CHAPTER XI.
MARTHA'S PREMONITION.
Trueman remains in Chicago after the close of the Anti-Trust conference so as to be present at the National convention of the Independence party. He is one of the delegates at large to this convention, and hopes to be able to exert an influence over its deliberations, now that he has won some renown as a speaker.
In the rush of the sessions of the Anti-Trust conference he had had no time to keep his promise to Martha. Once only had he sent her a note telling her of his safe arrival in the city. It had not occurred to him that she would be anxiously awaiting a letter from him containing his views on the results of the conference. Why should a woman be interested in such matters?
It is with unbounded surprise therefore that he receives the following letter from her:
WILKES-BARRE, JUNE 13.
My Dear Friend:
It has been so long since I have heard from you that I take the initiative and write to ask you to forward to me as soon as possible, an article embodying your views on the recent Anti-Trust conference. I have a special reason for wishing this before the assembling of the Independence convention. To be frank with you, I have a premonition that you will be honored with the nomination for the Vice-presidency. Your friends in Pennsylvania, and in the other Eastern states, are working for you. I am handicapped by being a woman, yet in some ways it has proven advantageous to me.
By my peculiar intimacy with the families of this district, I became acquainted with the fact that your name is being mentioned as a possible candidate for the office. As soon as I learned this, I set to work to 'boom,' as the politicians would say, the incipient movement. Last night I was assured by O'Connor, the local leader, that you were sure of the support of the delegations of Pennsylvania and New York. For this reason I can wait no longer for a letter from you.
Let me know at once if you look favorably on the proposition
of being a candidate for the high office.
Are you a member of the Committee of Forty? And what
is this body?
As ever your friend,
MARTHA.
Here is a revelation.
Unknown to him, his friends, and especially Martha, are at work planning for his nomination as a candidate for the office of Vice-president. The idea of his achieving such a success has never entered his mind.
How can an unknown delegate hope to receive the support of the convention. It seems unreasonable, and he is on the point of writing to Martha that the effort could not help but end in a ridiculous farce, when an interruption prevents him from doing so. A card is brought to his room. It bears the simple inscription:
A FRIEND.
"Invite the person up," Trueman tells the servant.
The apartments he occupies are in a quiet boarding house on Lincoln Avenue. He has been in the house six weeks, during which time no one has ever called to see him.
A minute passes in which he ransacks his mind in an attempt to think who can have any business with him. It is half-past eight at night.
A loud rap at the door announces the visitor.
"Come in," calls Trueman.
"Good evening, Mr. Trueman." It is William Nevins who speaks.
"O, it is you, Mr. Nevins," exclaims Trueman.
"I owe you an apology," he continues, "for being surprised at seeing you; but the fact is I am a stranger in Chicago and have had no visitors. When your card came I could not imagine who could wish to see me."
"I am well aware that you are a stranger in this city," Nevins replies. "And as I am little better off I thought that I would drop in to have a chat with you."
"We were delegates at the Anti-Trust Conference and will have much to discuss," says Trueman, in his most affable manner. "I certainly am glad you thought of me. Take a seat, and make yourself as comfortable as the quarters will permit."
They seat themselves near the table. A pipe and a jar of tobacco lie on the table.
"Will you smoke?"
Nevins shakes his head negatively, saying as he does so:
"I cannot talk and smoke at the same time. To-night I want to talk.
"The fact is I have become interested in you since your speech at the close of the conference.
"You will remember it was I who suggested that the committee appointed to investigate the Trust question be increased to forty.
"When I made that motion I had an object in view. I was anxious to have you become one of the committeemen."
"Then the full committee has been appointed?" Trueman asks.
"The forty committeemen have been named. You are not among them, and the reason is that the chairman is jealous of you."
"He can have no reason to be jealous of me."
"The fact remains that he is. I strove to get him to appoint you. He flatly refused to do so. I could get no reason from him. So I concluded that he fears you would outshine him in the work that the committee contemplates doing. Your speech was masterly. I am not given to flattery. I say candidly that it was the best delivered at the conference.
"Since I failed to get you on the committee of forty, I come to see if you will aid me in a project that will make the committee superfluous; I have an idea that the trust question, monopoly and the other social problems can be speedily solved."
"You did not speak at the conference; that was the place to propound such an idea," interposes Trueman.
"Quite true. But I held my peace there, because it was not a place to bring forth the plan that I have evolved. You will agree with me if you will hear me through.
"My plan requires in the first place the services of an honest man—one who is proof against the blandishments of the Plutocrats—who will spurn the offers of gold and office that will be tendered him by the men of wealth when they perceive that he is on the eve of winning the popular support.
"Such a man is hard to find in this age of commercialism which has all but quenched the spark of true patriotism in the hearts of the people. I have sought for the ideal leader in all the States and was on the point of giving up the quest in despair when I suddenly came upon him. Once I determined that the man had been found, I set about learning his record. It appears that he is the product of evolution. From the servant of the Plutocrats he has come to be their most powerful adversary. In him the people will recognize the long-looked-for deliverer."
Here Nevins pauses for a moment to let his words sink into the mind of his interested listener.
