CHAPTER 19
The practical man is the man who knows what can't be done. When he begins to let hope take the place of information in this regard, he becomes a conservative. When prejudice takes the place of hope, the mere conservative graduates into a tory, or a justice of the supreme court. It's all a matter of the chemistry of substitution.--Dr. G.L. Knapp.
THE SAFE MAN FURNISHES DIVERSION
Part 1
For once the machine had overplayed its hand. Caught unexpectedly byJeff's return, no effective counter attack was possible. Dunn's storyin the _World_ swept the city and the state like wildfire. It was acrouched dramatic narrative and its effect was telling. From it only oneinference could be drawn. The big corporations, driven to the wall, hadattempted a desperate coup to save the day. It was all very well for BigTim to file a libel suit. The mind of the public was made up.
The mass meeting at the State House drew an enormous crowd, one so greatthat overflow meetings had to be held. Every corridor in the buildingwas full of excited jostling people. They poured into the gallery ofthe Senate room and packed the rear of the floor itself. Against sucha demonstration the upper house did not dare pass the Garman billimmediately. It was held over for a few days to give the public emotiona chance to die. Instead, the resentment against machine and corporatedomination grew more bitter. Stinging resolutions from the back countieswere wired to members who had backslidden. Committees of prominentcitizens from up state and across the mountains arrived at Verden forheart-to-heart talks with the assemblymen from their districts.
At a hurried meeting of the managers of the public utilities companiesit was decided that the challenge of the _World_ must be accepted. Formany who had believed in the total depravity of Jefferson Farnum werebeginning to doubt. Unless the man's character could be impeachedsuccessfully the day was lost. And with four witnesses against him howcould the trouble maker escape?
The committee of investigation consisted of Senator Frome; ClintonRogers, the shipbuilder; Thomas Elliott, a law partner of Hardy; JamesMoran, a wholesale wheat shipper, and the leading clergyman of Verden.It sat behind locked doors, adjourning from one office to another toobtain secrecy.
For the defense appeared as witnesses Marchant, Miller, Mrs. Andersonand Nellie. To doubt the truth of the young wife's story was impossible.The agony of shyness and shame that flushed her, the simple broken wordsof her little tragedy, bore the stamp of minted gold. It was plain tosee that she was a victim of betrayal, being slowly won back to love oflife by her husband and her child.
The committee in its report told the facts briefly without giving names.Even P. C. Frome could find no excuse for not signing it.
The effect was instantaneous. On this one throw the machine had stakedeverything. That it had lost was now plain. In a day Jeff was thehero of Verden, of the state at large. His long fight for reform, thedramatic features of the shanghaing and his return, the collapse ofthe charges against his character, all contributed to lift him to dizzypopularity. He was the very much embarrassed man of the hour.
All the power of the Transcontinental, of the old city hall gang, of themoney that had been spent to corrupt the legislature, was unable to rollback the tide of public determination. White-faced assemblymen sneakedinto offices at midnight to return the bribe money for which they darednot deliver the goods. Two days after the report of the investigatingcommittee Jeff's bill passed the Senate. Within three hours it wassigned by Governor Hawley. That it would be ratified by a vote of thepeople and so become a part of the state constitution was a foregoneconclusion.
Jeff and his friends had forged the first of the tools they neededto rescue the government of the state from the control of the alliedplunderers.
Part 2
In the days following her return to Verden Alice Frome devoured thenewspapers as she never had before. They were full of the dramaticstruggle between Jeff Farnum and the forces which hitherto hadcontrolled the city and state. To her the battle was personal. Itcentered on the attacks made upon the character of her friend and hispledge to refute them.
When she read in the _Advocate_ the report of the committee Alice wept.It was like her friend, she thought, to risk his reputation for somepoor lost wanderer of the streets. Another man might have done it forthe girl he loved or for the woman he had married. But with Jeff itwould be for one of the least of these. There flashed into her mind anold Indian proverb she had read. "I met a hundred men on the road toDelhi, and they were all my brothers." Yes! None were too deep sunk inthe mire to be brothers and sisters to Jeff Farnum.
