read it all. You'll see it posted in the hall later.
Is that carried? Carried! Very good," said Mr. Fyshe.

There was a moment's pause while Mr. Furlong and Mr. Skinyer moved into
seats beside Mr. Fyshe and while Mr. Furlong drew from his pocket and
arranged the bundle of minutes of the meeting which he had brought with
him. As he himself said he was too neat and methodical a writer to
trust to jotting them down on the spot.

"Don't you think," said Mr. Newberry, "I speak as a practical man, that
we ought to do something to get the newspapers with us?"

"Most important," assented several members.

"What do you think, Dr. Boomer?" asked Mr. Fyshe of the university
president, "will the newspapers be with us?"

Dr. Boomer shook his head doubtfully. "It's an important matter," he
said. "There is no doubt that we need, more than anything, the support
of a clean, wholesome unbiassed press that can't be bribed and is not
subject to money influence. I think on the whole our best plan would be
to buy up one of the city newspapers."

"Might it not be better simply to buy up the editorial staff?" said Mr.
Dick Overend.

"We might do that," admitted Dr. Boomer. "There is no doubt that the
corruption of the press is one of the worst factors that we have to
oppose. But whether we can best fight it by buying the paper itself or
buying the staff is hard to say."

"Suppose we leave it to a committee with full power to act," said Mr.
Fyshe. "Let us direct them to take whatever steps may in their opinion
be best calculated to elevate the tone of the press, the treasurer
being authorized to second them in every way. I for one am heartily
sick of old underhand connection between city politics and the city
papers. If we can do anything to alter and elevate it, it will be a
fine work, gentlemen, well worth whatever it costs us."

* * * * *

Thus after an hour or two of such discussion the Clean Government
League found itself organized and equipped with a treasury and a
programme and a platform. The latter was very simple. As Mr. Fyshe and
Mr. Boulder said there was no need to drag in specific questions or try
to define the action to be taken towards this or that particular
detail, such as the hundred-and-fifty-year franchise, beforehand. The
platform was simply expressed as Honesty, Purity, Integrity. This, as
Mr. Fyshe said, made a straight, flat, clean issue between the league
and all who opposed it.

This