"May I ask," he presently went on, "has ex-Governor Burbank seen
this--this astonishing document?"
Burbank had written it. I confess when he first showed it to me, it had
affected me somewhat as it was now affecting Goodrich. For, a dealer
with business men as well as with public sentiment, I appreciated
instantly the shock some of the phrases would give the large interests.
But Burbank had not talked to me five minutes before I saw he was in the
main right and that his phrases only needed a little "toning down" so
that they wouldn't rasp too harshly on "conservative" ears, "Yes, Mr.
Burbank has seen it," said I. "He approves it--though, of course, it
does not represent his _personal_ views, or his _intentions_."
"If Mr. Burbank approves _this_," exclaimed Goodrich, red and tossing
the paper on the table, "then my gravest doubts about him are confirmed.
He is an utterly unsafe man. He could not carry a single state in the
East where there are any large centerings of capital or of
enterprise--not even our yellow-dog states."
"He can and will carry them all," said I. "They _must_ go for him,
because after the opposition have nominated, and have announced their
platform, your people will regard him as, at any rate, much the less of
two evils. We have decided on that platform because we wish to make it
possible for him to carry the necessary Western states. We can't hold
our rank and file out here unless we have a popular platform. The people
must have their way _before_ election, Senator, if the interests are to
continue to have their way _after_ election."
"I'll never consent to that platform," said he, rising.
"Very well," said I with a mild show of regret, rising also as if I had
no wish to prolong the interview.
He brought his hand down violently upon the paper. "This," he exclaimed,
"is a timely uncovering of a most amazing plot--a plot to turn our party
over to demagoguery."
"To rescue it from the combination of demagoguery and plutagoguery that
is wrecking it," said I without heat, "and make it again an instrument
of at least sanity, perhaps of patriotism."
"We control the platform committee," he went on, "and I can tell you
now, Senator Sayler, that that there platform, nor nothing like it, will
never be reported." In his agitation he went back to the grammar of his
youthful surroundings.
"I regret that you will force us to a fight on the floor of the
convention," I returned. "It can't but make a bad impression on the
country to see two factions in the party--one for the people, the other
against them."
Goodrich sat down.
"But," I went on, "at least, such a fight will insure Burbank all the
delegates except perhaps the two or three hundred you directly control.
You are courageous, Senator, to insist upon a count of noses on the
issues we raise there."
He took up the platform again, and began to pick it to pieces phrase by
phrase. That was what I wanted. Some phrases I defended, some I conceded
might be altered to advantage, others I cheerfully agreed to discard
altogether. Presently he had a pencil in his hand and was going over the
crucial paragraphs, was making interlineations. And he grew more and
more reasonable. At last I suggested that he take the platform away
with him, make the changes agreed upon and such others as he might
think wise, and send it back for my criticism and suggestions. He
assented, and we parted on excellent terms--"harmony" in the convention
was assured.
When the amended platform came back late in the afternoon, I detained
Goodrich's messenger, the faithful Dufour again. It was still the
Burbank platform, with no changes we could not concede. I had a copy
made and gave it to Dufour, saying: "Tell the Senator I think this
admirable, a great improvement. But I'll try to see him to-night and
thank him."
I did not try to see him, however. I took no risk of lessening the
effect created by his having to come to me. He had entered through
groups of delegates from all parts of the country. He had passed out
through a crowd, so well did my men employ the time his long stay with
me gave them.
On the next day the platform was adopted. On the following day, amid
delirious enthusiasm in the packed galleries and not a little agitation
among the delegates--who, even to the "knowing ones," were as ignorant
of what was really going on as private soldiers are of the general's
plan of battle--amid waving of banners and crash of band and shriek of
crowd Burbank was nominated on the first ballot. Our press hailed the
nomination as a "splendid victory of the honest common sense of the
entire party over the ultra conservatism of a faction associated in the
popular mind with segregated wealth and undue enjoyment of the favors of
laws and law-makers."
When I saw Burbank he took me graciously by the hand. "I thank you,
Harvey," he said, "for your aid in this glorious victory of the people."
I did not realize then that his vanity was of the kind which can in an
instant spring into a Redwood colossus from the shriveled stalk to which
the last glare of truth has wilted it. Still his words and manner jarred
on me. As our eyes met, something in mine--perhaps something he imagined
he saw--made him frown in the majesty of offended pose. Then his
timidity took fright and he said apologetically, "How can I repay you?
After all, it is your victory."