The dinner at Allison's the night of his return from the long journey
was not a success. It was to be an entirely informal affair,--no guests
present but a high official of the road in which the host was so heavily
interested, and Mr. Forrest, whom Miss Allison had invited on her own
account. The brother magnate came, and Mr. Forrest did not. True, his
acceptance had been conditioned on his being able to finish certain
papers, which, so he told both Florence and her father, would be
required at the office early the next day. Mr. Elmendorf came hurrying
in and went up to his room about half-past six, and fifteen minutes
later came a messenger with a note which was taken at once to Miss
Allison's room. She was dressed for dinner and ready to come down, but
she took it and read it hurriedly, uttered an exclamation of
disappointment, and sharply closed her door. Not until Mr. Allison sent
for her with the information that dinner was on the table did she
appear. Elmendorf eyed her covertly, and Aunt Lawrence sharply. There
were unmistakable traces of tears. "Did he say why he couldn't come?"
asked Mrs. Lawrence, presently.
"Yes--no--at least--he had told me before that he thought it might be
impossible," answered Florence, in embarrassment and annoyance. Her
father was laying down the law on Interstate Commerce to his guest at
the moment, and it was a subject on which he never tired. Even while
listening intently, watching for his chance to "chip in," as Cary said,
Elmendorf caught Miss Allison's every word. What he had not yet been
enlightened upon was the explanation of Forrest's return with the party.
All he knew was that early on the previous day the general, with two of
his aides and Mr. Forrest, boarded the train in Southern Kansas. Allison
invited them all into the private car and proposed making them his
guests on the homeward run. The chief declined for himself and staff,
saying that they had other matters to detain them, but it transpired
that Mr. Forrest was to go right on. He had his berth engaged in an
adjoining sleeper, but spent several hours with the railway party, and
on their arrival in Chicago the Allisons had insisted on his taking a
seat in their carriage. Allison himself was dropped at his club,
Florence in turn left Mr. Forrest at his lodgings, and then was driven
home. This was actually all Elmendorf had been able to learn.
But here was basis enough for all manner of theory and conjecture, none
of them to Forrest's advantage, and Elmendorf felt that the more he
could make of them the better for his own cause and the worse for
Forrest. There had been an intangible something in Allison's manner to
warn the tutor that just so soon as the guests were out of the way he
might look out for squalls. Allison had greeted him with utter absence
of cordiality, and Elmendorf felt that his employer was even more
displeased with him than when he went away. Under such circumstances a
wise man would have avoided saying or doing anything to augment the
feeling against him, but Elmendorf, except in his own conceit, was far
from wise, and his propensity for putting his foot in it was phenomenal.
Allison loved his post-prandial cigar,--it agreed with him,--and so did
his guest. The ladies withdrew quite early, Cary slipped away, and
Elmendorf should have slipped after him, but here were two great men of
the railway world, the natural oppressors of the masses, the very type
of the creatures he delighted in describing upon the platform as
"bloated bond-holders;" their conversation could hardly fail to be of
interest to him, and he remained. Warming up to their work, they were
discussing the situation at Pullman and its probable effect upon the
employees of the roads centring in Chicago. That their views should be
radically opposed to those of their absorbed listener was of course to
be expected, and Elmendorf was fidgeting furiously upon his chair,
every now and then striving to interject a sentence and claim the floor,
but Allison knew his man, and knew that once started, Elmendorf could
not well be suppressed. Every attempt on the part of the tutor to
interpose, therefore, was met by uplifted and warning hand and prompt
"Permit me" or "Permit Mr. Sloan to finish, if you please," which was
galling in the last degree. Elmendorf had planned to have a conciliatory
word or two with Miss Allison, with whom he knew himself to have been in
grave disfavor ever since the occasion of his presuming to tender advice
and remonstrance on the score of Mr. Forrest, but she had escaped to her
own room again immediately after quitting the table. Her manner towards
him showed that she had neither forgiven nor forgotten the impertinence,
and that was additional reason why he should have done nothing more, in
that household at least, to add to the array of his offences. But
presently the opportunity came, and he could not resist. The Interstate
Commerce Law was again under discussion. Allison had always fiercely
opposed it, declaring it to be an utterly unconstitutional and
unwarrantable interference with the rights of corporations and
individuals. Mr. Sloan was rather more conservative. He was contending
that, despite its restrictions upon certain railway companies, the
appointment of the Commission had resulted in much that was beneficial
to most parties concerned.
