CHAPTER XIII.
THE LIST OF TRANSGRESSORS.
At length the hour arrives in which the men are to be given the names of the transgressors. It would be disastrous to have any knowledge of the affair fall into the possession of the sleuths of the Trusts; so every precaution for secrecy is observed. The loft of the deserted mill is again chosen as the place of meeting. A thorough search of the storehouse is made, and then the committee assembles in the narrow semi-circle.
After the meeting is called to order, there is an apparent apathy on the part of a number of the Eastern members. When questioned they freely admit that they do not believe their constituents would sanction the drastic measure.
Nevins is absent on his visit to Trueman. He has arranged with Professor Talbot and Stahl to delay the meeting and put the members through another test.
The proposition is argued anew.
It is explained that each man is called upon to make an equal sacrifice; that there is no difference in declaring one's patriotism by enlisting in the army or navy to fight a common foe, or in being one of a numerically small and intrinsically strong army of forty. The Trusts and Monopolies have proven a menace to the people, and can consequently be looked upon as a foe to the government, to be dealt with accordingly.
A unanimous decision to carry out the plan is reached.
At this juncture Nevins appears.
He asks permission to proceed with the reading of the list of the proscribed. He is recognized and begins his startling speech.
"In the lapse of years one is apt to forget the springs from which the wells of human action are fed; it is commonly the lot of man to sink into a state of mind that is at once unreceptive and unretentive. The result is that at the age of thirty he finds himself incapable of grasping new and difficult conceptions. This is the reason why so many injustices are permitted to exist in the world. Men in their youth are thoughtless; in their mature and old age they are neglectful or willingly negligent.
"A degree of success or a degree of failure has a like tendency to blunt the finer qualities of the mind. A man with a competency will not take the troubles of his fellow man to heart. The unfortunate man who has not the wherewithal to support his family is in no position to take the initiative in a labor movement or in a political revolution.
"So the work devolves upon the few men who have the means and the inclination to strive for the betterment of humanity.
"Yet even these men are not always capable of judging events by their true proportions and relations.
"Advancement is the one thing that reformers fear. The ends they would attain are almost always reconstructive; they are never creative." Nevins utters these words with impressive emphasis.
"These remarks I have made by way of prelude to the matter I shall now proceed to discuss directly and earnestly.
"We are each and all convinced that the pernicious system of fostering monopolies that has been instituted in this country can have but one result, the undermining of our popular institutions, and in their place the substitution of moneyed Plutocracy. This result is abhorrent to every true American.
"Now, there is no way to put an end to monopolies except by the people rising in their might and reassuming their own.
"The hypocritical advice of the leaders of the great universities, that the people ostracize the Magnates, has now ceased to satisfy the exigencies of the case. What sort of ostracism would the President of a University endowed by the millions of a Magnate, propose to have enforced against his master?
"Another of the proposals emanating from the hireling counsels of the Trusts, is that the methods of the Trusts be placed under the searchlight of publicity. A pretty programme, indeed, were it not for the fact that the very men who propose this method of dealing with monopolies would be engaged by the Magnates to defend them from exposure.
"To invoke the aid of the courts is to be brought face to face with the servants of the Trusts. Where is the Attorney-General who can successfully prosecute a Trust? The only one who was ever sincere in his attempt met an insurmountable barrier in the courts before which he arraigned the guilty.
"And the votes of the people, do they avail?
"The executives and legislators whom they elect are false to their pledges.
"The great sin of this country is the worship of gold. Human life is held as secondary to the dollar.
"Who then shall deliver the people from the bondage that has come upon them?
"Unguided, they are as a flock of sheep without a shepherd. False prophets, mercenary leaders, are an abomination. They have been and are to this day, the clogs in the wheels of progress.
"The work of rejuvenation must be done by an intrepid few. It cannot be entrusted to visionary men, to fanatics, to men who detest government of any form or to men who are willing to suffer present ills rather than face temporary discomfiture.
"To carry on a crusade one must surrender self.
"If our plan did not embrace more than the annihilation of forty of the Transgressors it would not be raised to a higher plane than wholesale homicide.
"But we are to follow the course which the Plutocrats have traversed. They have destroyed individual liberty; they have entrenched themselves in our halls of legislature by bribery; our executives are their puppets; our courts are their final buttress. To reclaim the rights of the people we must reach the powers in control; the actual men who engineer the scheme of public loot. These men have sacrificed human lives to attain their ascendency. We must demand, we must enforce an atonement.
"Because we are to deal with the chief transgressors, who represent a small number, our deed will be regarded in the light of murder.
"Were the magnates in the field as an open foe our assault upon them would be hailed as an act of heroism. Shall we be deterred by consideration of a difference in mere words?
"I propose to vindicate these so-called murders, which we are to commit. The atonement will be frightful. Will it be more so than the conditions which necessitate it?
"Are the lives of forty soulless men to be compared with those of thousands who are yearly sacrificed to sordid commercialism?
"Are we to extend our commerce at the price of a life for every dollar of foreign trade?
"Men prospered in this country before the reign of the Trust Magnates; men grew rich through ordinate profits, and the prosperity of the country was the prosperity of all. To-day men seek to enrich themselves by preying on the necessities of their fellowmen.
"Can the cry of tyrants and sycophants drown the wail of the innocent children and women who have been chained to the wildcat car of Modern Commercialism?
"In compiling the list of Transgressors, I have selected no man merely because he is possessed of great wealth. There are many millionaires who have earned their fortunes by honest endeavor and in strict conformity with the laws of the land. I have discriminated against those who have prostituted the laws of God and man; not a man whom I shall declare proscribed but he is known to all men as stained with the blood of innocents.