Ever since her return Alice had known herself in disgrace with herfather and that small set in which she moved. Her part in the big_World_ story had been "most regrettable." It was felt that inletting her name be mentioned beside that of one who was a thoroughlydisreputable vagabond she had compromised her exclusiveness and betrayedthe cause of her class. Her friends recalled that Alice had always beena queer girl.
Her father and Ned Merrill agreed over a little luncheon at theVerden Club that girls were likely to lose themselves in sentimentalfoolishness and that the best way to stop such nonsense was for one toget married to a safe man. Pending this desirable issue she ought to bediverted by pleasant amusements.
The safe man offered to supply these.
Part 3
The farthest thing from Merrill's thoughts had been to discuss with herthe confounded notions she had somehow absorbed. The thing to do, ofcourse, was to ignore them and assume everything was all right. Afterall, of what importance were the opinions of a girl about practicalthings?
How the thing cropped up he did not afterward remember, but at thethirteenth green he found himself mentioning that all reformers were outof touch with facts. They were not practical.
The smug finality of his verdict nettled her. This may or may not havebeen the reason she sliced her ball, quite unnecessarily. But it wasprobably due to her exasperation at the wasted stroke that she let himhave it.
"I'm tired of that word. It means to be suicidally selfish. There's notanother word in the language so abused."
"Didn't catch the word that annoys you," the young man smiled.
"Practical! You used it yourself. It means to tear down and notbuild up, to be so near-sighted you can't see beyond your reach. Yourpractical man is the least hopeful member of the community. He standsonly for material progress. His own, of course!"
"You sound like a Farnum editorial, Alice."
"Do I?" she flashed. "Then I'll give you the rest of it. He--yourpractical man--is rutted to class traditions. This would not be goodform or respectable. That would disturb the existing order. So let's alldo nothing and agree that all's well with the world."
Merrill greeted this outburst with a complacent smile. "It's a prettygood world. I haven't any fault to find with it--not this afternoonanyhow."
But Alice, serious with young care and weighted with the problems of auniverse, would have none of his compliments.
"Can't you see that there's a--a--" She groped and found a fugitivephrase Jeff had once used--"a want of adjustment that is appalling?"
"It doesn't appall me. I believe in the survival of the fittest."
Her eyes looked at him with scornful penetration. They went through thewell-dressed, broad-shouldered exterior of him, to see a suave,gracious Pharisee of the modern world. He believed in theGod-of-things-as-they-are because he was the man on horseback. He was aformalist because it paid him to be one. That was why he and his classlooked on any questioning of conditions as almost atheistic. They wereborn to the good things of life. Why should they doubt the ethics of asystem that had dealt so kindly with them?
She gave him up. What was the use of talking about such things to him?He had the sense of property ingrained in him. The last thing he wouldbe likely to do was to let any altruistic ideas into his head. He wouldplay safe. Wasn't he a practical man?
She devoted herself to the game. To see her play was a pleasure to th
eeye. The long lines and graceful curves of her supple young body neverappeared to better advantage than at golf. Her motions showed the sylvanfreedom of the woods. Ned Merrill appreciated the long, light tread ofher, the harmony of movement as of a perfect young animal, togetherwith the fine spiritual quality that escaped her personality sounconsciously.
At the fifteenth hole he continued her education. "This country isfounded upon individualism. It stands for the best chance of developmentpossible to all its citizens. When you hamper enterprise you stop thatdevelopment."
She took him up dryly. "I see. So you and father and Uncle Joe havedeveloped your individualism at the expense of a million other people's.You have gobbled up franchises, forests, ore lands, coal mines, andevery other opportunity worth having. As a result you're making themyour slaves and crushing out all individuality."
"Not at all. We're really custodians for the people. We administer thesethings for their benefit because we are more fit to do it."
