The Young Politician looked round uneasily to make sure that they were indeed alone, for the Old Politician was almost shouting.
“Please,” said the Young Politician, “not so loud. I won't ask that question again. I see your point. What else do you advise?”
“You must learn,” continued the Old Politician, “to be a good denouncer.”
“A good what?”
“Denouncer. Keep your eyes open for objects of popular disapproval, and when you're sure you've got hold of something that is heartily disapproved by the great majority of the people, denounce it. At present I should advise you to denounce the high cost of living, the profiteers, and the Bolshevists. Next year, of course, the list may be quite different, but for the present those three are the best objects of denunciation.”
“What bothers me,” suggested the Young Politician in a hesitating voice, “is that it may be rather hard to drag those things into the campaign. Suppose, for example, I'm pledged to broaden the Main Street of the city upon my election to the city council. Won't it be rather hard to tie the Main Street and the Bolshevists together?”
The Old Politician looked upon the troubled face of the Young Politician with disgust.
“You're a great politician, you are,” he said wearily. “Tie them together? Don't be so ridiculously logical.” He rose to his feet, and as he did so he smote the table once more with his fist. “Gen-tle-men,” he cried hoarsely, surveying an imaginary audience with his glittering eye, “there is a movement on foot in this very county, this very State, nay, this very city, to undermine our Congress, to topple over the Constitution, to put a bomb under our President! Confronted by such a menace to our democratic institutions, what, gentlemen, shall be our answer? Let us broaden Main Street, as Washington would have broadened it, as Lincoln would have broadened it, and let us put down the red flag wherever it shows its head!”
“Its mast,” corrected the Young Politician, visibly moved. “Thank you for those courageous, those hundred-per-cent. words. I shall try to strike that note. But there is something else I want to ask. Suppose I am elected. What shall I do while I hold office in order that I may become ultimately eligible for still higher office?”
“In that case,” replied the old man, who by this time had subsided into his chair, “you must not merely denounce the high cost of living, the profiteers, and the Bolshevists; you must campaign against them.”