A Gentleman from Mississippi - Thomas A. Wise
He walked over and touched the bell.
"Thomas," he said to the servant who responded, "take that letter at
once to Senator Peabody, in the library."
"What is it, sir?" asked Randolph.
"It's the call to arms," responded his father grimly.
Senator Peabody read the letter to which Haines had signed Langdon's
name and jumped up from his chair in the library in astonishment.
Without a word to the startled Stevens he rushed to confront Langdon.
"What's the meaning of this?" he shouted as he burst in on the junior
Senator from Mississippi.
"Of what?" asked the Southerner, with a blandness that added fuel to
Peabody's irritation.
"Don't trifle with me, sir!" cried "the boss of the Senate." "This
letter. You sent it. Explain it! I'm in no mood to joke."
Langdon looked at him calmly.
"I think the letter is quite plain, Senator," he said. "You can read."
Then he turned to his daughter. "This discussion cannot possibly
interest you, my dear. Will you go to the drawing-room to receive our
guests?"
Carolina obeyed. She seemed to be discovering new qualities in this
father whom she had considered to be too old-fashioned for his time.
"Now, Senator, go ahead, and, Randolph, you bring Stevens."
"You're switching to Gulf City?" demanded Peabody.
"I'm considering Gulf City," agreed Langdon.
Peabody brought down his fist on the table.
"It's too late to consider anything, Langdon," he cried. "We're
committed to Altacoola, and Altacoola it is. I don't care what you
heard of Gulf City. Now, I'd like to settle this thing in a friendly
manner, Langdon. I like always for every member of the Senate to have
his share of the power and the patronage. We've been glad to put
you forward in this naval base matter. We appreciate the
straightforwardness, the honesty of your character. You look well.
You're the kind of politician the public thinks it wants nowadays, but
you've been in the Senate long enough to know that bills have to pass,
and you know you can't get through anything without my friends, and I
tell you now I'll throttle any Gulf City plan you bring up."
"Then if you are as sure of that you can't object to my being for Gulf
City?" asked Langdon.
"Are you financially interested in Gulf City?" demanded Peabody.
"Senator Peabody!" exclaimed Langdon.
"Don't flare up, Langdon," retorted Peabody. "That sort of thing has
happened in the Senate. There are often perfectly legitimate profits
to be made in some regular commercial venture by a man who has inside
information as to what's doing up on Capitol Hill."
"Senator Peabody," asked Langdon, "why are you so strong for
Altacoola?"
The Pennsylvanian hesitated.
"Its natural advantages," he said at last.
The Southerner shook his head.
"Oh, that's all? Well, if natural advantages are going to settle
it, and not influence, go ahead and vote, and I'll just bring in a
minority report for Gulf City."
"The boss of the Senate" was in a corner now.
"Confound it, Langdon, if you will have it, I am interested in
Altacoola."
Langdon nodded.
"That's all I wanted to know," he said.
"Now you see why it's got to be Altacoola," persisted the boss.
"I don't mind telling you, then, Senator Peabody," answered Langdon
calmly, "that my being for Gulf City was a bluff. I've been trying to
draw you out. Gulf City is a mud bank and no more fitted to be a naval
base than Keokuk, Ia. Altacoola it's got to be, for the good of the
country and the honor of Mississippi.
"And one thing more, Senator. I'd just like to add that not a single
man connected with that committee is going to make a cent out of the
deal. You get that straight?"
CHAPTER XXI
"IF YOU CAN'T BUY A SENATOR, THREATEN HIM"
Senator Peabody was the most surprised man in Washington when he heard
the junior Senator from Mississippi state that no one was to enrich
himself out of the government naval base project.
He heaped a mental anathema on the head of Stevens for saddling such
a man on the Senate "machine," for Langdon would of course never had
been put on "naval affairs" (just now very important to the machine)
without the "O.K." of Stevens, who had won a heretofore thoroughly
reliable reputation as a judge of men, or of what purported to be men.
The thought that at this time, of all times, there should be a man
on the committee on naval affairs that could not be "handled" was
sufficient to make him who reveled in the title of "boss of the
Senate" determine that he must get another chief lieutenant to replace
Stevens, who had proved so trustworthy in the past. Stevens had lost
his cunning!
As the vote of Langdon could not be secured by humbug or in exchange
for favors and as it could not be "delivered," Peabody, of course, was
willing to pay in actual cash for the vote. This was the final step
but one in political conspiracies of this nature?--cash. But Langdon
would not take cash, so Peabody had to resort to the last agency of
the trained and corrupt manipulator of legislation.
He would threaten.
Moreover, he knew that to make threats effective, if it is possible to
do so, they must be led up to systematically--that is, they should be
made at the right time. The scene must be set, as in a play.
Senator Peabody glared at Langdon as though to convince the latter
that to stand in his way would mean political destruction.
