Vassar plunged next day into his fight. Waldron had moved rapidly. His
opponents had already nominated an Independent Democrat of foreign
birth, a Bohemian of ability, whom he knew to be a man of ambition and
good address.
The women had begun a house to house canvass of voters and the number of
fairy-tales they had started for the purpose of undermining his position
and influence was a startling revelation of their skill in the art of
lying.
Virginia Holland was booked for a canvass of each election district the
last week in October. He knew what that meant. Waldron had held his
trump card for the supreme moment.
The depths of vituperation, mendacity and open corruption to which the
campaign descended on the part of his opponents was another revelation
to Vassar of woman’s adaptability to practical methods. Never since the
days of Tweed’s régime had the East Side seen anything that approached
it.
He steadfastly refused to lower his standard to their level. That
Virginia Holland knew the methods which Waldron had adopted was
inconceivable. Vassar watched the approach of her canvass with
indifference. If his people were weak enough to fall for Waldron and his
crowd of hirelings, he had no desire longer to represent the district.
He ceased to worry about results. He foresaw that his majority would be
reduced. He decided to let it go at that.
The gulf which separated him now from the woman he loved was apparently
too deep to be bridged. On the last night of the canvass he slipped into
the meeting at which she spoke just to hear her voice again. He half
hoped that she might say something so false and provoking about his
record that he might hate her for it. Her address was one of lofty and
pure appeal for the redemption of humanity through the trained spiritual
power of womanhood. She even expressed her regret at the necessity of
opposing a man of the type of John Vassar.
A hundred of Vassar’s partisans were present and burst into a fierce
round of applause at the mention of his name. He watched the effect with
breathless interest. The cheers were utterly unexpected on the part of
the speaker, and threw her for the moment off her balance. She blushed
and smiled and hesitated, fumbling for words.
Vassar’s heart was pounding like a trip hammer. He could have taken the
boys in his arms and carried them through the streets for that cheer. No
one knew of his presence. He had slipped into a back seat in the gallery
unrecognized in the dim light.
Why had she blushed when they cheered his name? The crowd, of course,
could not know of the secret between them. Would she have blushed from
the mere confusion of mind which the hostile sentiment of her hearers
had provoked? It was possible. And yet the faintest hope thrilled his
heart that she cared for him. He had played the fool to lose his head
that day. He realized it now. Such a woman could not be taken by storm.
Every instinct of pride and intellectual dignity had resented it.
He went home happy over the incident with the memory of her scarlet
cheeks and the sweet seriousness of her voice filling his soul. His
managers brought glowing reports of the situation in his district. It
didn’t matter if he had a chance to win Virginia.
The results proved that his guess of a reduced majority was correct. He
barely pulled through by the skin of his teeth. His margin was a paltry
seven hundred and fifty. At the election two years before it had been
more than six thousand.
When Congress met in December he was confronted with a situation unique
in the history of the Republic. A lobby had gathered in Washington so
distinguished in personnel, so great in numbers, so aggressive in its
purpose to control legislation, that the national representatives were
afraid of their shadows.
The avowed aim of this vast gathering was the defeat of his bill for the
adequate defense of the nation. The outlines of his measures had been
published and had the unanimous backing of the Army and Navy Boards, the
National Security League and all the leaders of the great political
parties.
Both of our ex-Presidents, Roosevelt and Taft, had endorsed it and asked
for its adoption. It was known that the President and his Cabinet
approved its main features. And yet its chances of adoption were
considered extremely doubtful.
The lobby, which had swarmed into Washington, overran its hotels, and
camped in the corridors of the Capitol, was composed of a class of men
and women who had never before ventured on such a mission. What they
lacked of experience they made up in aggressive insolence--an insolence
so cocksure of itself that a Congressman rarely ventured from the floor
of the Chamber if he could avoid it.
The leaders of the movement were apparently acting under the orders of
the Reverend A. Cuthbert Pike, President of the Peace Union. Vassar was
amazed to find that this Union was composed of more than six hundred
chartered peace societies. He had supposed that there might be half a
dozen such associations in the country. To be suddenly confronted by
five thousand delegates representing six hundred organizations was the
shock of his political life. But one society alone, the National
Security League, was there to preach the necessity of insurance against
war by an adequate defense.
Against this lone organization were arrayed in a single group the five
thousand delegates from the six hundred peace societies. They demanded
the defeat of any bill to increase our armaments in any way, shape or
form. Their aim was the ultimate complete disarmament of every fort and
the destruction of our navy.
In co-operation with this host of five thousand fanatics stood the
Honorable Plato Barker with a personal following in the membership of
Congress as amazing as it was dangerous to the future of the Republic.
The admirers of the silver-tongued orator labored under the conviction
that their leader had been inspired of God to guide the destinies of
America. They believed this with the faith of children. For sixteen
years they had accepted his leadership without question and his word was
the law of their life.