"'The voice of the people is the voice of God.' This voice cries to us from four million mothers' mouths for deliverance from tyrants who compel them to work for a living even in the hours of their pregnancy. The child laborers of this land of freedom raise a piteous plea.
"Do you wait for an actual rain of hell-fire as a sign that God's will is not being done?
"It is our duty to strike a blow at Plutocracy that shall destroy it for all time. We will act as sovereigns of the land. In us resides the supreme rights of mankind. Our edict cannot be enforced by the courts, so we will act for ourselves.
"The names I read are not given in any fixed order; each man is equally guilty."
Here Nevins takes a slip of paper from his pocket and begins to read:
"By reason of his treasonable act in furnishing the Nation's defenders poisonous food while they were engaged in actual war, and for continued vending of deleterious food to the citizens at large; for his conspicuous participation in the formation of the monopoly of the meat products of the country, for the purpose of extorting tribute from the masses, I name Tingwell Fang as one of the transgressors. This man has a fortune of $200,000,000; more than the life earnings of 2,000 men engaged in ordinary pursuits for a period of thirty years each.
"Judge if God ordained that one man should be possessed of such fabulous wealth when His Son gave as our prayer, 'Give us this day our daily bread.'
"As the controller of the Wheat Trust, by which the grim hand of famine is laid on the nation, and a tax levied on our subsistence, I name David Leach as another of the transgressors. He has collected $100,000,000, in sums of one and two cents from the millions of men, women and children of this country. He stands between us and our daily bread.
"I need not portray the sufferings that are inflicted on the nation by the presence of the Coal Trust. From the miners to the consumers the tale is one of ever-increasing awfulness. Man to-day, who must live in the northern and temperate regions of our country, cannot endure the cold of winter without artificial heat. He cannot go to the virgin forests, for the land is owned by private individuals; he cannot go to the mines, for they are the property of the coal barons. He must purchase the coal that is needed to heat his home.
"This makes coal not a luxury, but one of the necessities of life.
"In the hands of the Trust the price is raised to the highest possible point. The monopoly is complete; the demand perpetual.
"Every home where coal is consumed is a witness to the rapacity of the Coal Trust. I therefore name as one of the transgressors, Gorman Purdy, President of the Coal Trust, the man who ordered the massacre of the miners at Hazleton; who has driven widows and orphans from the mining towns to let them starve on the highways. He is the possessor of $160,000,000, the equivalent of the earnings of 10,000 miners for forty-five years.
"I name as a transgressor, Ebenezer J. Sloat, President of the Leather Combine. His single fortune is $80,000,000. This man succeeded in effecting a consolidation of all of the leather producers; now the nation pays the Trust a royalty on every pair of shoes that is sold.
"He has driven the cobbler out of existence and has set children and women at the machines which turn out completed shoes, on which not a single part has to be made by skilled labor.
"It is not in the trades alone that the Transgressors are to be found.
They have developed in high places.
"I name as one of the proscribed, ex-Supreme Court Justice Elias M. Turner, who, at the demand of the Magnates, recanted his judgment on the question of constitutional taxation, and left the humble citizens to bear the burden of taxes while the Trusts and Monopolies go practically exempt. This act of betrayal to the public weal is the more atrocious as it was done by a man who had been invested with the highest honor that the nation could bestow upon the ermine.
"If the wearer of the robe of justice outrages his garment is it to remain an invulnerable shield against our righteous condemnation? He who doles justice, must himself be its chief exemplar.
"Another of the high servants of the people who has betrayed his fellow countrymen, is ex-Attorney General Lax. It was his masterful policy of inaction that permitted the trusts and monopolies to intrench themselves during the four years that he stood as their buffer, against all efforts of the several states to curb them.
"Entering the office as a man of moderate means he left it possessed of a fabulous fortune—the bribe money of the Magnates. And not content to retire from office, and cease his nefarious trade, he is to-day the counsel for the Money Trust. It is his mind that conceives the interminable means for forcing the Government to issue bonds for the benefit of the Banking Syndicate?"
"It was Herbert Lax who made me a bankrupt," exclaims one of the committee. "He caused my brother to commit suicide. If ever there was a cold-blooded villain, Lax is the man."
"His acts were those of charity compared to some of the Transgressors," observes Nevins, before he continues to announce the list. "Is the bankrupting of men to be compared with the heinous crime of enslaving children?
"The Cotton King, Herod Butcher of Fall River, who thrives on the life's blood of ten thousand minors—pitiable slaves of his looms, is one of the transgressors who must atone for a life-long career as a merciless infanticide.
"No man is so base that he would stand by and see a child ruthlessly slain. Yet the nation stands supinely in the presence of a system of factory labor which tolerates the inhuman employment of children. The hazy halo of legality is between the transgressor and the people; and men remain unmoved.
"It was for humanity's sake that our countrymen gave their life ungrudgingly on the battle-fields of Cuba. But what of the inhumanity at home? A word spoken against an American manufacturer is a crime in the eyes of the Magnates, and the offender is chastised accordingly."
"I have three sons who grew to manhood, stunted and untutored, who had to work for their daily bread in the mills of Herod Butcher," declares Martin Stark, the Rhode Island committeeman.
"Judas D. Savage is another of the transgressors. A hundred flaming oil wells lit by the torch of the incendiary, hired by his gold, wrote his proscription on the scroll of high heaven.
