“Yes,” he said with his lips alone.
“They didn’t set a watch on you, did they?” I continued. “They voted as you bade them vote, elected the fellows you put on the tickets of their party for them. And, after they elected them, they left it to them, and to you, to be true to them; to stick to them; to be loyal.”
His eyes fell to his fingers, and his fingers began again to pick.
“And when your enemies got after you and accused you,” I said, “the people stuck by you?”
No answer; only the fingers picked.
“The great, friendless mass—the hopeful, hopeless majority—they were true to you and the party, and they re-elected you.”
His eyes were on mine again, and there was light in them; but it was the reflected light of fire, and it burned.
“And you—you betrayed them,” I said; and I hurried on, piling on the fuel, all I had. “They have power, the people have, and they have needs, great common needs; and they have great common wealth. All your fat, rich franchises, all your great social values, the values added to land and franchise by the presence of the great, common, numerous mass, all the city’s public property—all are theirs, their common property. They own enough in common to meet all their great common needs, and they have an organization to keep for them and to develop for their use and profit all these great needed social values. It is the city; the city government; city, State, and national. And they have, they breed in their own ranks, men like you, natural political leaders, to go into public life and lead them, teach them, represent them. And they leave it all to you, trusting you. And you, all of you—not you alone, Boss, but all of you: ward leaders; State leaders; all the national political bosses—you all betray them. You receive from them their votes, so faithfully given, and you transform them into office-holders whom you teach or corrupt and compel to obey you. So you reorganize the city government. You, not the Mayor, are the head of it; you, not the council, are its legislature; you, not the heads of departments, are the administrators of the property and the powers of the people of your city; the common, helpless, friendless people. And, having thus organized and taken over all this power and property and—this beautiful faith, you do not protect their rights and their property. What do you do with it, Boss?”
He started. He could not answer. I answered for him: