Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/17

 themselves, they seem to know that better than the wise men who should know why it is so.

Everett Colby had served the boss of Essex (and the bosses of the boss) faithfully, ignorantly and, therefore, innocently, during three sessions of the legislature, till he saw the evil thereof, and appealed to the people to beat the system. He went, as Mark Fagan advised, and as we have just seen Judge Lindsey go, to the shops. The workers, aware of his antecedents, heard him coldly. But when he had finished his first speech one of his audience asked a question. This worker wanted to know if Mr. Colby "hadn't voted in the assembly" for a certain notoriously bad bill.

"Yes," Mr. Colby answered, quick and straight. "And not only for that bill," he said. "I think, if you will look up my record that you will find me introducing, voting or speaking for nearly every bad measure of that sort which came up in my time. But, as I have been trying to explain, I didn't understand those things. I've only just come to understand them. But I do think I understand them now."

That was enough. The word was passed "down the line" that this young rich fellow was "on the level," and that was all the voters of Essex wanted to know. They elected him.