Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/332

 maker. He had the most wonderful constructive talent for law-building that I ever encountered."

Bingham was working with an Australian Ballot League. He was secretary, and he taught U'Ren to be secretary of things. "Never be president," he said. "Never be conspicuous. Get a president and a committee; and let them go to the front. The worker must work behind them, out of sight. Be secretary."

U'Ren has always been secretary; clerical, impersonal, but busy, like Bingham. He has given credit for all his work to other men. The first time I met him, he talked of leagues and committees of leading citizens—bankers, railroad men, corporation attorneys, corrupt politicians— whom he named. But I noticed that while the members of U'Ren's several committees knew something about their own work, they seldom knew anything about that of the other committees of which U'Ren was secretary; and when it came to precise information, they all would say, "You must see our secretary, a Mr. U'Ren, for that." A Mr. U'Ren was the one man in Oregon who knew all about all this legislation.

Well, Bingham had drawn the Australian ballot law for his league, and he talked it over, section by section, with U'Ren, who thus got