"And Roger Q. Alger, of the defaulting Savings Bank dynasty comes to you recommended by the cries of anguish that have been uttered by thousands of widows, orphans, struggling husbands and provident wives, who have awakened to find their savings distributed as booty to the Barons.
"But what need have I to recount the misdeeds of this list of men. If the first man or woman whom you meet on the street cannot give you a description of them that will stand as an indictment, then consider the men I name innocent!"
He then completes the reading of the list. There is a painful silence when he ceases to speak. The Forty seem absorbed in deep thought. The chairman finally speaks:
"You have heard the reading of the list," he says. "If it is your desire to substitute names for those mentioned, now is the time to propose the change."
"I move that the list be adopted as read," Carl Metz suggests.
"I second the motion," says Professor Talbot.
Every committeeman votes for the adoption of the list.
The names are written on slips of paper and placed in a hat. As each committeeman passes the table he draws a slip.
"You have all signified your willingness to carry out the terms of the edict of annihilation," the chairman explains. "It now remains for you to redeem your pledges. If there is one of you who regrets the step he has taken it is not too late to withdraw."
There is profound silence, and the men stand immovable.
"Two months from to-day then, October 13th, our Syndicate of Annihilation will declare its dividend; this will require the summary taking off of the Forty Transgressors and our self-immolation." Chadwick pronounces these words slowly, impressively:
"We will separate to-night never to meet again in this life.
"If we are true to our purpose we will not have died in vain." Without formal partings the men leave the store-house.
Nevins is the last to depart; he draws the remaining slip. It bears the name of "James Golding, Bond King; capital, $400,000,000; occupation, United States Treasury Looter."
BOOK III.
The Syndicate Declares a Dividend.
CHAPTER XIV.
BIRTH OF A NEW PARTY.
"You will soon find that my assertion was based on absolute knowledge, for your nomination will be unanimous," Nevins declares to Trueman as they sit in private conference, on the eve of the Independence Party's convention.
"Then you do not credit the statement that the Eastern delegations have become disaffected?"
"That's only one of the rumors which the Plutocrats have set afloat since they unearthed the fact that you are to be a candidate for the vice-presidential nomination. Gorman Purdy is the instigator of all these adverse stories. He has not forgotten that you were once his most promising pupil."
The President-maker and his intended candidate are in daily communication; they have become firmly attached to each other in the short period of their acquaintanceship. This is not to be wondered at, for there is a striking similarity in their temperaments. Each is endowed with keen perception and wonderful magnetism. Their combined influence has brought to their support the most contumacious of the delegates. On the issue of the following day the hopes of each are centered. Nevins has asked his young champion to visit him at his rooms in an unpretentious hotel on Clark street; there are details for the work of the morrow that have to be carefully planned.
"In your speech you must dwell upon the causes which led to the formation of the new party," Nevins explains. "This must be done briefly; but it will pave the way for your demonstration that a new, a young man must be called upon to make the fight against the intrenched robbers.
"As you know, I have striven for ten years to bring about the present propitious circumstances; it has been an almost impossible task to get a convention of men who are susceptible of being made to nominate a young and untried man for so exalted an office.
"But all of the political conditions of the hour indicate that the bold proposal will be accepted."
"I have caused a most thorough canvas of the delegates to be made," says Trueman, "and they are almost unanimous in declaring that they will support me for the second place on the ticket. When sounded on the proposition of voting for a young man for the head of the ticket, they demur."
"That is just as I have planned matters should stand before the convening of the delegates," replies Nevins, with a self-complacent smile.
"All of the older men will have spoken before you are called upon. The sharp contrast that will be presented in the staid and uninspiring speeches of your predecessors, and your fervid, fluent and convincing call to action, will lift you to the position of the logical candidate.
"No successful statesman has ever been unmindful of the practical side of politics. A speech may create a whirlwind of enthusiasm for an orator; yet if there is no one to guide the tempest it is soon spent. I shall be on the watch for the moment that must see your name put in nomination.
"When it comes, I shall put you in nomination."
"Day by day I am learning that politics is not a game of chance," observes Trueman, meditatively. "It is a science, with as much to master as the science of war, which it resembles most strikingly.
"A year ago I should have scoffed at the idea that I would be engaged in planning and in carrying out a campaign to capture a convention. Yet it is absolutely necessary to make these preparations."
"How many hours did I spend in convincing you that politics is an exact science?" Nevins inquires, with a faint smile, as he recalls the struggle he has gone through with before he could get Trueman to consent to the methods that had to be adopted to effect his nomination.
"I know that you had an obstinate pupil. I hope that I have not been instructed in vain."
"I have no fear on that score. You will fulfil the mission that is manifestly set for you. Keep the thought of the people uppermost in your mind when you are speaking, and it will give you the needed inspiration.
"Come, we will review the bill of complaint which the people find against the Trusts."
They rapidly name, in chronological order, the events that have been instrumental in bringing about the degradation of labor. There is the primal generator of universal distress—the private corporation—which operates with all the functions of an individual, yet is free from even the most ordinary obligations that are enforced upon the individual; from the private corporation has sprung the Trust, a consolidation of corporate bodies which intensifies the evils that exist under the former institution, and as an inevitable consequence of Trusts comes private Monopolies. These last have been the direct cause of awakening the people to a realization of their condition. For each aggression of corporate wealth the people have been forced from their position as free men to that of servants. The climax is reached when the Monopolies adopt the paternal principle of pensioning their employees, thus making of them retainers in name, as they have long been in fact.
"I shall leave you to your thoughts," says Nevins, in parting. He walks to the entrance of the hotel with Trueman. When his friend departs he returns to his room.
