ue. We've decided we want you to join. Vergil Gunch says you don't
care to, but I think we can show you a new light. The League is going to
combine with the Chamber of Commerce in a campaign for the Open Shop, so
it's time for you to put your name down."

In his embarrassment Babbitt could not recall his reasons for not
wishing to join the League, if indeed he had ever definitely known them,
but he was passionately certain that he did not wish to join, and at the
thought of their forcing him he felt a stirring of anger against even
these princes of commerce.

"Sorry, Colonel, have to think it over a little," he mumbled.

McKelvey snarled, "That means you're not going to join, George?"

Something black and unfamiliar and ferocious spoke from Babbitt: "Now,
you look here, Charley! I'm damned if I'm going to be bullied into
joining anything, not even by you plutes!"

"We're not bullying anybody," Dr. Dilling began, but Colonel Snow thrust
him aside with, "Certainly we are! We don't mind a little bullying, if
it's necessary. Babbitt, the G.C.L. has been talking about you a good
deal. You're supposed to be a sensible, clean, responsible man; you
always have been; but here lately, for God knows what reason, I hear
from all sorts of sources that you're running around with a loose
crowd, and what's a whole lot worse, you've actually been advocating and
supporting some of the most dangerous elements in town, like this fellow
Doane."

"Colonel, that strikes me as my private business."

"Possibly, but we want to have an understanding. You've stood in,
you and your father-in-law, with some of the most substantial and
forward-looking interests in town, like my friends of the Street
Traction Company, and my papers have given you a lot of boosts. Well,
you can't expect the decent citizens to go on aiding you if you intend
to side with precisely the people who are trying to undermine us."

Babbitt was frightened, but he had an agonized instinct that if he
yielded in this he would yield in everything. He protested:

"You're exaggerating, Colonel. I believe in being broad-minded
and liberal, but, of course, I'm just as much agin the cranks and
blatherskites and labor unions and so on as you are. But fact is, I
belong to so many organizations now that I can't do 'em justice, and I
want to think it over before I decide about coming into the G.C.L."

Colonel Snow condescended, "Oh, no, I'm not exaggerating! Why the doctor
here he