"So nobody is going to make a cent, eh? Well, I suppose you want all
the profits for yourself." Turning to Stevens, who had just entered,
the Pennsylvanian cried:
"Do you but listen to our suddenly good friend Langdon. He wants to be
the only man to make money out of the naval base. He won't listen to
any other member of the naval committee making a cent out of it. Why,
he--"
"Great God, sir!" exclaimed Langdon. "You are going too far, Peabody.
You state what is false, and you know it, you--you--"
"Then you are willing that others should have their rightful share?"
put in Stevens. "Oh, I understand now, Senator."
"No, no, no!" cried Langdon. "You do not understand, Senator Stevens,
and I must say I am ashamed to speak of you by the honorable title of
Senator, sir. I will not listen to any person enriching himself at
the Government's expense, and I am your enemy, you, Peabody, and you,
Stevens, beyond recall. You both know you misrepresent me."
Langdon walked over to Stevens and faced him.
"Do you remember, Stevens, Lorimer Hawkslee, back in wartime?"
"Yes," said Stevens, puzzled, "I remember him--a very fine gentleman."
The old planter sneered.
"Yes, a very fine gentleman! You remember he got rich out of contracts
for supplies furnished to the Confederate Government when it wasn't
any too easy for the Confederate Government to pay and when he was
in that Government himself. I never quite thought that the act of a
gentleman, Stevens. It seemed to me to be very like dishonesty.
I refused to speak to Lorimer Hawkslee in the Carroll Hotel at
Vicksburg, and when the people there asked me why I told them. I want
to warn you, Stevens, that I'm likely to meet you some time in the
Carroll Hotel at Vicksburg."
Stevens backed away angrily. "I catch your insinuation, but"--he
received a warning glance from Peabody and broke into a pleasant smile
calculated to deceive the old planter--"this once I will overlook it
because of our old friendship and the old days in Mississippi."
"You are a fine talker, Langdon," said Peabody, coming to Stevens'
rescue, "but I can readily see what you are driving at. You want an
investigation. You think you will catch some of us with what you
reformers call 'the goods,' but forget evidently the entirely simple
facts that your family has invested in Altacoola lands more heavily
probably than any one else among us. You want to raise a scandal, do
you? Well, go on and raise it, but remember that you will have to
explain how it happened that there is $50,000 invested in the name of
your son, and $25,000 in the name of your daughter, Miss Carolina, not
to mention a few thousands put in by the gentleman who, I am given to
understand, is to be your son-in-law, Congressman Norton.
"How about that, Norton?" Peabody asked, turning to the Congressman,
who had followed Stevens.
"I corroborate all you've said," remarked Norton. "I can state
positively that Senator Langdon knew that his money was going into
Altacoola land. I will swear to it if necessary," and he glared
bitterly at Carolina's father, feeling certain that the girl would
cling to him as opposed to her parent.
Langdon made a threatening move at the Congressman.
"I consider my riddance of you mighty cheap at the price," he cried.
"Come, come, Langdon," fumed Peabody, "I must get away from here to
catch the midnight train. Let's get through with this matter. You must
realize that you cannot fight me in Washington. You must know that
men call me the 'king of the Senate.' I can beat any measure you
introduce. I can pass any measure you want passed. I can make you a
laughing-stock or a power.
"Why, my friend from Mississippi, I can even have your election to the
Senate contested, have a committee appointed to investigate the manner
of your election, have that committee decide that you bought your way
into the honorable body, the Senate of the United States, and on the
strength of that decision have you forfeit your seat! What a pretty
heritage to hand down to posterity such a disgrace will be! Why, the
very school children of the future will hear about you as 'Looter
Langdon,' and their parents will tell them how particularly degrading
it was for a man of your reputation to drag into your dishonest
schemes your son, sir, and your daughter. For who will believe that
this money was not put in these lands without your consent, without
your direction, your order? Did you not sign the mortgage on which
this $50,000 was raised?"
Senator Langdon waved his hand deprecatingly. "I'm learning the
under-handed ways of you professional politicians. I'm getting wise.
I'm learning 'the game,' so I know you're bluffing me, Peabody. But
you forget that the game of poker was invented in Mississippi--my
native State."
Pressing a button, Langdon summoned a servant and said: "Send in Mr.
Haines. I guess I've got to have a witness for my side."
"It's no bluff," spoke Stevens as Haines entered. "Peabody can and
will break you like a pipestem; he's done it to other men before you
who--who tried to dispute his power. But I'll try to save you. I'll
ask him to be merciful. You are not of any importance in the Senate.
We do not need to deal with you--"
"Then why do you both spend so much time on me?" asked Langdon
innocently. "Why doesn't Peabody go to Philadelphia?"
"Langdon," said Peabody, "you know my control of the Senate is no
piece of fiction. But I will forgive your obstinacy, even forget it.