Allison burst forth impetuously: "Why, Sloan, look at the thing! It is
direct and absolute usurpation on the part of the general government of
the functions of the State. Here's a road running from Chicago to Cairo,
for instance. Its traffic is entirely within the State; its offices,
road-bed, and rolling-stock--everything concerning it, in fact--within
the limits of the State; and yet, just because it delivers freight and
passengers over on the Kentucky shore, here comes the general government
formulating laws for its control, which should be the province of the
State and of the State only. If we've got to be trammelled by
legislation, let it be at the hands of our own legislators---- Eh,
what?" he asked, breaking suddenly off to acknowledge the presence of
the butler standing solemnly beside him with a card on the salver.
Allison took the card mechanically, glanced at the name, and, even as he
was saying, "Oh, show him in here. Send this up to Miss Florence,"
Elmendorf had seized his opportunity and "chipped in."
"Yes, but, my dear sir," he began, in his eager, nerve-racking, whining
tone, "is there not inconsistency here? Can you deny that when the
legislature, not only of this, but of neighboring States, essayed to
enact laws on these very subjects, your attorneys were promptly on the
ground to argue against it and to declare that only Congress had the
power under the Constitution to regulate commerce between the States?
Can you deny that at the meeting of managers and business-men here one
of the most prominent of your number declared that you objected to any
and all legislation? Can you deny that when Congress did take the matter
up your attorneys were just as promptly in Washington, proclaiming that
any attempt to legislate in your affairs was a violation of the rights
of the sovereign States? Can you deny, in fine, that when the whole
subject was under discussion here a second time, one of your most
eminent _confrères_ put himself on record as saying that, while he was
opposed to any legislation, of two evils he preferred to choose the less,
and if any legislators were to meddle with the affairs of the roads, better
let it be the State Solons, who were far more--well--approachable and ready
to listen to--let us say--reason? Can you deny that----" But here Elmendorf
found himself without listeners. The odd point in it all was that very much
that he said was true; and Allison was reddening with wrath, and Sloan
chuckling with suppressed merriment, when the entrance of a tall,
brown-eyed, brown-moustached man in evening dress gave both opportunity
to escape the deluge.
"Forrest at last!" exclaimed the host, turning and seizing his hand. "So
sorry you were detained, lad; but sit you down, sit you down, and let me
ring for some dinner for you. No? Had a bite? All right. Take a chair
and some wine. Sloan and I were whacking away at the old bone."
"Yes, Allison, and here's a Federal officer who won't agree with you for
a moment."
With a dissatisfied shake of his head, Elmendorf had arisen as though to
pull his chair nearer the end of the table and resume his attack, but
Allison had purposely turned his back squarely upon him and was drawing
Forrest to the very place the tutor had hoped to occupy. Sloan arose and
cordially shook hands with the new-comer, who then for the first time,
apparently, caught sight of Elmendorf. The latter had started as though
to come forward, but something in Forrest's eyes restrained him. The
lieutenant simply bowed, and said, very coldly, "Good-evening," but did
not even mention the tutor by name.
"Now, Mr. Forrest," began Mr. Sloan, with much heartiness of manner, "I
want you to say to Allison here just what you said to me. He's a trifle
hot-headed to-night. He thinks the government has been paternalizing at
our expense, and that only harm will come from it."
Forrest looked from one to the other a moment, a quiet smile upon his
lips. All the previous afternoon as they trundled along in the cosy
private car had these gentlemen been disputing over the same thing, and
late in the evening, as Mr. Sloan and Forrest were enjoying a cigar
together, they, too, had had a chat upon the subject, and Sloan had
turned and looked upon the officer in some surprise. In common with
most of his class, the man of wealth and worldly wisdom had regarded the
_genus_ regular officer as a something impressive, possibly, on parade,
useful probably on the frontier, but out of place anywhere else. That he
should have read or studied anything beyond drill and dime novels was
not to be expected. The magnates had even had their modest game of draw
poker at a late hour and laughingly referred some mooted question to
Forrest as a probable expert, and were astonished to hear that he had
never played, not so much because he disapproved of it as because he had
never had time. Allison had already found out that Forrest was a student
and a thinker, but up to that evening he was the only man of the party
who believed that the average officer had any other use for time than to
kill it. Whatever it was that Mr. Forrest might have said to Mr. Sloan,
it was evident he did not care to repeat it now.
