I went up to New York, to find confusion and gloom at our headquarters
there.
Senator Goodrich had subtly given the impression, not only to the
workers but also to the newspaper men, who had given it to the public,
that with his resignation the Burbank campaign had fallen to pieces.
"And I fear you'll have some difficulty in getting any money at all down
town," said Revell, the senior Senator from New York state, who envied
and hated Goodrich and was therefore, if not for personal reasons,
amiably disposed toward me. "They don't like our candidate."
"Naturally," said I. "That's why he's running and that's why he may
win."
"Of course, he'll carry everything here in the East. The only doubt was
in this state, but I had no difficulty in making a deal with the
opposition machine as soon as they had sounded Scarborough and had
found that if he should win, there'd be nothing in it for them--nothing
but trouble. I judged he must have thrown them down hard, from their
being so sore. How do things look out West?"
"Bad," said I. "Our farmers and workingmen have had lots of idle time
these last four years. They've done too much of what they call
thinking."
"Then you need money?" asked Revell, lengthening his sly, smug old face.
"We must have four millions, at least. And we must get it from those
people down town."
He shook his head.
"I think not," was my careless reply. "When they wake up to the danger
in Scarborough's election, the danger to business, especially to their
sort of business, they'll give me twice four millions if I ask it."
"What do you wish me to do?"
"Nothing, except look after these eastern states. We'll take care of the
West, and also of raising money here for our campaign during October out
there."
"Can I be of any service to you in introducing you down town?" he asked.
"No, thank you," said I. "I have a few acquaintances there. I'm not
going to fry any fat this trip. My fire isn't hot enough yet."
And I did not. I merely called on two of the big bankers and four heads
of industrial combinations and one controller of an ocean-to-ocean
railway system. I stayed a very few minutes with each, just long enough
to set him thinking and inquiring what the election of Scarborough would
mean to him and to his class generally. "If you'll read his speeches,"
said I to each, "you'll see he intends to destroy your kind of business,
that he regards it as brigandage. He's honest, afraid of nothing, and an
able lawyer, and he can't be fooled or fooled with. If he's elected
he'll carry out his program, Senate or no Senate--and no matter what
scares you people cook up in the stock market." To this they made no
answer beyond delicately polite insinuations about being tired of paying
for that which was theirs of right. I did not argue; it is never
necessary to puncture the pretenses of men of affairs with a view to
saving them from falling into the error of forgetting that whatever
"right" may mean on Sunday, on week days it means that which a man can
compel.
I returned to Fredonia and sent Woodruff East to direct a campaign of
calamity-howling in the eastern press, for the benefit of the New York,
Boston and Philadelphia "captains of industry." At the end of ten days I
recalled him, and sent Roebuck to Wall Street to confirm the fears and
alarms Woodruff's campaign had aroused. And in the West I was laying out
the money I had been able to collect from the leading men of Minnesota,
Illinois, Ohio and western Pennsylvania--except a quarter of a million
from Howard of New York, to whom we gave the vice-presidential
nomination for that sum, and about half a million more given by several
eastern men, to whom we promised cabinet offices and posts abroad. I put
all this money, not far from two millions, into our "campaign of
education" and into those inpourings of delegations upon Burbank at his
"rural retreat."
To attempt to combat Scarborough's popularity with the rank and file of
his own party, was hopeless. I contented myself with restoring order
and arousing enthusiasm in the main body of our partizans in the
doubtful and uneasy states. So ruinous had been Goodrich's management
that even at that comparatively simple task we should not have succeeded
but for the fortunate fact that the great mass of partizans refuses to
hear anything from the other side; they regard reasoning as
disloyalty--which, curiously enough, it so often is. Then, too, few
newspapers in the doubtful states printed the truth about what
Scarborough and his supporters were saying and doing. The cost of this
perversion of publicity to us--direct money cost, I mean--was almost
nothing. The big papers and news associations were big properties, and
their rich proprietors were interested in enterprises to which
Scarborough's election meant disaster; a multitude of the smaller
papers, normally of the opposition, were dependent upon those same
enterprises for the advertising that kept them alive.
