Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/48



Bacon, Carey, and Dickinson representing Jersey City; Tom McCarter, of the Public Service Corporation; and Randall Morgan of the U. G. I. The rooms were luxurious, the entertainment was good, and the conversation friendly and pleasant. When they got down to business, everybody felt as if they ought to be able to agree—everybody but Mark Fagan. He sat apart, cold and still. He says now that he felt at the time that he shouldn’t have gone there at all, but that all the way over on the boat and during the conversation he was conning over just what he would say; that it was “not his business, but the city’s, and that the case must go to the courts to decide.” Tom McCarter spoke for the trolley, Carey for the city, and they got nowhere. Randall Morgan was talking tactfully to the Mayor in a corner, when suddenly McCarter turned upon Mark and said:

“Well, Mr. Mayor, what is your decision?”

The Mayor was ready. He had no decision to give, he said. Jersey City was going to take the case into court, and the courts would decide.

McCarter always loses his temper when opposed by an honest government. “You may be an honest man,” he shouted at the Mayor, “ but you act like a blackmailer. And you, George Record, I’ll never forgive you for letting me put my good money into this trolley company without telling