Three of the Committee of Forty are awaiting him. They have come for a short consultation. At the convention they are to be the trusted lieutenants of Nevins.
There is no money to be distributed; no patronage to be pledged for the support of delegates. The preliminary arrangements of battle are strangely dissimilar to those of any preceding convention that has been held in this country for half a century.
The magnitude of the cause that brought forth the Democracy in the days of Jefferson, and the Republican party in the days of Lincoln, is again attracting true patriots; the cry of a people which has long been outraged is demanding to be heard; it has reached the ears of a faithful few who put country above price. It is of such material that the new party is composed.
A young and untried soldier was called by the sage of the Revolution of 1776 to take command of the Continental army. What is to prevent a repetition of our history, now that another crisis has to be faced? Of the committee there are few who do not feel assured that Trueman will be capable of fulfilling the duties of the office to which they seek to elevate him; they are not certain, however, that they can secure the nomination for him.
Trueman is hopeful; yet he cannot drive from his mind the rumors of disloyalty that are constantly brought to him.
In the minds of the Plutocrats it seems utterly impossible for Trueman to even obtain the vice-presidential nomination. It never occurs to them to regard him as a probable candidate for the higher office. Nevins, alone of all men, is confident of the result of the morrow.
CHAPTER XV.
CHOOSING A LEADER.
Chicago, the city of immeasurable possibilities, the twice risen Phoenix, scene of the fairyland of 1893, when the wonders of the world were assembled for the fleeting admiration of man, is the arena in which a battle is to be waged that shall be remembered when the other events that add to the fame of the municipality shall have passed into oblivion.
To the citizens of Chicago a convention has come to be regarded as an every-day occurrence. If it is not a convention of one of the great parties, then some lesser body is in session; always some band of delegates is reported as either arriving in or departing from the city. There had been little stir when the Plutocratic convention was in progress three weeks before. The result of the proceedings was foreordained.
But with the convening of the delegates of the Independence Party the apathy of the people gives way to intense interest. They realize that at least there will be a lively contest over the choice of a leading candidate.
Political forecasters have been chary of expressing opinions, for the much depended on precedent is lacking. Here is a new party, which is to make its second appeal to the people. Where its strength will lay, whom it will select to be the standard-bearer of its radical platform, these are questions that baffle the most astute observers.
The morning of the opening session of the convention finds the vast auditorium of the Music Hall where the meetings are to be held, crowded with spectators. It is impossible for one-tenth of those present to hear the speakers; they come not to hear so much as to breathe the surcharged air of the political storm which it is known will be fostered. The thin blood of the modern civilian is acted upon by less boisterous and gory scenes than those which sufficed to stir the audiences of the Roman circus; yet the human susceptibilities are the same in all ages, and differ only in expression. In the battle of voices, the audience will shout its approval or hiss its disapproval; at the pleasure of the throng a speaker can be silenced, his victory snatched from his very grasp.
Six thousand people are in their places by ten o'clock. The police have been compelled to shut the doors to exclude the crowds who would be satisfied merely to get inside of the building. A murmur fills the place, although no one is speaking above the normal tone; the combined sound resembles the distant boom of a cataract. Here and there in the galleries a splash of color indicates the presence of a woman. The value of feminine headgear is for once clearly demonstrated; it serves to differentiate the sexes.
On the floor of the auditorium the long avenues of chairs are vacant; a dozen men are busy arranging the location of the state delegations. Guidons bearing the names of the states are put in position. At the press tables, at the foot of the speakers' platform, hundreds of reporters are industriously grinding out "copy" for their papers. A formidable army of messenger boys is lined up along the base of the platform. They are a reserve, to be used in case the telegraph service should break down.
Immediately in the rear of the speaker's table is the indispensable adjunct of American politics, the brass band. At 10.15 o'clock the leader of the band gives a signal, and the "Star Spangled Banner" is played, six thousand voices joining in the best known phases and the chorus.
Now the delegates arrive. The New York contingent walks to its place in the middle of the hall. Ex-Senator Sharp is at their head, followed by the prominent county leaders. Their appearance is the signal for an outburst from the galleries. Cheers and hisses are about evenly divided. The conservatism of the New Yorkers makes them the bone of contention.
"They will try to rule this convention in the interests of Wall Street, as they did in the Democratic convention of '96," observes a man in the West gallery, to the man next to him. "The theory of majority rule that was good enough for the founders of the country, does not seem to hold much force now-a-days."
"No," replies the first speaker. "The rule of the majority has been repudiated. It would have been inimical to monopolies, so the Magnates have nullified it. They did the same thing with silver in '73. There could be no money trust with bi-metalism."
"Do you think the Eastern delegations are strong enough to dominate this convention?"
A tumultuous shout drowns the reply.
"Texas! Texas!" cry a thousand voices.
"California, she's all right!" cry as many more.
Delegates from the above-named states appear at two entrances.
By eleven o'clock the convention is assembled. The chairman rises and pounds on the table with his gavel to quiet the audience.
"We will open this convention with prayer. It is the desire of our party to lift itself out of the mire of partisan politics, and nothing is more fitting than that an invocation to the Almighty should constitute our initial performance."
An unknown clergyman from Iowa is called to offer prayer. He is listened to in absolute silence; the great horde of men and women hold their breath; religion at least is not extinct in the people. Following the prayer comes the routine work of passing on credentials and appointing committees. This is done with celerity. The men are anxious to begin the real business.
As the last committee is named, a delegate from every one of the States is on his feet clamoring for recognition.
"Illinois has the floor," the chairman announces. This is done as a matter of courtesy to the state in which the convention is being held.