"I would rather not reopen the matter," said he. "Possibly I had no
right to forecast the action of the government, even speculatively, in a
contingency that may not arise."
Elmendorf planted his chair and lighted a cigarette, throwing himself
down with an air as much as to say, "Well, I've got to be bored and must
be resigned to it, since they won't listen to a man of intelligence;"
and Allison, with blacker gloom in his eyes, looked squarely at him as
he began to speak:
"Sloan, you're not even sipping your wine; Forrest, you never seem to
indulge. Suppose we three adjourn to my den, where the books are right
at hand. Mr. Elmendorf has his duties and will excuse us."
If he had struck him, the master of the house could not more have stung
his employee. Even Forrest, who by this time had many reasons of his own
for bringing Elmendorf to book, tingled with something like sympathy at
a slight so marked. There were so many other and better ways of letting
Elmendorf know that in the coming conference his presence could be
dispensed with, that Sloan spoke of it the moment they reached the
library; but Allison was imperious and positive. "You don't begin to
know the man," said he. "Anything less than unmistakable prohibition he
would consider as invitation, and he'd turn our talk into a lecture on
the relations of capital to labor. You saw how he got in the instant I
stopped a moment, Sloan."
"Faith and I did," said Sloan, laughing, "and he hit you fellows in the
ribs. Why, where'd he find it all out?"
"I'm blessed if I know, unless it was from the newspaper men. They get
hold of almost everything,--wrong side foremost, as a rule, but they get
it. Now I heard something of your talk last night. Brooks was speaking
of it. He looks upon the Interstate Bill just as I do. What do you mean
by saying it might prove our salvation?" he asked, abruptly, turning to
Forrest.
"I was simply supposing a case," said Forrest, calmly. "Say that the
Granger element in one State, the Populists in another, the Socialists
in a third, were to obtain control of the legislature and elect their
own governor. You say they are utterly antagonistic to the railways;
that in the event of a general strike, mob violence, etc., they would
refuse you help or protection; that as common carriers you would be
powerless to carry out your contracts, and that not only passenger and
freight traffic would be blocked, but the government mails. Now, prior
to February, '87, the general government, as I understand it, had left
the management of the railways to the States. It had neither formulated
laws for their control nor adopted measures for their protection. In the
great railway riots of '77, when the police and militia were whipped and
cowed by the mobs, such States as Pennsylvania and Illinois begged for
government aid and got it. Our troops were called in from the Rocky
Mountains to Chicago, and from Louisiana to Pittsburg. In the riots at
Buffalo, three years ago, New York's fine National Guard, and in those
at Homestead the Pennsylvania division, were sufficient to put an end to
the mischief, and neither State had to ask for help; but here lies
within your limits far greater possibility for riot and bloodshed than
can be found elsewhere in the Union, and suppose that to pander to the
masses here, as he has done in pardoning the Anarchists, your governor
should deny you protection and permit assault, riot, and violence
whenever you attempted to move engines or trains. It is my belief that
you can now look where you could not before the passage of that
Interstate Commerce Bill in '870 for the protection denied you at home.
When the Congress of the United States enacted that 'every common
carrier should, according to their respective powers, afford all
reasonable, proper, and equal facilities for the interchange of traffic
between their respective lines,'--I am quoting now,--'and for receiving,
forwarding, and delivery of passengers and property to and from their
several lines,' the supreme power of the land asserted its right to
assume control over all roads except those doing business exclusively
within the limits of some one State; and when the general government
says to a common carrier that it must do this or must not do that, it
means that the general government will back it in carrying out its
orders; and whether it be mails, passengers, live stock, perishable
goods, time freight or construction trains, the railway companies can
now look to the United States for protection, whether any individual
State likes it or not. You have abused that law as a menace to your
rights as a business-man, Mr. Allison. You may live to bless it as all
that stood between you and anarchy."