Barker was opposed to the launching of another ship of war, or the
mounting of another gun for defense. He was the uncompromising champion
of moral suasion as the solution of all international troubles. He
believed that an eruption of Mount Vesuvius could be soothed by a
poultice and cured permanently by an agreement for arbitration. He
preached this doctrine in season and out of season. The more seriously
out of season the occasion, the louder he preached it.
That he would have a following in Congress was early developed in the
session. Barker was not only on the ground daily; his headquarters had
been supplied with unlimited money for an active propaganda and his
office was thronged by delegates from his mass meetings called in every
state of the Union.
The Socialists had once more swamped the American labor unions with
their missionaries and the labor federations were arrayed solidly
against an increase of our army or navy.
But by far the most serious group of opponents by whom Vassar was
confronted were the United Women Voters of America, marshalled under the
leadership of the brilliant young Joan of Arc of the Federated Clubs.
In the peculiar alignment of factions produced by the crisis of the
world war the women voters held the balance of power. They practically
controlled the Western states while the fear of their influence
dominated the Middle West and seriously shaped public opinion in the
East. Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York had defeated the amendments
for woman’s suffrage, yet the vote polled by their advocates had been so
large the defeat was practically a triumph of their principles.
A convention of five hundred delegates, representatives of the women
voters, had been called to decide on the casting of the votes of their
senators and representatives. That their orders would be obeyed was a
foregone conclusion. To refuse meant political suicide.
The thing which puzzled Vassar beyond measure was the mysterious
unifying power somewhere in the shadows. The hand of this unseen master
of ceremonies had brought these strangely incongruous forces together in
a harmony so perfect that they spoke and wrote and campaigned as one
man. Behind this master hand there was a single master mind tremendous
in grip, baffling, inscrutable, always alert, always there. That Waldron
was this mysterious force he suspected from the first. On the day he
was booked to make the final address in closing the debate on his bill,
the banker boldly appeared in the open as the responsible leader of the
movement for the defeat of national defense.
Vassar, with a sense of sickening rage, saw him in conference with
Virginia Holland and her executive committee. They held their little
preliminary caucus at the door of the House of Representatives, as if to
insult him with a notice of coming defeat. The young leader knew that if
there were yet a man in the House who could be reached by money, Waldron
would find him. And he knew that there were some who had their price.
The influence of such a man in a free democracy was to Vassar a cause of
constant grief and wonder. That he despised the principles of a
democratic government he scarcely took the trouble to conceal. His pose
was for higher ends than party gains or even the selfish glory of
nation. He was large, his vision world-wide. He pleaded always for the
advancement of humanity. His following was numerous and eminently
respectable. Vassar had never for one moment believed in Waldron’s
adherence to the principles of American democracy. That he would form a
monarchy if given the chance was a certainty. One of his hobbies was the
criminal extravagance and inefficiency of our state and municipal
governments as compared to the imperial kingdoms of the Old World. In
season and out of season he proclaimed the superiority of centralized
power over the ignorant, slipshod ways of the Republic. The Emperor of
Germany and the German ways of ruling were his models.
To accuse Waldron of a conspiracy with the crowned heads of the Old
World would be received with scornful incredulity. And yet there were
moments in his brooding and thinking when Vassar felt that that was the
only rational solution of the man’s life and character. That he was the
personal friend of three crowned heads was well known. That he was in
constant consultation with the ambassadors of a dozen European nations
was also well known. The explanation of this fact, however, was so
simple and plausible that no suspicion of treachery would find credence
in America. His bank had branch establishments in London, Paris, Berlin,
Petrograd, Vienna, Constantinople and Rome.
And yet, why in God’s name, Vassar kept asking himself, should all these
peace societies and all these labor organizations and all these women’s
clubs move heaven and earth in unison to kill this one measure of
defense, and leave our nation at the mercy of any first-class European
power? Their sentimental leanings were against arms and armaments--of
course. But who set them all barking at the same moment? Who had kept
them at it in chorus continuously from the first throb of the patriotic
impulse to put ourselves in readiness to defend our life? Who had held
them together in this fierce and determined assault on the Capitol to
arouse and threaten Congress? No such movement could be caused by
spontaneous combustion. Such an agitation against patriotic defense
could not happen by accident. The world war could not have caused it.
The great war should have been the one influence to have had precisely
the opposite effect. The world war should have spoken to us in thunder
tones:
“Remember Belgium! Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty!”
Instead of this, the advocates of peace suddenly rose as a swarm of
locusts to tell us that, as umbrellas cause rain so guns cause war, and
the only way to save ourselves in a world of snarling, maddened wild
beasts is to lay down our arms and appeal to their reason! This strange
crusade to make the richest nation of the world defenseless was no
accident. The movement was sinister. Vassar felt this on the last day of
his struggle in the House with increased foreboding.