I--"
"Look here," cried Langdon, "just because I'm a fat man don't think
that I can't lose my temper." He stopped and gazed at his two
colleagues.
"Now, you two men stay still one moment, and I'll tell you what really
will happen to-morrow," he exploded, "and I'm only a beginner in the
game that's your specialty. The naval base is going to Altacoola--"
"Good!" simultaneously cried both Peabody and Stevens. "You're coming
in with us?"
"No, I'm not, but I'll pass the bill so that nobody makes a cent, just
as I said I would. I'll fool you both and make you both honest for
once in spite of your natural dispositions."
Stevens and the Pennsylvanian stared at each other in disgust.
"Furthermore," continued Langdon, "Altacoola must have the base
because I've known for some time that Gulf City was impossible. But
some crooked Senators would have made money if they'd known it, so
they didn't learn it. Altacoola, that proud arm of our great gulf,
will have those battleships floating on her broad bosom and the
country will be the better off, and so will the sovereign State of
Mississippi--God bless it--but neither Senator Peabody of Pennsylvania
nor Senator Stevens of Mississippi is going to be any better because
of it. No, and if you men come to my committee room at 12:30 to-morrow
noon you'll have a chance to hear how all that's coming about. If you
are not there by that time I'll bring in a minority report in favor
of Gulf City, just to show you that I know how to play the game--this
Washington game--"
"Come, let's go. We can do nothing with him," said Peabody to the
senior Senator from Mississippi.
"Well, Senator, in the name of goodness, what are you going to do? How
can you win for Altacoola without letting these grafters make money
out of it?" asked Haines in astonishment as the other two walked away.
"What are you going to do at 12:30 to-morrow?"
Langdon turned to him and rolled his eyes toward the ceiling
despairingly.
"I'm blamed if I know!" he exclaimed.
[Illustration: "TO-MORROW AT 12:30."]
CHAPTER XXII
LOBBYISTS--AND ONE IN PARTICULAR
Washington has known many lobbyists in its time, and it keeps on
knowing them. The striking increase in legislation that aims to
restrict unlawful or improper practices in business, the awakening
of the public conscience, has caused a greater demand than ever for
influence at the national capital, for these restrictive measures must
be either killed or emasculated to a point of uselessness by that
process which is the salvation of many a corrupt manipulator, the
process of amendment.
Predatory corporations, predatory business associations of different
sorts and predatory individuals have their representatives on the
field at Washington to ward off attack by any means that brains can
devise or money procure and to obtain desired favors at a cost that
will leave a profitable balance for the purchaser. When commercial
tricksters, believing in the lobbyists' favorite maxim, "The People
Forget," feel that they have outlived the latest reform movement
and see "the good old days" returning, the professional politicians
introduce a few reform measures themselves, most stringent measures.
They push these measures ahead until somebody pays up, then the bills
die. The lobbyist knows all about these "strike" bills, but does not
frown on them. No, no. Per-haps he helped draw up one of these bills
so that, with the aid of his inside knowledge of his employer's
business, the measure is made to give a greater scare than might
otherwise have resulted. The bigger the scare the bigger the fund
advanced, of course, for the lobbyist to handle. All this also helps
the lobbyist to secure and retain employment.
Not all the Washington lobbyists are outside of Congress. The Senator
or Congressman has unequaled facilities for oiling or blocking the
course of a bill. Sometimes he confines himself to the interests of
his own clients, whoever they may be. But sometimes he notices a bill
that promises to be a pretty good thing for the client of some other
member if it passes. Then he begins to fight this bill so actively
that he must be "let in on the deal" himself. This is very annoying
to the other member, but the experience is worth something. He has
learned the value of observing other people's legislation.
The outsiders (members of the "third house") and the insiders have a
bond of freemasonry uniting them; they exchange information as to what
members of both houses can be "reached," how they can be "got to"
(through whom) and how much they want. This information is carefully
tabulated, and now prices for passing or defeating legislation can be
quoted to interested parties just as the price of a carload of pork
can be ascertained at a given time and place. Perhaps it is this
system that leads grafting members of short experience to wonder how
knowledge of their taking what is termed "the sugar" got out and
became known to their associates. Did they not have pledge of absolute
secrecy? Yes, but the purchaser never intended to keep the information
from those of his kind. Lobbyists must be honest with each other.
Not all lobbyists are men. The woman legislative agent has been known
to occupy an important position in Washington, and she does yet.
She is hard to detect and frequently more unprincipled than the men
similarly engaged, if that is possible.
A woman with a measure of social standing would naturally prove
the most successful as a lobbyist in Washington because of the
opportunities her position would afford her to meet people of
prominence. And just such a one was Mrs. Cora Spangler, with whom
the Langdons had been thrown in contact quite intimately since their
arrival at the capital.