Perhaps the most far-sighted--certainly, as the event showed, the most
fortunate--single stroke of my campaign was done in Illinois. That
state was vital to our success; also it was one of the doubtful states
where, next to his own Indiana, Scarborough's chances were best. I felt
that we must put a heavy handicap on his popularity there. I had noticed
that in Illinois the violently radical wing of the opposition was very
strong. So I sent Merriweather to strengthen the radicals still further.
I hoped to make them strong enough to put through their party's state
convention a platform that would be a scarecrow to timid voters in
Illinois and throughout the West; and I wished for a "wild man" as the
candidate for governor, but I didn't hope it, though I told Merriweather
it must be done. Curiously enough, my calculation of the probabilities
was just reversed. The radicals were beaten on platform; but, thanks to
a desperate effort of Merriweather's in "coaxing" rural delegates, a
frothing, wild-eyed, political crank got the nomination. And he never
spoke during the campaign that he didn't drive voters away from his
ticket--and, therefore, from Scarborough. And our machine there
sacrificed the local interests to the general by nominating a popular
and not insincere reformer.
When Roebuck and I descended upon Wall Street on October sixteenth,
three weeks before election, I had everything in readiness for my final
and real campaign.
Throughout the doubtful states, Woodruff was in touch with local machine
leaders of Scarborough's party, with corruptible labor and fraternal
order leaders, with every element that would for a cash price deliver a
body of voters on election day. Also he had arranged in those states for
the "right sort" of election officers at upward of five hundred polling
places, at least half of them places where several hundred votes could
be shifted without danger or suspicion. Also, Burbank and our corps of
"spellbinders" had succeeded beyond my hopes in rousing partizan
passion--but here again part of the credit belongs to Woodruff. Never
before had there been so many free barbecues, distributions of free
uniforms to well-financed Burbank and Howard Campaign Clubs, and
arrangings of those expensive parades in which the average citizen
delights. The wise Woodruff spent nearly one-third of my "education"
money in this way.
One morning I found him laughing over the bill for a grand Burbank rally
at Indianapolis--about thirty-five thousand dollars, as I remember the
figures.
"What amuses you?" said I.
"I was thinking what fools the people are, never to ask themselves where
all the money for these free shows comes from, and why those who give
are willing to give so much, and how they get it back. What an ass the
public is!"
"Fortunately," said I.
"For us," said he.
"And for itself," I rejoined.
"Perhaps," he admitted. "It was born to be plucked, and I suppose our
crowd does do the plucking more scientifically than less experienced
hands would."
"I prefer to put it another way," said I. "Let's say that we save it
from a worse plucking."
"That _is_ better," said Doc. For, on his way up in the world, he was
rapidly developing what could, and should, be called conscience.
I looked at him and once more had a qualm like shame before his moral
superiority to me. We were plodding along on about the same moral
level; but he had ascended to that level, while I had descended to it.
There were politicians posing as pure before the world and even in the
party's behind-the-scene, who would have sneered at Doc's "conscience."
Yet, to my notion, they, who started high and from whatever sophistry of
motive trailed down into the mire, are lower far than they who began
deep in the mire and have been struggling bravely toward the surface. I
know a man who was born in the slums, was a pickpocket at eight years of
age, was a boss at forty-five, administering justice according to his
lights. I know a man who was born what he calls a gentleman and who, at
forty-five, sold himself for the "honors" of a high office. And once,
after he had shaken hands with that boss, he looked at me, furtively
made a wry face, and wiped his hand with his pocket handkerchief!
The other part of our work of preparation--getting the Wall Street
whales in condition for the "fat-frying"--was also finished. The Wall
Street Roebuck and I adventured was in a state of quake from fear of the
election of "the scourge of God," as our subsidized socialist and
extreme radical papers had dubbed Scarborough--and what invaluable
campaign material their praise of him did make for us!
Roebuck and I went from office to office among the great of commerce,
industry and finance. We were received with politeness, deferential
politeness, everywhere. But not a penny could we get. Everywhere the
same answer: "We can not see our way to contributing just yet. But if
you will call early next week--say Monday or Tuesday--" four or five
days away--"we'll let you know what we can do." The most ardent
eagerness to placate us, to keep us in good humor; but not a cent--until
Monday or Tuesday.
When I heard "Monday or Tuesday" for the third time, my suspicions were
rousing. When I heard it for the fifth time, I understood. Wall Street
was negotiating with the other side, and would know the result by
Monday, or at the latest Tuesday.