XXVII. — THE HARVEST.
Through all his scheming and shifting Howard had kept the News-Record in the main an “organ of the people.” Coulter and Stokely had on many occasions tried to persuade him to change, but he had stood out. He did not confess to them that his real reason was not his alleged principles but his cold judgment that the increases in circulation which produced increases in advertising patronage were dependent upon the paper’s reputation of fearless democracy.
In the fourth year of his ownership he felt that the time had come for the change, that he could safely slip over to the other side—the side of wealth and power, the winning side, the side with offices and privileges to distribute. His debt was so far reduced that he had nothing to fear from it. A presidential campaign was coming on and was causing unusual confusion, a general shift of party lines. And he had put the News-Record in such a position that it could move in any direction without shock to its readers.
The “great battle” was on—the battle he had in his younger days looked forward to and longed for—the battle against Privilege and for a “restoration of government by the people.” The candidates were nominated, the platforms put forward and the issue squarely joined.
The same issue had been involved in previous campaigns; but the statement of the case by the party opposed to “government of, by and for plutocracy” had been fantastic, extreme, entangled with social, economic and political lunacies. And Howard had strengthened the News-Record by refusing to permit it to “go crazy.” Now, however, there was in honesty no reason for refusing support to the advocates of his professed principles.
But the News-Record was silent. Howard and Marian went away to their cottage at Newport, and he left rigid instructions that no political editorials were to be published except those which he might send. There he got typhoid fever and was at the point of death for two weeks.
Marian gave herself to nursing him, stayed close beside him, read books and the newspapers to him throughout his convalescence. They were more intimate than they had been for years. A feeling bearing a remote resemblance to the love he had once had for her arose out of his weakness and dependence and his seclusion from the instruments and objects of his ambition. And she swept aside the barriers she had erected between herself and him and returned, as nearly as one may, to the love and interest of their early days together.
In the first week of September came Stokely with Senator Hereford, the chairman of the “Plutocracy” campaign committee.
“I shall not annoy you with evasions,” said Hereford, “as Mr. Stokely assures me that I may speak freely to you, that you personally are with us. The fact is, our campaign is in a bad way, especially in New York State, and there especially in New York City.”
“You surprise me,” said Howard. “All my information has come from the newspapers which my wife reads me. I had gathered that the victory was all but won.”