Forrest had spoken in a quiet, conversational tone, noting that Allison
had closely eyed the heavy folds of the portière, and once, stepping
quickly thither, had drawn it aside and glanced about him; but the tutor
had vanished, if that was what he was looking for. When Forrest stopped,
Sloan turned to his friend with a merry twinkle in his eyes. "How's that
for Federalist doctrine as opposed to States' rights, Allison? I expect
to hear you saying, 'Almost thou persuadest me to be a Federalist,'
before Forrest is done with you."
"Well, I certainly never looked for such an interpretation of the law.
It has only been a bother, a nuisance, a senseless trammel upon us thus
far, interfering with all our business, breaking up our long-haul and
short-haul tariffs, requiring us to account practically to the
government for every penny we charge and almost every one we expend. Do
you mean this is the way the law is looked upon at head-quarters?" he
asked, glancing keenly at the soldier.
"I have no means of knowing how the general understands it," said Mr.
Forrest, simply. "The matter may be tested before we think possible. I
understand that the condition of these poor people at Pullman is getting
worse every day, and that there is wide-spread sympathy for them among
the wage-workers everywhere; and I don't wonder at it."
"Why, they've only themselves to blame, Forrest. They seem to have done
no laying up for a rainy day. They had good homes and good wages so
long as business boomed, and they have spent just as freely as they got
the money. Now there's no business for the company, no orders for cars,
not enough to keep them going. No man can expect a company to run its
business at a loss; and yet these people kick because they can't have
the same wages they were getting when work was brisk."
"Well, now, is that strictly so, Mr. Allison? I have talked with these
people. I have been told by them, quiet, conservative, well-informed
Pullman men, that they concede that the wages must come down, and that
all hands will have to retrench awhile until better times. They are
willing to do that and stand by their company. But, on the other hand,
they think, and I think, the company owes something to them. Here are
honest, capable, intelligent fellows who have served the company fifteen
and twenty years, have reared families within its walls, occupied its
houses, and paid its rents. They may not have saved, I admit, but they
have _served_ faithfully and long and well. They have never failed in
their obligation to the company, and prompt payment of wages is not the
only duty of a corporation to its people. The company is wealthy. It is
even declaring a dividend. None of its salaries have been cut down as a
consequence of the business depression. It has simply said to its
wage-workers, 'You alone are the ones to suffer. You and your families
and your cares and troubles are nothing to us. Here's the difference
between your last month's wages and your last month's rent. Next month
there'll be no wages to speak of, but we'll expect the rent all the
same.' In my opinion, that company is losing the chance of winning the
love and gratitude of thousands of men and women whose affection is
worth a good deal more than all the money they'll ever save this way. It
would have been an easy thing to say, 'We'll bear our share of the
burden. These are hard times, and we've had to cut down your wages until
the dawning of a better day; we'll cut the rents down, too."
"Forrest, that's Utopia," said Mr. Allison.
"I admit it, but I know something of these people, Mr. Allison. The past
year perhaps has done more to open my eyes than all those which have
preceded. I have seen something of the struggles, the self-denial, the
charity, the patience, the helpfulness, of the working classes. I have
learned a feeling of respect and sympathy for those who are the workers
that is exceeded only by the contempt I feel for the drones and for
those whom they hail as their advisers."
"Like our----, for instance," said Allison, uplifting his eyes as though
to include the study aloft.
"Well, I know less of him or his speeches, perhaps, except by vague
report, than of others who are prominent. They are preaching a doctrine
that can only make matters worse for the laborer. They counsel strike,
and forcible, riotous resistance to the employment of others. It can
lead only to tumult, to rioting that brings out the criminal and the
desperate classes; outrage results, and the sympathy they might have
received goes against them. Their very worst enemies are these men who
are posing as strike-leaders."
"Well, what do you think of the prospect? Does it look like an
outbreak?" asked Mr. Sloan.
"To me, yes, for every day makes the suffering worse at Pullman, and the
company refuses to hear of arbitration. From a purely business point of
view I cannot deny their right to do so, but the very attitude assumed
by the corporation makes many of the labor-leaders' accusations true.
The company has not contracts enough for new cars to keep all hands
employed on full time and full wages, perhaps. Many of its employees are
single men, comparatively new at the business; they can afford to be
frankly told to go elsewhere in search of work; but to hold everybody
while scaling the wages of all hands, month after month, down, down
until a family man cannot pay his rent and feed his children, then the
cord breaks. Just or unjust, the impression prevails among the railway
men everywhere I have been that the Pullman Company has made vast sums,
that it is about the only company not actually losing money now, and
that it is protecting itself through a bad year by heavily taxing its
people. There have been sympathetic strikes before; what if one should
be ordered now?"
