After Ed and I had carried the Fredonia election against Dunkirk's road,
we went fishing with Roebuck in the northern Wisconsin woods. I had two
weeks, two uninterrupted weeks, in which to impress myself upon him;
besides, there was Ed, who related in tedious but effective detail, on
the slightest provocation, the achievements that had made him my devoted
admirer. So, when I went to visit Roebuck, in June, at his house near
Chicago, he was ready to listen to me in the proper spirit.
I soon drew him on to tell of his troubles with Dunkirk--how the Senator
was gouging him and every big corporation doing business in the state.
"I've been loyal to the party for forty years," said he bitterly, "yet,
if I had been on the other side it couldn't cost me more to do business.
I have to pay enough here, heaven knows. But it costs me more in your
state,--with your man Dunkirk." His white face grew pink with anger.
"It's monstrous! Yet you should have heard him address my Sunday-school
scholars at the last annual outing I gave them. What an evidence of the
power of religion it is that such wretches as he pay the tribute of
hypocrisy to it!"
His business and his religion were Roebuck's two absorbing
passions,--religion rapidly predominating as he drew further away from
sixty.
"Why do you endure this blackmailing, Mr. Roebuck?" I asked. "He is
growing steadily worse."
"He is certainly more rapacious than he was ten years ago," Roebuck
admitted. "Our virtues or our vices, whichever we give the stronger hold
on us, become more marked as we approach Judgment. When we finally go,
we are prepared for the place that has been prepared for us."
"But why do you put up with his impudence?"
"What can we do? He has political power and is our only protection
against the people. They have been inflamed with absurd notions about
their rights. They are filled with envy and suspicion of the rich. They
have passed laws to hamper us in developing the country, and want to
pass more and worse laws. So we must either go out of business and let
the talents God has given us lie idle in a napkin, or pay the Dunkirks
to prevent the people from having their ignorant wicked way, and
destroying us and themselves. For how would they get work if we didn't
provide it for them?"
"A miserable makeshift system," said I, harking back to Dunkirk and his
blackmailing, for I was not just then in the mood to amuse myself with
the contortions of Roebuck's flexible and fantastic "moral sense."
"I've been troubled in conscience a great deal, Harvey, a great deal,
about the morality of what we business men are forced to do. I
hope--indeed I feel--that we are justified in protecting our property in
the only way open to us. The devil must be fought with fire, you know."
"How much did Dunkirk rob you of last year?" I asked.
"Nearly three hundred thousand dollars," he said, and his expression
suggested that each dollar had been separated from him with as great
agony as if it had been so much flesh pinched from his body. "There was
Dominick, besides, and a lot of infamous strike-bills to be quieted. It
cost five hundred thousand dollars in all--in your state alone. And we
didn't ask a single bit of new legislation. All the money was paid just
to escape persecution under those alleged laws! Yet they call this a
free country! When I think of the martyrdom--yes, the mental and moral
martyrdom, of the men who have made this country--What are the few
millions a man may amass, in compensation for what he has to endure?
Why, Sayler, I've not the slightest doubt you could find well-meaning,
yes, really honest, God-fearing people, who would tell you I am a
scoundrel! I have read _sermons_, delivered from _pulpits_ against me!
_Sermons_ from _pulpits_!"
"I have thought out a plan," said I, after a moment's silent and shocked
contemplation of this deplorable state of affairs, "a plan to end
Dunkirk and cheapen the cost of political business."
At "cheapen the cost" his big ears twitched as if they had been tickled.
"You can't expect to get what you need for nothing," I continued, "in
the present state of public opinion. But I'm sure I could reduce
expenses by half--at least half."