Page:The council of seven.djvu/108

 *markable men I ever met. A creature of rare courage, energy, force of will, he aspired to the kind of dictatorship over his fellow men which seems to have such a fascination for half educated minds."

"You would rate such a man as Garland among the half educated?"

"Among the rather less than half educated. At best his power lay among the turbulent, seething proletariats of the western world which enjoy political power without having to pay for it, among the shiftless herds which are out to grab the goods and chattels of their more fortunate or more deserving neighbors."

"In other words, his aim was to set class against class, so that he might ride to power on the storm he had raised."

"Vide the Planet newspaper." A soft laugh floated up from the ground.

"Just so!" The owner of the Planet newspaper folded his arms with a fine gesture. "We take credit to ourselves for revealing Garlandism in its true colors."

"And for drawing a dividend from your soap-and-water-using public, while your string of tag, rag and bobtail prints coax dividends from the millions who have no use for soap and water but can always afford a penny, a couple of cents, a few lira or half a mark as the case may be to have their cupidity pleasantly tickled."

The Colossus had heard the taunt so often that he had learned to smile at it. "You do the Universal