Coincident with the unexpected feeling of fruitlessness that came to me with the Grant Avenue house,of things achieved but not realized or appreciated,was the appearance of a cloud on the business horizon;or rather on the political horizon,since it is hard to separate the two realms.There were signs,for those who could read,of a rising popular storm.During the earliest years of the new century the political atmosphere had changed,the public had shown a tendency to grow restless;and everybody knows how important it is for financial operations,for prosperity,that the people should mind their own business.In short,our commercial-romantic pilgrimage began to meet with unexpected resistance.It was as though the nation were entering into a senseless conspiracy to kill prosperity.
In the first place,in regard to the Presidency of the United States,a cog had unwittingly been slipped.It had always been recognized--as Ihave said--by responsible financial personages that the impulses of the majority of Americans could not be trusted,that these--who had inherited illusions of freedom--must be governed firmly yet with delicacy;unknown to them,their Presidents must be chosen for them,precisely as Mr.
Watling had been chosen for the people of our state,and the popular enthusiasm manufactured later.There were informal meetings in New York,in Washington,where candidates were discussed;not that such and such a man was settled upon,--it was a process of elimination.Usually the affair had gone smoothly.For instance,a while before,a benevolent capitalist of the middle west,an intimate of Adolf Scherer,had become obsessed with the idea that a friend of his was the safest and sanest man for the head of the nation,had convinced his fellow-capitalists of this,whereupon he had gone ahead to spend his energy and his money freely to secure the nomination and election of this gentleman.
The Republican National Committee,the Republican National Convention were allowed to squabble to their hearts'content as to whether Smith,Jones or Brown should be nominated,but it was clearly understood that if Robinson or White were chosen there would be no corporation campaign funds.This applied also to the Democratic party,on the rare occasions when it seemed to have an opportunity of winning.Now,however,through an unpardonable blunder,there had got into the White House a President who was inclined to ignore advice,who appealed over the heads of the "advisers"to the populace;who went about tilting at the industrial structures we had so painfully wrought,and in frequent blasts of presidential messages enunciated new and heretical doctrines;who attacked the railroads,encouraged the brazen treason of labour unions,inspired an army of "muck-rakers"to fill the magazines with the wildest and most violent of language.State legislatures were emboldened to pass mischievous and restrictive laws,and much of my time began to be occupied in inducing,by various means,our courts to declare these unconstitutional.How we sighed for a business man or a lawyer in the White House!The country had gone mad,the stock-market trembled,the cry of "corporation control"resounded everywhere,and everywhere demagogues arose to inaugurate "reform campaigns,"in an abortive attempt to "clean up politics."Down with the bosses,who were the tools of the corporations!
In our own city,which we fondly believed to be proof against the prevailing madness,a slight epidemic occurred;slight,yet momentarily alarming.Accidents will happen,even in the best regulated political organizations,--and accidents in these days appeared to be the rule.Acertain Mr.Edgar Greenhalge,a middle-aged,mild-mannered and inoffensive man who had made a moderate fortune in wholesale drugs,was elected to the School Board.Later on some of us had reason to suspect that Perry Blackwood--with more astuteness than he had been given credit for--was responsible for Mr.Greenhalge's candidacy.At any rate,he was not a man to oppose,and in his previous life had given no hint that he might become a trouble maker.Nothing happened for several months.But one day on which I had occasion to interview Mr.Jason on a little matter of handing over to the Railroad a piece of land belonging to the city,which was known as Billings'Bowl,he inferred that Mr.Greenhaige might prove a disturber of that profound peace with which the city administration had for many years been blessed.
"Who the hell is he?"was Mr.Jason's question.
It appeared that Mr.G.'s private life had been investigated,with disappointingly barren results;he was,seemingly,an anomalistic being in our Nietzschean age,an unaggressive man;he had never sold any drugs to the city;he was not a church member;nor could it be learned that he had ever wandered into those byways of the town where Mr.Jason might easily have got trace of him:if he had any vices,he kept them locked up in a safe-deposit box that could not be "located."He was very genial,and had a way of conveying disturbing facts--when he wished to convey them--under cover of the most amusing stories.Mr.Jason was not a man to get panicky.Greenhalge could be handled all right,only--what was there in it for Greenhalge?--a nut difficult for Mr.Jason to crack.The two other members of the School Board were solid.Here again the wisest of men was proved to err,for Mr.Greenhalge turned out to have powers of persuasion;he made what in religious terms would have been called a conversion in the case of another member of the board,an hitherto staunch old reprobate by the name of Muller,an ex-saloon-keeper in comfortable circumstances to whom the idea of public office had appealed.
Mr.Greenhalge,having got wind of certain transactions that interested him extremely,brought them in his good-natured way to the knowledge of Mr.Gregory,the district attorney,suggesting that he investigate.Mr.
