his is the country for bishops. You are
out of luck, Martin. Your father made a mistake being a farmer. He
should have been a bishop. Nice jobs, lots of money. Buys a job for
his son so he can get married and have a wife and a home and a baby
and not be a Red. You think I'm a Red? Hell, no. I'm a hundred per
cent American. I'm an individualist. Americans are individualists.
Each man got his own wife 'n' his own bed. A Russian's a
collectivist. Got everybody's wife in bed.

BISHOP. Kenneth, my son!

KEN. See? My dad doesn't like Russians. Russians shot all the
churches and made the priests go to work. He doesn't like you.--You
read the wrong books. My dad reads Mark and Luke and John--makes
him a Christian. You read Marx and Lenin and Stalin--makes you a
revolutionist. Why don't you read Hearst and Hoover and make
yourself an American?

TIPPY. Never mind, Ken. The revolution's all over.

KEN. That was no revolution. That was only a depression. But it's
all over now. My father bought me a job because my wife told him
to. I've got a smart wife. She understands business methods. We are
individualists, and must have initiative. So my wife, she has
initiative. She says--Ken's got to have a job so we can get
married. So she explains to my father how capitalism works. Lots of
competition; too many lousy architects. So got to fabricate houses
and put 'em all out of a job.

MARTIN. You talk more sense drunk than sober.

KEN. Too many architects--so what? Give 'em relief work, that's
what. Make lots of little houses, with lots of little yards, with
lots of little trees, so there'll be lots of little leaves to rake.
[_Faces_ LAURA.] That's why a man needs a smart wife with lots of
initiative--to get him a job.

TIPPY. O. K., Ken.

LAURA. [_Fiercely._] Do something with him, Martin.

MARTIN. [_Going to_ KEN.] All right, old man. Let's go in there and
see whether we can figure this thing out.

KEN. I got it all figured out. Lots of little houses, 'n' lots of ...

TIPPY. But we've got to figure out what to do about Ted.

KEN. Ted. That's right ... Ted. [_The three go out to kitchen._]

BISHOP. [_Wringing his hands._] Radicalism and liquor. Liquor and
radicalism, [LAURA _is unresponsive; sits stony-eyed and
heart-sick._] My poor child. My poor child.

LAURA. Poor Ken!

BISHOP. We must be strong. And patient. [_Silence._] How did he
learn of this?

LAURA. He quarrelled with Ted and Ted lost his temper and told.