“It can be defeated then?”
“It will be defeated,” was the quiet reply. “Many bills are introduced into our supreme law-making body, Villard—but few are passed. This is one that will die an early and easy death—”
“You are sure?”
“As that I’m living. Come—sit down.” Waldron moved toward the table and Villard quickly followed.
Waldron handed the paper to Meyer without comment and quietly watched him explode with excitement. Mora, too, was swept from his feet for the moment.
“It means—sir?” Meyer gasped.
“That we will move a little more quickly—that is all,” Waldron answered.
The three men leaned close, each awaiting with evident deference the word of the master mind.
There was no mistaking the fact that one mind dominated the group. The high intellectual forehead of the man of millions marked him at once as a born leader and master of men. There was a consciousness of power in the poise of his big body and the slow movement of his piercing eyes that commanded attention and respect from his bitterest foe.
“Of course, gentlemen,” he began calmly, “if we had in this country an intelligent and capable government we would be up against a serious situation. We have no such government. The alleged Democracy under which we live is the most asinine contrivance ever devised by theorists and dreamers. It never makes an important move until too late and then will certainly do the wrong thing in the moment of crisis. There is but one thing you can always depend on at every session of Congress. They will pass the bill dividing the Pork Barrel among the Congressional Districts. The average Congressman considers this his first duty—the rest is of but slight importance—”