nal defeat. A little handful of members
rallied around him. But the greed forces of the entire state were on the
other side. The selfish corporations, the highwaymen of commerce, the
whiskey powers fighting for their lives to maintain the license system
of the state, the gang of thugs that lived on the gambling house and the
barter in human blood in the sale of virtue and the degradation of boys
and girls, all fought him. The newspapers that print liquor and other
questionable advertisements, the microscopic men who made a living by
appointment to little political dirty jobs, the horde of hungry office
seekers who didn't know "America" from the latest vaudeville rag-time,
the plunderers of the treasury who live without any visible means of
support except what they boldly stole from contracts on public works,
the princely robbers who are the crowned heads of special privilege,
whose wives and daughters figure in the society columns as leaders in
those useful callings of bridge whist and select receptions, the great
and ignorant mob of pygmies who never had the capacity for a political
idea bigger than their own diminutive measurement, the newspaper and
magazine hacks who live on abuse of everybody who has a high ideal, all
joined in the whoop and chase after Douglas of the fourth district,
branded him as a fakir, an idiot, a senseless dreamer, an egotist, a
demagogue, a party traitor, a knocker, and every other objectionable
kind of disturber of the peace, meaning by "peace," the peace of those
who are let alone by reformers to rob the state, degrade politics,
enthrone injustice, keep the party in power and reelect themselves.

And this is the kind of thing the preacher urges his high-spirited young
men to confront if they go into public careers. Do you think American
politics could be made more attractive to the strong men of this nation
if some of the abuse and personal sewer methods were eliminated? Do you
think all this gutter spattering is necessary to reach conclusions and
arrive at a final better condition for the nation's life? Do you think
that even if discussion and defence of opinion are necessary in the
settlement of great public affairs, it is also in order to question a
man's purity of purpose, his patriotism and his personal devotion to a
great ideal?

Paul's whole nature was stirred by what he was going through and his
absorption in the matters nearest his heart was so complete that it was
with no ordina