ADMIRATION was Jeremy’s first impulse as he faced
Martin Embree. The man had so quickly and surely recovered his poise.
Serenity was in his tired smile, and the assurance that from Jeremy he
would have understanding and sympathy. To destroy that childlike and
beaming confidence was a thing smacking of brutality. Jeremy fought off
a temptation to temporize and went to the point at once.
“Why did you appoint me vice-chairman without consulting me in advance?”
The Governor’s smile became both confident and confiding. “Because
you’re the man for the place. We need you there.”
“Or because you thought it would tie my hands.”
“Tie your hands?”
“Keep The Guardian quiet.”
“The Guardian has to keep quiet, anyway. It’s the only course open to
it.”
“Is it?” said Jeremy significantly.
“Is n’t it? Reason it out for yourself. Either we’re going to get into
this war or we’re going to keep out of it.”
“We’re going to get into it.”
“I don’t believe it. But admit that we are. Until we’re in it, it’s our
business, those of us who have influence, to use it in keeping peace at
home.”
“While the Germans at home work out Germany’s plans.”
“Bosh! Germany’s real plans are to keep this nation at peace. She does
n’t want us in the war. And we certainly don’t want to get in.”
“No. We don’t want to. But we’re being forced to.”
“Wait until the real underlying public sentiment asserts itself.”
“It’s asserting itself now.”
“No, no, Jem. Jingoism always makes the loud noise. But jingoism is n’t
Americanism. The one thing America won’t do is to go into a losing war.”
“We can make it a winning war.”
“If it were truly our war, we could. But the people are n’t for it. They
never will be for it. Now look at the situation in this State, in the
light of what is coming in Europe. Germany is sure to win. This State
splits about even now between German sympathizers and the others
represented by the pro-British and those who don’t really know where
they do stand. Only, the Germans have got the solidarity and the others
are divided.”
“You’re right in that, anyway.”
“Very well. After Germany has won, it’ll be all pro-German here. That’s
our American way of it. We’re all for success. Then where will a
newspaper be that has taken the losing side?”
“Can’t you see, Martin, that we’re practically in the war now?”
“Jingo talk! If the capitalist crowd could drive us into it we’d be in
now. It’s the duty of good Americans, and particularly of every American
newspaper, to stand solid against it.”
“Is that the principle on which you appointed your State Council of
Defense?”
“Of course it is! I’ve drafted a body of men who can be trusted not
to rush us madly into this damnable mess. That’s our real, our best
possible defense--to keep at peace.”
“Very pretty sophistry! How far do you think it would go with a real
American? Harvey Rappelje, for instance?”
The Governor’s eager face darkened. “That crazy fool!” he blurted out.
“Who could have foreseen that he’d break over!”
“He did what each of us ought to have done in his turn.”
“Don’t say that, Jem!” implored the other. “I’m about beside myself over
this Rappelje business now.”
“Afraid?” Jeremy looked at him curiously.
“Of his mad-dog threat? No.”
“Yet the boys at Old Central would follow him in anything. Curious that
such a type should take hold on the youngsters’ imagination, isn’t it?
It’s the fire at the heart of him, I suppose.”
“The maggot in his brain!” returned the other fiercely. “He’s crazy
enough to try his mob scheme.”
“If he tries, he’ll carry it through.”
“Against a company of the National Guard?” said the official
contemptuously. “I could have them here in ten minutes.”
“That would mean bloodshed.”
“It’s what I dread. Some of those young idiots might be killed.”
“And their ghosts rise up between you and the senatorship,” pointed out
Jeremy. “If the charge of official murder were raised against you, it
would kill your chances. Rappelje may have figured that out, though I
would n’t suppose he’d be so keen in politics.”
Black shadows of brooding settled upon Embree’s handsome face.
“I’ll arrest that frantic fool of a professor,” he muttered. “I’ll
arrest him now. Nobody can call me a traitor!”
Jeremy made up his mind, and struck:
“Can’t they? Read to-night’s Guardian.”
“T-t-to-night’s--Wh-wh-what!” stuttered Embree. “Jem! You’re not going
back on me?”
“Going back on you! Have n’t you gone back on me? Have n’t you gone back
on the State? On the country? Did n’t you pledge yourself to appoint a
representative American Council of Defense? Where did you get your list?
By cable from Berlin?”
“What are you trying to do? Provoke a fight?” retorted the other
fiercely.
“Make you wipe out that council of Germans.”
“I won’t be bulldozed and blackmailed!” shouted Embree in the loud wrath
of a weak man cornered.
“Then it’s the lynching party and the end of you politically. We’ll have
an interview with Rappelje in this evening’s paper. He’ll talk. That
silent kind always do, once they break over.”
The Governor collapsed.
“Wait!” he pleaded. “Give me time to think.”
