The Conflict [66]
time. But they thought us hardly worth bothering with. In the future we will have to fight.''
``I hope they will prosecute us,'' said Selma. ``Then, we'll grow the faster.''
``Not if they do it intelligently,'' replied Victor. ``An intelligent persecution--if it's relentless enough --always succeeds. You forget that this isn't a world of moral ideas but of force. . . . I am afraid of Dick Kelly. He is something more than a vulgar boss. He SEES. My hope is that he won't be able to make the others see. I saw him a while ago. He was extremely polite to me--more so than he ever has been before. He is up to something. I suspect----''
Victor paused, reflecting. ``What?'' asked Selma eagerly.
``I suspect that he thinks he has us.'' He rose, preparing to go out. ``Well--if he has--why, he has. And we shall have to begin all over again.''
``How stupid they are!'' exclaimed the girl. ``To fight us who are simply trying to bring about peaceably and sensibly what's bound to come about anyhow.''
``Yes--the rain is bound to come,'' said Victor. ``And we say, `Here's an umbrella and there's the way to shelter.' And they laugh at OUR umbrella and, with the first drops plashing on their foolish faces, deny that it's going to rain.''
The Workingmen's League, always first in the field with its ticket, had been unusually early that year. Although it was only the first week in August and the election would not be until the third of October, the League had nominated. It was a ticket made up entirely of skilled workers who had lived all their lives in Remsen City and who had acquired an independence-- Victor Dorn was careful not to expose to the falling fire of the opposition any of his men who could be ruined by the loss of a job or could be compelled to leave town in search of work. The League always went early into campaign because it pursued a much slower and less expensive method of electioneering than either of the old parties--or than any of the ``upper class'' reform parties that sprang up from time to time and died away as they accomplished or failed of their purpose--securing recognition for certain personal ambitions not agreeable to the old established bosses. Besides, the League was, like the bosses and their henchmen, in politics every day in every year. The League theory was that politics was as much a part of a citizen's daily routine as his other work or his meals.
It was the night of the League's great ratification meeting. The next day the first campaign number-- containing the biographical sketch of Tony Rivers, Kelly's right-hand man . . . would go upon the press, and on the following day it would reach the public.
Market Square in Remsen City was on the edge of the power quarter, was surrounded by cheap hotels, boarding houses and saloons. A few years before, the most notable citizens, market basket on arm, could have been seen three mornings in the week, making the rounds of the stalls and stands, both those in the open and those within the Market House. But customs had rapidly changed in Remsen City, and with the exception of a few old fogies only the poorer classes went to market. The masters of houses were becoming gentlemen, and the housewives were elevating into ladies--and it goes without saying that no gentleman and no lady would descend to a menial task even in private, much less in public.
Market Square had even become too common for any but the inferior meetings of the two leading political parties. Only the Workingmen's League held to the old tradition that a political meeting of the first rank could be properly held nowhere but in the natural assembling place of the people--their market. So, their first great rally of the campaign was billed for Market Square. And at eight o'clock, headed by a large and vigorous drum corps, the Victor Dorn cohorts at their full strength marched into the centre of the Square, where one of the stands had been transformed with flags, bunting and torches into a speaker's platform. A crowd of many thousands accompanied
``I hope they will prosecute us,'' said Selma. ``Then, we'll grow the faster.''
``Not if they do it intelligently,'' replied Victor. ``An intelligent persecution--if it's relentless enough --always succeeds. You forget that this isn't a world of moral ideas but of force. . . . I am afraid of Dick Kelly. He is something more than a vulgar boss. He SEES. My hope is that he won't be able to make the others see. I saw him a while ago. He was extremely polite to me--more so than he ever has been before. He is up to something. I suspect----''
Victor paused, reflecting. ``What?'' asked Selma eagerly.
``I suspect that he thinks he has us.'' He rose, preparing to go out. ``Well--if he has--why, he has. And we shall have to begin all over again.''
``How stupid they are!'' exclaimed the girl. ``To fight us who are simply trying to bring about peaceably and sensibly what's bound to come about anyhow.''
``Yes--the rain is bound to come,'' said Victor. ``And we say, `Here's an umbrella and there's the way to shelter.' And they laugh at OUR umbrella and, with the first drops plashing on their foolish faces, deny that it's going to rain.''
The Workingmen's League, always first in the field with its ticket, had been unusually early that year. Although it was only the first week in August and the election would not be until the third of October, the League had nominated. It was a ticket made up entirely of skilled workers who had lived all their lives in Remsen City and who had acquired an independence-- Victor Dorn was careful not to expose to the falling fire of the opposition any of his men who could be ruined by the loss of a job or could be compelled to leave town in search of work. The League always went early into campaign because it pursued a much slower and less expensive method of electioneering than either of the old parties--or than any of the ``upper class'' reform parties that sprang up from time to time and died away as they accomplished or failed of their purpose--securing recognition for certain personal ambitions not agreeable to the old established bosses. Besides, the League was, like the bosses and their henchmen, in politics every day in every year. The League theory was that politics was as much a part of a citizen's daily routine as his other work or his meals.
It was the night of the League's great ratification meeting. The next day the first campaign number-- containing the biographical sketch of Tony Rivers, Kelly's right-hand man . . . would go upon the press, and on the following day it would reach the public.
Market Square in Remsen City was on the edge of the power quarter, was surrounded by cheap hotels, boarding houses and saloons. A few years before, the most notable citizens, market basket on arm, could have been seen three mornings in the week, making the rounds of the stalls and stands, both those in the open and those within the Market House. But customs had rapidly changed in Remsen City, and with the exception of a few old fogies only the poorer classes went to market. The masters of houses were becoming gentlemen, and the housewives were elevating into ladies--and it goes without saying that no gentleman and no lady would descend to a menial task even in private, much less in public.
Market Square had even become too common for any but the inferior meetings of the two leading political parties. Only the Workingmen's League held to the old tradition that a political meeting of the first rank could be properly held nowhere but in the natural assembling place of the people--their market. So, their first great rally of the campaign was billed for Market Square. And at eight o'clock, headed by a large and vigorous drum corps, the Victor Dorn cohorts at their full strength marched into the centre of the Square, where one of the stands had been transformed with flags, bunting and torches into a speaker's platform. A crowd of many thousands accompanied