"How do you know you are?"
"The very fact that we have succeeded in getting what we have isevidence of it."
"All I can see is that our getting it and keeping it--you and I andUncle Joe and a thousand like us--is responsible for all the poverty inthe world. We're helping to make it every time we eat a dinner we didn'twork to get."
Alice made a beautiful approach that landed her ball within four feet ofthe hole. Presently Merrill joined her.
"That was a dandy shot," he told her, and watched Alice hole out. "Idon't agree with you. For instance, I work as hard as other men."
"But you're not working for the common good."
His impatience reached words. "That sort of talk is nonsense, Alice. Idon't know what has come over you of late."
She smiled provokingly and changed the subject. Why argue with him? Theslant with which they got at things was different. Like her father, hehad the mental rigidity that is death to open-mindedness.
Briskly she returned to small talk. "You're only three up."
Part 4
On their way back to the club house the safe man recurred to one phaseof their talk.
"You ought not to need any telling as to why I work, Alice."
She shot one swift annoyed glance at him. When Ned Merrill tried thesentimental she liked him least.
"Oh, all men like to work, I suppose. Uncle Joe says it's half the funof life."
"Most men work for some woman. I'm working for you," he told hersolemnly.
A little giggle of laughter floated across to him.
"What are you laughing about?" he demanded.
"Oh, the things I notice. Just now it's you, Ned."
"If you'll explain the joke."
"You wouldn't understand it. Dear me, what are you so stiff about?"
Merrill brought things to an issue. "Look here, Alice! What's the use ofplaying fast and loose? I'd like to know where we're at."
"Would you?"
"Yes, I would. You know all about the arrangement just as well as I do.I haven't pushed you. I've stood back and let you have your good times.Don't you think it's about time for us to talk business?"
"Just as soon as you like, Ned."
"Well, then, let's announce it."
"That we're not engaged to be married and never will be! Is that whatyou want to announce?"
He flushed angrily. "What's the use of talking that way? You know it hasbeen arranged for years."
"I'm not going through with it. I told Father so. The thing isoutrageous," she flamed.
"I don't see why. Our people want it. We are fond of each other. I nevercared for any girl but you."
"Let's stick to the business reasons, Ned."
"Hang it, you're so acid about it! I do care for you."
Her dry anger spurted out. "That's unfortunate, since I don't care foryou."
"I know you do. Just now you're vexed at me."
"Yes, I am," she admitted, nodding her head swiftly. "But it doesn'tmake any difference whether I am or not. I've made up my mind. I'm notgoing through with it."
"You promised."
"I didn't, not in so many words. And I was pushed into it. None of yougave me a fair chance. But I'll not go on with it."
"But, why?"
"Because I'm an American girl, and here we don't have to marry toamalgamate business interests. I won't do it. I'd rather be--" She gavea little shrug of her shoulders. The passion died out of her voice. "Oh,well! No need getting melodramatic about it. Just the same, I won't doit. My mind's made up."
"A pretty figure I'll cut, after all these years," he complainedsulkily. "Everyone will know you jilted me."
Alice turned to him, mischief sparkling in her eyes. "I wouldn't standit if I were you. Show your spunk."
He stared. "What do you mean?"
"Why don't you jilt ME?"
"Jilt you?"
Her head went up and down in a dozen little nods of affirmation. "Yes.Marry Pauline Gillam. You know you'd like to, but you haven't had thecourage to give me up. Now that you've got to give me up anyhow--"
"I'm very much obliged, Miss Frome. But I don't think it will benecessary for you to select another wife for me."
"Have you been married once. I didn't know it."
"You know what I mean?" He was stiff as a poker.
"I believe I do." She was in a perfectly good humor again now. "Butyou better take my advice, Ned. Think what a joke it will be on me.Everybody will say you could have had me."
"We'll not discuss the subject if you please."
Nevertheless Alice knew that she had dropped a seed on good ground.