Congressman Blanchard, representing a Chicago district, is the man who receives recognition.
As he steps upon the rostrum the cheering is deafening. He is the favorite son of the state and this is the supreme moment in which he may launch his boom for the presidential nomination.
The power of his oratory is of a high order. He makes the fatal error of being non-committal; his friends see that the chance has passed him.
Favorite sons from a dozen states strive for the prize; yet for one reason or another are unsuccessful in carrying the convention, or of awakening the enthusiasm of the audience.
"No one has spoken from Pennsylvania," remarks the man in the gallery.
"There are few orators of note in that state now," he adds.
"There are very few; but their small number is counterbalanced by the quality of the men. Have you ever heard Trueman?"
"I never heard him speak, but I have read his speeches. He seems to be a true friend of the people."
"Let us call for a speech from Pennsylvania," suggests the observant auditor.
"Pennsylvania! Pennsylvania!" shouts the impulsive man beside him.
"Pennsylvania!" comes the instant response in every quarter of the auditorium. The audience realizes that the great Keystone State has not been heard from.
The uproar increases. Men stand on their chairs and wave their hats, shouting themselves hoarse.
"Pennsylvania, what's the matter with Pennsylvania? She's all right!"
The man in the gallery draws a flag from beneath his coat and waves it frantically.
"Trueman, Trueman! Speech!"
The cry changes instantly.
From his eyrie, Nevins, the omnipresent, flutters his commands. Under his spell the tumult rises. Delegates from Nebraska and Louisiana rush to the Pennsylvania section and seize Trueman. He is borne to the rostrum across a veritable sea of men.
Now Nevins hides the flag, and as though a switch key had cut off the current from a dynamo, the confusion subsides.
Now only fitful shouts can be heard; they come like the final rifle cracks in a battle.
Trueman has gained his feet and stands erect, facing an audience that is already fired to the white heat of spontaneous combustion.
He is saved the necessity of working for a climax; it is prepared.
"Pennsylvania has come to this convention to be heard," he cries.
This happy introduction catches the crowd. They give a long, hearty cheer and then are silent.
"The delegates from the Keystone State are here to aid in producing a platform that shall contain the declaration of the right of mankind to labor.
"The work of this convention is not to be the single effort of one State delegation; it is not to be that of any prescribed body; but must reflect the united opinions of the American people.
"I shall speak, therefore, as a representative of all liberty-loving men, and shall express their hopes and aspirations as I have found them to exist.
"It is the ever constant belief of the people that popular government is the only form that is compatible with Divine ordination; that all men shall be protected in the right to live, to labor and to prosper according to their deeds and deserts.
"These principles are the basis upon which our republic was built; they have served as the inspiration of our lives; for their perpetuation men have given up their lives on the field of battle, on the altar of martyrdom, and for these principles the vast majority of the citizens of this country are to-day ready to make any sacrifice."
A storm of applause momentarily checks the speaker.
"When a man devotes his energy to honest toil it is for the purpose of securing to himself and to his family the blessings of thrift; the safeguard for honorable old age. In his effort he should be protected by every means that a strong government can devise. The 'millstone' should not be pledged or pillaged; the struggle of life should not be made hopeless by compelling a man to slave for mere subsistence."
"Hear, hear!" come shouts from the galleries.
"Our people have seen the Republic dragged from the line of righteous progress and diverted into the unnatural path of Plutocracy. Insidious methods have been resorted to by those who have wrought this transformation. Sophists have told the plain, credulous workers that industrial combination in the form of Corporations and Trusts is the result of a natural law of evolution. But what is the truth? The great consolidations that have been effected during the past few years have resulted from the enactment of statutory laws. These laws have emanated from the brains of men, paid by the Trust magnates to undermine the republic. No more treasonable acts were ever committed than by the men who have sold the rights of a free people to a band of unscrupulous money worshipers.
"The continuance of this country as a Republic depends upon the restoration of the independent citizen. To-day there are fewer men engaged in independent work, as manufacturers and merchants, than there were ten years ago; to-day the great bulk of the wealth of the country is concentrated in the hands of a few thousand men. These men have become the masters of the Nation; on their payrolls are to be found three-fourths of all the working inhabitants of the land, men, women, and children.
"Men, women and children, I repeat, for where is the man who can earn a sufficient wage to provide proper food and raiment for his family by his single effort?
"As the hope of the people rests on the recovery of the independence of the individual, the platform of this party must declare unequivocally for the abolition of all forms of private monopoly. This must be the main plank in our platform."
These words, uttered in a voice that reaches the remotest corners of the auditorium, call forth a tumultuous shout.
"With private Monopolies destroyed and the channels they control opened to the people, the billions of revenue that now go to increase the fortunes of the Masters of Commerce, will be enjoyed by the toilers who create our National prosperity.
"The statistics of the future shall record the existence in this land of thousands, hundreds of thousands of independent business men. The columns devoted to enumerating the Child Labor of the land will be dispensed with; there will be an increase in the number of mothers and a decrease in the number of women who are forced to earn a living by manual toil.
"The platform we adopt must contain a plank providing for the imposition of a tax on a man according to his ability to pay. There is no sanction for a law to govern a community, however large, however populous, if this law is in contradiction of the principles that govern a household; for we cannot conceive of a government that is not built on the household as the unit.
"Where is the father so inhuman that he will demand of the stripling, the infirm, the feminine members of his family to procure the means of support, before he has exhausted every other effort that can be made by himself and his stalwart sons? Even the insatiate Trust Magnates, were they suddenly to be reduced to penury, would shield their wives, their daughters and their indigent.
