“But Paul! They’ll only arrest you again!”
“Maybe so. But this time they’ll arrest me as a Communist, and they’ll try me that way.”
“But they’ve already convicted so many!”
“That’s the way an unpopular cause has to grow—there’s no other way. Here I am, an obscure workingman, and nobody pays any attention to what I think or say; but if they try me as a Communist, I make people talk and think about our ideas.”
Bunny stole a look at Ruth: a pitiful sight, her eyes riveted upon her brother, and her hands clasped tight in fear. It was so that she had looked when Paul was going off to war. It was her fate to see him go off to war!
“Are you sure there’s nothing more important you can do, Paul?”
“I used to think I was going to do a lot of great things. But the last few years have taught me that a workingman isn’t very important in this capitalist world, and he has to remember his place. A lot of us are going to jail, and a lot more are going to die. The one thing we must be sure of is that we help to awaken the slaves.”
There was a pause. “You’re quite sure it can’t come peaceably, Paul?”
“The other has to say about that, son. Do you think they were peaceable during the strike? You should have been there!”
“And you’ve given up hope for democracy?”