"That's the enormity of the whole business," broke in Mr. Allison. "What
I wish could be done with our hands would be to have them regularly
enlisted for the work,--so many years unless sooner discharged,--just
like the soldiers, by Jove! Then when a man quit work it would be
desertion, and when he combined with others to strike it would be
mutiny. Ah, we'd have a railway service in this country then that would
beat the world."
Forrest smiled. "Rather too much like a standing army controlled by
corporation that would be; and a standing army is a luxury the
Constitution forbids even to sovereign States. Besides, would men enlist
in such a service?"
"Well, how do _you_ get them, then? The Lord knows you treat them worse
than we do."
"The Lord might believe that if he knew nothing but what the papers
say," answered Forrest, half laughing. "But in point of fact we don't
begin to work our men as you do, and we give them far more for their
work. Another thing: our workman knows just what he is going to get from
month to month, and he signs his contract to accept such bounty, pay,
rations, etc., as may be provided by law. No corporation can scale him
down ten, twenty, thirty, or fifty per cent. when times are hard; it
takes the Congress of his country to do that; and when, as once
happened, Congress did adjourn without appropriating a cent for our pay,
the whole army stood by its obligation, because it knew the people would
stand by it next term. That, by the way, was the year you railway men
had most urgent need of its aid,--'77. But," said Forrest, suddenly
starting to his feet, "here I have been inflicting a half-hour's
monologue, and--I had hoped to see Miss Allison."
"You have fed Allison some truths that will do him good, if he can only
digest them," said Mr. Sloan, whimsically, "and put me up to some things
I'm glad to hear. Was that what took you off so hurriedly and kept you
away so long,--investigating the feeling of the railway hands all over
the West?"
"No, indeed," said Forrest, promptly. "It was a very different thing."
"By the way, Forrest, that reminds me," said Allison, with a grin on his
face, as he touched his bell to summon the butler, "you've never told us
what did take you off, and my sister has been consumed with scandal or
something about it. She began at me this afternoon. I told her to apply
to you for particulars." _Bang_ again on the bell, also "Damn that
butler! He's never around after nine o'clock. I believe he goes to
sleep."
A quick step through the drawing-room and parlor. The folds of the
portière were drawn aside, and Elmendorf stood revealed. "The butler
stepped out a moment ago, sir. I met him at the front. Can I summon any
one else for you?"
Allison's face showed added annoyance. "No. Unless--at least---- Is Miss
Florence in the parlor?"
"Miss Allison some time since, sir, begged to be excused."
"Isn't she well?" asked Allison, looking at the tutor in some amaze.
"I cannot say as to that, sir. Miss Allison was in conversation with her
aunt awhile."
"Odd," said Allison, irritably. "These women are queer. Excuse me a
moment, will you?" And, rising, he left the room.
They felt, rather than heard, that he had gone up to make his own
inquiries. His voice presently was audible, growling in his sister's
boudoir. Elmendorf had disappeared and gone they knew not whither.
"Well, it's time for me to be off," said Sloan, consulting his watch,
"yet I don't want to leave without saying good-night."
"As for me, I have to go," said Forrest, "because of an engagement."
"Oh, you can go any time, as you merely dropped in to call on the
ladies; but I dined here. Now---- Excuse me, Mr. Forrest, I've only
known you a day or two, but you've interested me, so to speak. You stick
to Allison, and you'll be of infinite use to him in case of trouble
here. He gets off his base sometimes. Stick to him, my lad, and your
fortune's made."
Ten minutes later, when John Allison, with vexation and trouble on his
brow, came down to the library, his guests were gone. A few lines on a
card explained. Each had engagements. "No wonder," said Mrs. Lawrence,
joining him presently. "I know what his engagement is, and Mr. Forrest
seemed to know what was coming."
Impatiently, irritably, the master of the house turned away. "I want to
hear no more of this. Of course, if it's true, I shall know how to act.
I'll--I'll go to the library in the morning, early."
This he did, and apparently to some purpose, for when he saw Mr. Forrest
at the club at noon he turned his back upon him and moved quickly away.
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