"Then who shall say that this Republic, a household on a mammoth scale, is not justified in collecting the taxes necessary for its maintenance from the incomes of the rich, and not from the paltry possessions of the wage-earner? The hundredth part of the income of the rich will more than pay for the legitimate expenses of the Government.
"I am a firm believer in 'vested rights' and carry my adherence back to the dawn of creation. Then it was that God vested mankind with the right to live upon this earth. He endowed man with the ability to earn a living, and gave to each and every man an equal inheritance—opportunity.
"Any laws that man has made which abridge this right of equal opportunity are unconstitutional in the broad sense of being at variance with God's will. Applied to our Constitution, the vested right of the people to the equal opportunity to labor is higher than the right of the few to retain the fruits of the labor of the many.
"I advocate the taxing of the incomes of our citizens before we tax their wages, which is their capital." Cheers interrupt the speaker for a full minute.
"It is my hope, the people's hope, that the bulwark of this country be once more as it was for a century, not a standing army of idle soldiers, but an active army of free men, busied by day in the fields and in the workshops; resting by night under cover of their homes, surrounded by their happy families; an army that is ready at an instant's call to fight for the protection of their Flag and their Homes."
"The united armies of the world would hesitate to face the legions of contented freemen. Our power in the world will be increased more by a fleet of merchant ships than by squadrons of steel battleships.
"We want a National Militia, to be composed of every able bodied man, who in the hours of peace prepares against the possibility of war. We want a Navy strong enough to represent our interest on every sea; a Naval Reserve strong enough to convert our Merchant Marine into the greatest fleet in the world, should need arise.
"We want, and we will succeed in getting the Army of the Unemployed mustered out.
"With us rests the duty of selecting a mustering officer; a man to carry out the wishes of the people; a man who is temperate in his judgment, unswerving in his purpose and unimpeachable in his integrity; a man in whom the people may place full confidence. With such a man as a candidate on the platform we shall adopt, the will of the people cannot be thwarted.
"We can frame the platform. Where is the man?"
"Trueman! Trueman!" comes the cry.
From mouth to mouth the name passes; now it is shrieked by an entire state delegation; now by the entire assemblage. Louder and louder becomes the cry. It is chanted, sung, shouted, shrieked. Men who have shouted themselves hoarse utter it inarticulately.
In the centre of the floor there is a movement; the guidon of New York is moving. It is being borne toward the Pennsylvania delegation.
Another and another state guidon follows in its wake. The convention is in an uproar.
Ten, twenty of the delegations are now swarming about the standard of
Pennsylvania. The galleries keep up the incessant shout of "Trueman!
Trueman!"
A hundred men are clustered about the speaker as he stands, awed by the outburst of enthusiasm. He is picked up and placed on the shoulders of his friends.
The delegations who have rallied to his support now number forty; they are moving toward the platform. The men carrying Trueman go to meet them.
The climax is reached. Trueman is carried round and round the hall, the enthusiasm of the delegates reaching the point of frenzy. Every delegation is now in line. Without waiting for the formality of a motion to adjourn, the convention marches from the building; its candidate at its head.
CHAPTER XVI.
TWO POINTS OF VIEW.
On the way to the hotel after the exciting incidents of the day, which have culminated in his nomination, Trueman has time to reflect. The poise of a man of his sterling character is not easily disturbed; yet he feels misgivings as to the ultimate result of the pending campaign. The odds are so uneven. On the one side the millions of concentrated capital, commanding the servile votes of the dependent operatives; on the other, eternal principles, supported by a few resolute men who will have to inspire the Nation to action.
"If I only had the encouragement of Ethel," Harvey soliloquizes, "it would be nothing to face the foes of my country. But I must make the fight alone. She is separated from me now by a wider barrier than ever. As the champion of the people of Wilkes-Barre I became the antagonist of her father, and she had no choice but to remain with him.
"And yet, at our parting, there was a tremor in her voice which told me that her love for me was not utterly dispelled.
"Sister Martha tells me that Ethel is not happy, that she has ceased to be the social butterfly, the cynosure of the fashionable set in Philadelphia and New York.
"As the inconspicuous leader of the working men of a Pennsylvania mining town I might have won her, even against the opposition of Gorman Purdy. As a candidate for the Presidency, on the Independence party's ticket, my hopes are idle."
He enters his room and finds a telegram on the table.
"VENETIA, L.I.
"As a friend I congratulate you on the honor you have achieved; I wish that circumstances would permit me to aid you in attaining victory. E.P."
In all the world there is no treasure more precious than the yellow slip of paper which Harvey holds in his hand. It is a proof that Ethel has not forgotten him; it even foretells that if victory were to rest on his standards, he might claim a double prize—the Presidency and a bride.
"What right had I to expect that Ethel could descend from her sphere to share the uncertain fortunes of a social reformer?" he muses.
"The conditions of life that have been fostered in the United States since the era of the multi-millionaire make the problem of marriage more complicated than ever before. How can a woman, born to luxury, hope to find marital felicity with a man dependent on his daily wages for the means of supporting himself and family?
"To say that she may bestow her wealth upon her husband, does not solve the problem; it modifies it by adding a potent deterrent; for a man who will be dependent upon his wife for support, lacks the essential qualifications of a good husband.
"The sharp lines of class distinction now drawn in the country are the cause of most of the unhappiness that attend matrimony. It is the opinion of others, not the needs of self, that engender discontent.
