The Transgressors Part 16

How can an unknown delegate hope to receive the support of the convention. It seems unreasonable, and he is on the point of writing to Martha that the effort could not help but end in a ridiculous farce, when an interruption prevents him from doing so. A card is brought to his room. It bears the simple inscription:

A FRIEND.

"Invite the person up," Trueman tells the servant.

The apartments he occupies are in a quiet boarding house on Lincoln Avenue. He has been in the house six weeks, during which time no one has ever called to see him.

A minute pa.s.ses in which he ransacks his mind in an attempt to think who can have any business with him. It is half-past eight at night.

A loud rap at the door announces the visitor.

"Come in," calls Trueman.

"Good evening, Mr. Trueman." It is William Nevins who speaks.

"O, it is you, Mr. Nevins," exclaims Trueman.

"I owe you an apology," he continues, "for being surprised at seeing you; but the fact is I am a stranger in Chicago and have had no visitors. When your card came I could not imagine who could wish to see me."

"I am well aware that you are a stranger in this city," Nevins replies.

"And as I am little better off I thought that I would drop in to have a chat with you."

"We were delegates at the Anti-Trust Conference and will have much to discuss," says Trueman, in his most affable manner. "I certainly am glad you thought of me. Take a seat, and make yourself as comfortable as the quarters will permit."

They seat themselves near the table. A pipe and a jar of tobacco lie on the table.

"Will you smoke?"

Nevins shakes his head negatively, saying as he does so:

"I cannot talk and smoke at the same time. To-night I want to talk.

"The fact is I have become interested in you since your speech at the close of the conference.

"You will remember it was I who suggested that the committee appointed to investigate the Trust question be increased to forty.

"When I made that motion I had an object in view. I was anxious to have you become one of the committeemen."

"Then the full committee has been appointed?" Trueman asks.

"The forty committeemen have been named. You are not among them, and the reason is that the chairman is jealous of you."

"He can have no reason to be jealous of me."

"The fact remains that he is. I strove to get him to appoint you. He flatly refused to do so. I could get no reason from him. So I concluded that he fears you would outs.h.i.+ne him in the work that the committee contemplates doing. Your speech was masterly. I am not given to flattery. I say candidly that it was the best delivered at the conference.

"Since I failed to get you on the committee of forty, I come to see if you will aid me in a project that will make the committee superfluous; I have an idea that the trust question, monopoly and the other social problems can be speedily solved."

"You did not speak at the conference; that was the place to propound such an idea," interposes Trueman.

"Quite true. But I held my peace there, because it was not a place to bring forth the plan that I have evolved. You will agree with me if you will hear me through.

"My plan requires in the first place the services of an honest man--one who is proof against the blandishments of the Plutocrats--who will spurn the offers of gold and office that will be tendered him by the men of wealth when they perceive that he is on the eve of winning the popular support.

"Such a man is hard to find in this age of commercialism which has all but quenched the spark of true patriotism in the hearts of the people. I have sought for the ideal leader in all the States and was on the point of giving up the quest in despair when I suddenly came upon him. Once I determined that the man had been found, I set about learning his record.

It appears that he is the product of evolution. From the servant of the Plutocrats he has come to be their most powerful adversary. In him the people will recognize the long-looked-for deliverer."

Here Nevins pauses for a moment to let his words sink into the mind of his interested listener.

"Mr. Trueman," he resumes, "I have decided that you are the man to lead the people out of their bondage."

"I certainly feel complimented at your estimate of my integrity,"

Trueman replies, "but you greatly overestimate my ability and the hold which I have upon the people.

"It was by the merest chance that I was elected to the position of delegate to the conference. I have really little influence with the men of my own State. This you must know if you have made a careful investigation."

"I know why you are not the recipient of the full support of the men of Pennsylvania. They cannot conceive of a man changing his views so thoroughly as you have. But this lack of perception they will overcome.

"I want you to a.s.sure me that you will become the leader of the Independence Party. If you do this I, in turn, will a.s.sure you of the nomination for the Presidency.

"That I am not speaking of impossibilities you will be able to understand when I show you the proof of the power I hold to elect the man I decide upon.

"If I am not mistaken, you are opposed to violence as a means of rectifying the social conditions of the people of this country."

"It has been my purpose to defeat every proposition that advised force,"

comes the quick response. "I am too vividly acquainted with the horrid results that follow an appeal to force.

"My hope is that the people will regain their rights by the proper exercise of the ballot.

"If they discard their all-powerful weapon to take up the sword or the torch, the end must be the destruction of popular government."

"Were you in the position of the chief executive you would follow this view? You would be as determined in suppressing violence as you were in preventing crime of any other sort? Your grat.i.tude to the people for electing you would not blind you to your duty in preventing them from inst.i.tuting a reign of anarchy? I am correct in this supposition?"

Nevins looks Trueman in the eyes with a glance that seems intent on reading his inmost thoughts.

"I should do my full duty under the const.i.tution," Trueman declares emphatically.

"But, really," he adds, "I cannot appreciate this situation. It is inexplicable why you should interest yourself in my behalf to the extent of seeking to bring about my nomination for the Presidency."

"My reason is not hard to divine. It is not you whom I am working for; it is the people.

"In you I find the proper agent to fulfil the mission of a leader in an hour of grave importance.

"Older men lack the power of attracting the ma.s.ses. Of the young men whom I have studied, none has the ability, the needed environment that you have.

"Men are creatures of circ.u.mstances only when they permit themselves to drift. If one cannot propel himself to a given haven of success he should at least anchor in a place of safety.

"With you it is only necessary that you give me the sign, and you will become the master of circ.u.mstances. You will be the man to lead the people to the plane of high civilization that their government makes it possible for them to attain."