He rose to deliver his final appeal with quivering heart. His eye rested
on Waldron’s stolid, sneering face in the gallery. On his right sat
Barker, on his left Virginia Holland.
Every seat on the floor and in the galleries was packed. Every foot of
standing room above and below was crowded. A solemn hush fell on the
throng as the young leader of the House rose.
He began his address in low tones of intense emotion:
“Mr. Speaker, I rise to give to this House my solemn warning that on the
fate of this bill for the defense of the nation hangs our destiny. I’ve
done my work. I’ve fought a good fight. The decision is in your hands. A
few things I would repeat until they ring their alarm in every soul
within the sound of my voice today.
“I tell you with the certainty of positive knowledge that while we are
the richest nation of the known world we are the least prepared to
defend ourselves under the conditions of modern war. Our navy is
good--what there is of it. But if it is inadequate, it is of no value
whatever. I tell you that it is inadequate and my statement is backed by
every expert in the service. If we were attacked tomorrow by any nation
of Germany’s sea power our ships would sink to their graves, our men to
certain death.
“No braver men walk this earth than ours. They are ready to die for
their country. We have no right to murder them for this reason. If they
die, it should be to some purpose. We should give them the best weapons
on earth and the best training. They have the right to a fair chance
with any foe they face. We have a mobile army of thirty thousand men
with which to defend a hemisphere! We assert our guardianship of all
America. It is known to all men that a modern army of one hundred and
fifty thousand landed on our shores could complete the conquest of the
Atlantic seaboard in twelve days.
“Our friends who clamor for peace in a world at war tell us that an
attack on our nation is a possibility too remote for discussion. The
same men in June, 1914, declared that war in Europe was a physical and
psychological impossibility. Now they tell us with equal solemnity that
this war, which they declared could never be, is so appalling that it
will be the last. They tell us that the world will now disarm and _we
must lead the way_!
“If the world disarms, Europe must lead the way. We are already
practically disarmed.
“Who in Europe will dare to lead in such a movement!
“Will Germany disarm?
“Will she at this late hour surrender her ambitions to expand? Will she
sign the death warrant to the aspirations of the men who created her
mighty Empire? Will she expose her eastern frontier to the raids of
Cossack hordes?
“Could Russia disarm?
“Would she consent to risk the dismemberment of her vast domain?
“Could England with her empire on which the sun does not set--could
England disarm and lay her centers of civilization open to the attack of
black and yellow millions?
“To ask the question is to answer it.
“The disarmament of the modern world is the dream of an unbalanced mind.
“Take any group of nations. If the Allies win, would Germany and
Austria-Hungary agree to disarm? If they should ever tear the German
Empire into pieces could they stamp out the fighting soul of the
Germanic race?
“If Germany and Austria-Hungary win, can England, France, Italy, and
Russia disarm before the menace of world dominion?
“Do you believe that out of the vast horror of this war a compact of
international peace may be signed by all nations?
“Let us remind you that the heart of Europe is aristocratic and
imperial. Their rulers hate democracy as the devil hates holy water. The
lion and the lamb cannot yet lie down together--except the lamb be
inside the lion.
“This nation is the butt of ridicule, jibes, caricatures and coarse
jests of the aristocrats of the Old World. Our government and our people
are cordially loathed.
“International peace can rest only on international democracy. The great
war has brought us face to face with grim realities. We must see the
thing that is--not the thing our fancy says ought to be.
“Belgium has taught us that the only scrap of paper we can be sure of is
one backed by millions of stout hearts with guns in their hands,
aeroplanes above their heads, ships under the seas and afloat and big
black steel eyes high on their shores bent seaward.
“Men of America! I call you from your sleep of fancied safety! The might
of kings is knocking at your doors demanding that you give a reason for
your existence! If you are worthy to live you will prove it by defending
your homes and your flag. If you are not worth saving, your masters will
make your children their servants.
“The fate of a nation is in your hands. The sea is no more. The world
has become a whispering gallery. And such a world cannot remain half
slave and half free. It is for you to decide whether your half shall
sink again into the abyss of centuries of human martyrdom and human
tyranny.
“I warn you that the fight between autocracy and democracy has just
begun. Poland attempted to establish a free commonwealth in Central
Europe. She was ground to powder between imperial powers. The one big
issue in this world today is the might of kings against the liberties of
the people. Never before in human history has imperial power been so
firmly entrenched. And the rulers of Europe know that sooner or later
they must crush American democracy or be crushed by its reflex
influence.”
Vassar ceased to speak and resumed his seat amid a silence that was
painful. His eloquence had swept the House with tremendous force. So
intense was the spell that a demonstration of any kind was impossible. A
murmur of relief rippled the crowd and the hum of whispered comment at
last broke the tension.
Waldron’s keen cold eye had seen the effect of the young leader’s
appeal. He lost no time in taking measures to neutralize its influence.