"I must win a position in the world which will demand the respect of all men; then I shall offer Ethel, in place of the ill-gotten millions of her father's fortune, the name and love of an honest and respected man. And I will be honest and respected, even as President.
"What a commentary on human frailty the records of our latter day Chief Magistrates present. Each has been of humble origin. He has risen by virtue of fearless championship of the cause of the masses. Once in the office of the Presidency, all uprightness and independence has left him and he has worshiped at the feet of the Idol of Gold.
"To win the Presidency will be to inaugurate an era of real National prosperity, in which the labor of the people will be insured just remuneration. To win Ethel will be to abolish the distinction of class."
At the very hour Harvey Trueman is pondering over the grave conditions that keep him from making Ethel his wife, she is thinking of the mockery of her riches, which furnish her with every attribute to happiness but one—that eclipses all others—the heart's desire.
From the days that she had first known Harvey as the brilliant counsellor, she has felt that inextinguishable love which thrives on hope, and which will not diminish, even when hope is banished. Harvey and she had been friends. His brains had won him admittance to the social class in which she moved. When their attachment had grown to love, and he had asked her father's consent to their marriage, Gorman Purdy, the man of millions, had not hesitated to sanction the union.
What a joy had filled her heart when Harvey told her of his love! What happiness could have equalled hers when she received the news from Harvey that her father was willing that they should marry?
What has caused their separation?
This is the question that remains as yet unanswered in her mind.
"Is it possible that there can be such a divergence in the views of two men on a question of right and wrong," she asks herself, "that they will sacrifice the happiness of the one woman they profess to love, rather than agree upon a compromise, or one or the other change his views?"
"My father loves me; he lavishes his wealth upon me; I am his only child, his only comfort. He remains a widower so as to give me an undivided love. Yet he will not consent to my speaking of wedding Harvey Trueman. He tells me that Harvey is an enemy of mankind; a man who is seeking to disrupt civilization; that every word he utters is intended to inflame the minds of the people; to incite them to anarchy.
"And Harvey, can his words be false when his actions are so generous? What prompted him to give the miner's widow a thousand dollars? Was it a desire to do an act of charity, or was it as my father tells me, the act of a demagogue?
"How am I, a woman who knows nothing of politics or the principles of government, to decide a question that divides nations?
"What does all the advanced civilization of to-day amount to when it stands as a barrier to happy marriages?
"I cannot exchange places with a woman of the mining districts. My life has been so different that I should be miserable."
As she philosophises Ethel glances about her boudoir. It is midnight. From her open window a refreshing breeze comes from the sea. Venetia, on the Long Island shore, where Gorman Purdy has built his palatial residence, is always fanned by ocean breezes. On this particular night in August the moon shines full and bright. It gives a soft tone to the luxurious apartment in which America's richest heiress lies tossing restlessly on her bed.
"How impossible it would be for a miner's wife to exchange places with me," Ethel sighs.
"I am envied by every woman in the land. And still I am unhappy; O, so unhappy.
"The fetters of wealth are as binding as those of poverty; they are not appreciated by the world, and those who wear them are never pitied. If only Harvey is elected President, and my father's fears are not verified, perhaps—"
Ethel does not dare to express the hope that wells in her heart.
CHAPTER XVII.
OPENING THE CAMPAIGN.
A National Headquarters at the height of a Presidential election is of all places in the world the busiest. Men there seem to concentrate the pent-up energy of four years in the four months that are devoted to the campaigning; they work day and night, regardless of sleep or food. A few hours rest, taken when a momentary lull will permit, must suffice; a hurried meal must appease their appetite. Meetings have to be arranged; funds distributed to the various committees; literature has to be prepared and distributed; doubtful districts need the attention of the ablest spell-binders; the movements of the opposing parties have to be met and counteracted.
Especially is the present campaign an exciting one. The strain on old party lines has at length snapped. The two leading parties in the West and South are disrupted. While not utterly disorganized, the same parties have suffered serious disintegration in the manufacturing districts of the East.
On the virtual ruins of the effete political organizations, the spirit of the people finds utterance through the agency of the new party which chooses as its name the "Independence Party." Vitalized by the infusion in its body of the energetic and patriotic young men of the country, the new party sprang into the lists, as it were, full grown. Its period of adolescence has been as rapid as the transit of a comet. Yesterday it had not existed, even in the minds of dreamers; to-day, in the convention of one of the great political organizations an attempt was made to throttle the voice of the majority. The voice of a single man rose high and clear above the tumult; it was the voice of a Moses come to lead his people from bondage. And that people were quick to appreciate the importance of the presence of a great leader. The convention cast aside all conservatism and cant; it produced a platform that offered to mankind the direct and constitutional means for the restoration of general prosperity and the re-establishment of the principles of equality.
In the first struggle against the entrenched power of corruption, the new party had been defeated, not by reason of a disinclination on the part of the people to support it, but because of the coercive methods employed by the Trust Magnates. In the momentous campaign of 1900, the vote of the people being divided, the candidate of the Democracy was elected. He was a man of worth and was eager to do the people's bidding. This, however, was not productive of any good to the people, as the President had a House and Senate hostile to him. Thrice his first Congress had attempted to impeach him, and they were deterred from carrying out their partisan measure only by the ominous demonstration of the laboring men in all sections of the land.
Now, the greatest election ever held in this country is on; the forces have met on three occasions and know each other's methods; they know also that the result of the vote at this election will decide the future of the country—it will continue to be a Republic in fact as in name; or, if the Plutocratic party dominates, the dynasty of the first emperor will be established.