He walked to the window and stared out toward the east--his
Mecca--Washington. When he turned, his face was so haggard that Jeremy
felt a stab of remorse; but Embree contrived to summon the fleeting
wraith of that once bounteous smile.
“You’ve got me,” he admitted. “I’ll make another list. Wait while I
outline it.”
“No. I’ve got to go to the office.”
“Come back here in an hour, then. I’ll have it ready.” The hour Jeremy
put in in outlining to Galpin and Verrall the probable new course of the
paper. Galpin was grimly pleased.
“I knew we’d have to quit him.”
“It’s the end of the paper,” prophesied Verrall, pale and shaken.
Governor Embree was almost his normal self with almost his normal smile,
when Jeremy returned to the Capitol. His revised list was one which
needed no defense. It was preponderantly American, though with many
of the prominent German names left, it is true, and the addition of
Professor Brender and another loyal German-American. Magnus Laurens
had been substituted for Bausch as chairman. Jeremy’s name remained as
vice-chairman. “Is that good enough?” asked the Governor.
“Yes. That’s a real Council of Defense.”
“Then The Guardian will stand for it?”
“To the finish.”
Smiling Mart Embree swallowed hard and beamed anxiously upon the other.
“What about me?”
“No.” The negative was bluntly final.
“My God, Jem! What more could you ask?”
“A leader who can be trusted to be American.”
“This is the parting of the ways, then?”
“The finish.” Something in Jeremy’s throat was hurting him so that
he could hardly speak. And he could not, for anything, look at Martin
Embree. Then Embree made it easier for him.
“And after all the years I’ve stood by you!” he cried angrily. “You
turncoat! You don’t know what loyalty is!”
“I’ve got pretty definite notions as to disloyalty.” Embree seized a pen
and crossed Jeremy’s name off the revised list, with a pen that ripped
through the paper.
“All right,” said the victim evenly. “Who goes in as vice-chairman?”
“That’s for me to say.”
“You’re still expecting The Guardian to support the council?”
Embree’s throat contracted with impotent fury. “I’ll put in Clarence
Ensign.”
An impulse of pity rose within the other. “You can’t do anything with
The Record crowd, Martin,” he said. “How can they play your game? I
don’t suppose you’re going back on your corporation policies.”
“No, I’m not. But you--”
“Not a bit of it. We’ll be with you on that.”
“With me, after you’ve stuck a knife in me!” The conviction of having
suffered unmerited wrong, ever at call in an egoist’s soul, surged to
Embree’s pale lips. “You’ve sold out to the corporation gang. That’s
what you’ve done,” he accused. “You’ve sold me out.”
The bitter and withered face of the man who had been his friend
oppressed Jeremy with a sense of tragedy.
“Good-bye, Mart,” he said. “I’m sorry it--it had to be this way.”
“You have cause. You’ll be sorrier.” The smile was a little crooked
now, with a hint of fangs at the corner. “I’m a poor forgetter, Robson.
Particularly when it’s my friends who betray me,” he added, calling out
the last words after the departing visitor.
So there was no interview with Professor Rappelje in that evening’s
paper. Nor did any account of the vivacious proceedings of the
conference appear. These the editor of The Guardian deemed to be
confidential. Nevertheless, there was no dearth of interesting matter in
that issue. The announcement of the State Council of Defense personnel
stirred up hearty approval among a large element and grievous surprise
and wrath in other quarters. Further to enrage the aggrieved Germans,
The Guardian’s clear challenge, “Under Which Flag?” retrieved at the
last moment from the hook and double-leaded for emphasis, set the two
ends of the hyphen to bristling mutually, and surcharged the air with
more electricity than it could comfortably contain.
In its next issue, The Guardian sprang another sensation by formally
forswearing its support of Governor Embree. Its leader for the day,
under the heading “He Who is Not For Us is Against Us,” established
a local and definitive test of Americanism, and declared all other
questions and issues subordinate to the critical interests of the Nation
as a whole. The Guardian would remain steadfast to the internal policies
and reforms which Governor Embree had instituted. It could not and
would not support him for the United States Senate, believing, as it
must, that to elect him would be to place a putative enemy agent in that
body.
Martin Embree answered through the columns of The Record. The slanderous
assertions of The Guardian, he stated, would later be cited for proof
before the courts. The Record gave him two mildly supporting editorials,
but did nothing to indicate an alliance. Thus Embree was forced to enter
the crucial campaign of his political career without local editorial
support. At the same time The Bellair Journal quit him.
The greater necessity that he should keep himself before the public in
the news. His projected libel suit against The Guardian would be one
method. After considerable delay the suit was filed.
But here again the unlucky politician missed fire. Nobody paid much
heed to his libel action. For, on the day when it was instituted,
the patience of a long-enduring President and people broke and the
Government of the United States of America bared the sword between the
flag and its insulters overseas.