"Mr. Trueman," he resumes, "I have decided that you are the man to lead the people out of their bondage."
"I certainly feel complimented at your estimate of my integrity," Trueman replies, "but you greatly overestimate my ability and the hold which I have upon the people.
"It was by the merest chance that I was elected to the position of delegate to the conference. I have really little influence with the men of my own State. This you must know if you have made a careful investigation."
"I know why you are not the recipient of the full support of the men of Pennsylvania. They cannot conceive of a man changing his views so thoroughly as you have. But this lack of perception they will overcome.
"I want you to assure me that you will become the leader of the Independence Party. If you do this I, in turn, will assure you of the nomination for the Presidency.
"That I am not speaking of impossibilities you will be able to understand when I show you the proof of the power I hold to elect the man I decide upon.
"If I am not mistaken, you are opposed to violence as a means of rectifying the social conditions of the people of this country."
"It has been my purpose to defeat every proposition that advised force," comes the quick response. "I am too vividly acquainted with the horrid results that follow an appeal to force.
"My hope is that the people will regain their rights by the proper exercise of the ballot.
"If they discard their all-powerful weapon to take up the sword or the torch, the end must be the destruction of popular government."
"Were you in the position of the chief executive you would follow this view? You would be as determined in suppressing violence as you were in preventing crime of any other sort? Your gratitude to the people for electing you would not blind you to your duty in preventing them from instituting a reign of anarchy? I am correct in this supposition?"
Nevins looks Trueman in the eyes with a glance that seems intent on reading his inmost thoughts.
"I should do my full duty under the constitution," Trueman declares emphatically.
"But, really," he adds, "I cannot appreciate this situation. It is inexplicable why you should interest yourself in my behalf to the extent of seeking to bring about my nomination for the Presidency."
"My reason is not hard to divine. It is not you whom I am working for; it is the people.
"In you I find the proper agent to fulfil the mission of a leader in an hour of grave importance.
"Older men lack the power of attracting the masses. Of the young men whom I have studied, none has the ability, the needed environment that you have.
"Men are creatures of circumstances only when they permit themselves to drift. If one cannot propel himself to a given haven of success he should at least anchor in a place of safety.
"With you it is only necessary that you give me the sign, and you will become the master of circumstances. You will be the man to lead the people to the plane of high civilization that their government makes it possible for them to attain."
For three hours Nevins continues to unfold in detail the plan he has for accomplishing the nomination of Trueman at the coming convention. He shows his prospective candidate letters pledging the support of a majority of the State delegations to the man whom he should designate. In explanation of his power as a leader Nevins states that he has been the secret agent of the Allied Unions for three years, that he has been deputized to select a man to be presented to the convention as a possible candidate. If the man proves acceptable the delegates representing the unions will support him.
"The Committee of Forty is working for you," he says in conclusion. "Their work will bring them in all sections of the country and they will be able to influence a great number of the people."
He gives no hint of the true mission of the committee. He knows that Trueman would repudiate the party that would resort to so drastic a means of rescuing the people.
"Have I your consent to bring about your nomination?" he asks.
"I shall have to give this matter much thought. You shall have my answer—
"To-morrow night," Nevins interjects. "Delays are dangerous. The convention meets in two weeks time."
"To-morrow night, then," assents Trueman.
Nevins leaves abruptly. He does not wish to weaken the effect he has produced on Trueman by further discussion.
When he finds himself alone Trueman walks back and forth in the cramped room. He is weighing a question that has never before been put to a man.
There is no doubt in his mind as to the sincerity of Nevins. It is clear that this strange man, who, in a matter-of-fact way, asserts that he holds the power of a great convention in his grasp, could have used it for base ends; he could have chosen a man of less inflexible character than Trueman.
"If I can bring myself to believe that it is because of my honesty that
Nevins has selected me, I shall give him my consent."
Trueman makes this mental reservation, then turns to the table and writes a long letter to Martha. He sets the matter before her, tells her he will enter politics, and asks for her advice. Regarding the Committee of Forty, he tells her all he knows, which is to the effect that it has been appointed to investigate the work of the Trusts and to make a full report at the next Anti-Trust Conference.
He then goes to his bed. It is daylight before his mind has exhausted itself. He sleeps until midday. On awakening he renews the consideration of Nevins' proposal. At eight o'clock in the evening Nevins arrives.
Where Nevins had been the one to speak the night before, Trueman now enters upon an exhaustive interrogatory. He asks for the most minute particulars of the events that have brought him to the notice of Nevins. To all his questions there is an instant reply. At the conclusion of three hours Trueman definitely makes up his mind to try for the candidacy.
"You may work for my nomination," he says, "and be assured if I am nominated I shall strive to be elected.
"If it is the will of the people to elect me I shall be faithful to the high duties of the office."
Nevins bids his protege good night, assuring him that they will keep in constant communication.
The Committee of Forty, which is in session in a hall on the outskirts of the city in the vicinity of the stock yards, is surprised when, at midnight, Nevins appears before them to announce that he has selected Harvey Trueman to be the candidate for the Presidency on the Independence ticket.