The Chicago Auditorium is selected as the quarters of the Plutocratic contingent. The corridors of this magnificent hotel are crowded night and day by throngs of visitors. Men from every state are there to consult with the campaign committee. The grim visaged chairman of the finance committee, Anthony Marcus, is always at his desk in an inner room. Millionaires troop into his presence in a ceaseless stream; they come with their bankbooks in hand and after a short interview with the Powerful One, they depart, reassured that their millions are safe. They pay their tithe to the Protector of American Plunderers.
Anthony Marcus is in many ways a remarkable man; he is exempt from the imputation of being a little man in any sense. His ideas are daring; they can contemplate the debauchery of the Senate; the purchase of the President, and the disruption of the Supreme Court; they cannot stoop to the committal of petty larceny. So every dollar of the funds raised for the expenses of the campaign is spent in purchasing votes or in buying off dangerous leaders of the opposition.
As fast as the funds are received they are distributed, and the method of their final disposal is outlined by the great moving spirit. He seems to possess infinite power of grasping the minutia of politics. None of his lieutenants dares to misappropriate the funds turned over to him. All know that their master has a disagreeable faculty of unexpectedly asking for an accounting.
"We will win by a margin of thirty-one votes in the Electoral College,"
Chairman Marcus tells every one who inquires as to the probable result.
"This figure is based upon the canvass I have had made in the doubtful
states; it will not vary from the count by one vote."
It is impossible to get the chairman to give an amplified statement as to which he considers the doubtful states and as to how the canvass has been conducted.
One of the morning papers in Chicago, which takes an impartial stand, and accordingly seeks to publish all of the news, creates a sensation by the publication of a tabulated statement of the contributions paid into the treasury of the Plutocratic party. This table shows a total of forty-seven millions of dollars.
With such a sum to expend, and with the knowledge that the chairman of the finance committee will see that every dollar is properly distributed, it is not unreasonable to suppose that a house to house canvass of the doubtful states has actually been made. The corruption fund provides more than three dollars for each voter in the land.
Did Marcus think that one hundred million dollars will be necessary, he would demand that sum, and it would not be withheld by the prosperous band that derives its wealth from the law-makers whom Marcus elects.
What a contrast is presented by the headquarters of the Independence party. It is in a dilapidated hall in the western part of the city. The only feature of the furnishings in keeping with the times, is the Bureau of Publicity. This provides the campaign committee with telegraphic and telephonic communication with the country at large.
The instruments are arranged on two plain deal tables. In its appearance the room is more like the editorial room of a hustling Western newspaper than the headquarters of a political organization that is aspiring to elect a President of the United States. The floor is bare; obsolete gas fixtures afford the artificial light that is made necessary day and night. The chairs and benches that are scattered about the room, are of the type commonly seen in cheap music halls. There are no ante-rooms, no council chambers and no secret cabinets.
A campaign fund of but two hundred and sixty thousand dollars has been raised through the agency of the labor organizations. This comparatively paltry sum is being doled out in niggardly fashion by a finance committee who feel reluctant to part with a single dollar unless assured that it will have a hundred fold its natural effect on the result.
There are some causes that do not need money to make them successful, and the people's fight against Plutocracy is one of this kind. It needs only the awakening of the people's interest to make victory certain.
The surest way of gaining the public ear is by sending out speakers. There is no dearth in the supply of brilliant orators who offer their services. They foresee that the crucial test is to be given the Institution of Popular Government and they wisely align themselves on the side of the people.
No stream of Millionaires comes to the Independence Party's Headquarters; no line of retainers Stand with open hands to receive the funds of fraud; there is as sharp a contrast between the two headquarters as there is between the platforms and candidates of the parties.
Harvey Trueman is the guiding spirit at Drover's Hall. It is Tuesday, a month before election. He visits the Hall for the last time before the verdict of the people shall be recorded.
"I am going to New York to-night," he tells his friend Maxwell, the Chairman of the Speakers' Committee. "You had better notify the leaders all along the line that I am prepared to make short speeches at every available place."
"Have you made arrangements with the railroads?" asks Maxwell.
"It will not be necessary for me to consult with them; I have outlined my route so that I can make connections on one road or another and go through to New York in sixty hours. This will give me time to make twenty short speeches."
"When do you reach New York city?"
"Friday night. It will be about seven o'clock. I want you to arrange for a meeting in Madison Square Garden. It may cost us two thousand dollars, but it will be money well spent."
"We cannot get the Garden; not if we offered five thousand dollars. It has been leased for three months straight by the Plutocrats," Maxwell replies.
"Then get the New York Committee to obtain a permit for an out-door meeting. I will speak to twenty thousand people in New York on Friday if I have to address them from a house-top."
"One of the best places for an out-door meeting in New York is on West street, between Cortlandt and Spring streets," suggests an operator who has overheard the conversation. "That's the broadest thoroughfare in the city."
"Yes, that is a splendid place," acquiesces Trueman.
"Have the meeting located there, Maxwell."
Maxwell departs to carry out the order.
A dozen men are soon receiving final instructions from their leader. They hear the plan for the invasion of the East, and all agree that it will be a wise move, and one which the enemy cannot counteract in so short a time as will be left.
The Judas that is present in almost all human conclaves, is among the loudest in his remarks of approval.
"You could do nothing that would give the Plutocrats a harder rub than to speak on the eve, as it were, of election, in the hotbed of Plutocracy," he assures Trueman.
After a few minutes of further conversation on this line, the betrayer departs. He is closeted with Marcus an hour later. The scheme for a counter demonstration in New York is quickly formulated.
Unconscious of the treachery that has been practiced, Trueman prepares for the trip East.