeed, considering the nature of the promises. Presson saw only gratuitous stirring of trouble in the hateful declarations the General made. It was his theory that in politics voters never arose and demanded reforms until some disturber shook them up and reminded them that reforms were needed.