Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/90



keeps. He couldn’t go back home to his people with lies. He put the truth to Governor Murphy in an open letter, and this letter was read aloud to the House of Assembly. It was a silent House; the representatives had read in their newspapers what this meek Mayor, a Republican himself, had written to the Republican Governor about their party and themselves. But they listened again. Colby says that he sat low sunk in his seat, and each separate sentence, as the Democratic leader read it, fell like a whip upon him.

The letter said that the writer spoke “as Mayor of Jersey City, and also as a member of the Republican party. . . . The present session is drawing to a close,” he said. “Its record is. . . disgraceful. Its control by corporation interests, in the assembly, at least, has been absolute.” And those men knew this was true. “For that condition the Republican party is responsible.” Everett Colby, leader, knew this was true. And as the letter took up the legislation, bill by bill, to show how everyone that was against a corporation failed, the party leader of the House could recall the orders he had got to make them fail. He heard Governor Murphy’s comforting arguments and the bosses’ tactful orders. He saw again Major Lentz watching in the lobby. What did it mean? Fagan asked