Pretty and vivacious, Mrs. Spangler bore her thirty-seven years with
uncommon ease, aided possibly by the makeup box and the modiste.
Her dinners and receptions were attended by people of acknowledged
standing. Always a lavish spender of money, this was explained
as possible because of a fortune left her by her late husband,
Congressman Spangler of Pennsylvania. That this "fortune" had
consisted largely of stock and bonds of a bankrupt copper smelting
plant in Michigan remained unknown, except to her husband's family,
one or two of her own relatives and Senator Peabody, who, coming from
Pennsylvania, had known her husband intimately.
He it was who had suggested to her that she might make money easily
by cultivating the acquaintance of the new members of both houses
and their families, exerting her influence in various "perfectly
legitimate ways," he argued, for or against matters pending in
legislation. The Standard Steel corporation kept Mrs. Spangler well
supplied with funds deposited monthly to her account in a Philadelphia
trust company.
She avoided suspicion by reason of her sex and her many acquaintances
of undisputed rank. Senator Peabody was never invited to her home, had
never attended a single dinner, reception or musicale she had given,
all of which was a part of the policy they had mutually agreed on to
deaden any suspicion that might some time arise as to her relation to
the Standard Steel Company. It was well known that Peabody had been
put into the Senate by Standard Steel to look after its interests.
He had found Mrs. Spangler chiefly valuable thus far as a source of
information regarding the members of Congress, which she obtained
largely from their families. He was thus able to gain an idea of their
associations, their particular interests and their aspirations in
coming to Congress, which proved of much use to him in forming and
promoting acquaintances, all for the glory of Standard Steel.
Senator Holcomb of Missouri told Mrs. Spangler at an afternoon tea
confidentially that he was going to vote against the ship subsidy
bill. Senator Peabody was informed of this two hours later by a note
written in cipher. When the vote was called two days later Senator
Holcomb voted for the bill. Standard Steel supplies steel for ocean
liners, and their building must be encouraged.
Mrs. Windsor, wife of Congressman Windsor of Indiana, remarked to Mrs.
Spangler at a reception that she was "so glad Jimmie is going to do
something for us women at last. He says we ought to get silk gowns
ever so much cheaper next year," Jimmie Windsor was a member of the
House committee on ways and means and was busily engaged in the matter
of tariff revision. When President Anders of the Federal Silk Company
heard from Senator Peabody that Windsor favored lowering the tariff
on silk a way was found to convince the Congressman that the American
silk industry was a weakling, and many investors would suffer if the
foreign goods should be admitted any cheaper than at present.
President Anders would be willing to do Senator Peabody a favor some
day.
Sometimes Cora Spangler shuddered at the thought of what would
become of her if she should make some slip, some fatal error, and be
discovered to her friends as a betrayer of confidences for money.
A secret agent of Standard Steel! What a newspaper story she would
make--"Society Favorite a Paid Spy"; "Woman Lobbyist Flees Capital."
The sensational headlines flitted through her mind. Then she would
grit her teeth and dig her finger nails into her palms. She had to
have money to carry on the life she loved so well. She must continue
as she had begun. After all, she reasoned, nothing definite could ever
be proved regarding the past. Let the future care for itself. She
might marry again and free herself from this mode of life--who knows?
So reasoned Cora Spangler for the hundredth time during the last two
years as she sat in her boudoir at her home. She had spent part of the
day with Carolina and Hope Langdon and in the evening had attended the
musicale at their house. But she had been forced to leave early owing
to a severe headache. Now, after an hour or two of rest, she felt
better and was about to retire. Suddenly the telephone bell rang at a
writing-table near a window. She had two telephones, one in the lower
hall and one in her boudoir--to save walking downstairs unnecessarily,
she explained to her woman friends. But the number of this upstairs
telephone was not in the public book. It had a private number, known
to but two people except herself.
Taking down the receiver, she asked in low voice, "Hello! Who is it?"
"Mr. Wall."
It was the name Senator Peabody used in telephone conversation with
her.
"Yes, Congressman!" she responded.
She always said, "Yes, Congressman," in replying to "Mr. Wall," a
prearranged manner of indicating that he was talking to the desired
person.
"I will need your services to-morrow," Senator Peabody said, "on a
very important matter, I am afraid. Decline any engagements and hold
yourself in readiness."
"Yes."
"I may send my friend S. to explain things at 10:30 in the morning. If
he does not arrive at that time, telephone me at 10:35 sharp. You know
where. Understand? I have put off going to Philadelphia to-night."
"Yes."
"That is all; good-by."
"Something very important," she murmured nervously as she turned from
the desk.
"I don't like his tone of voice; sounds strained and
worried--something unusual for the cold, flinty gentleman from
Pennsylvania. And his 'friend S.,' of course, means Stevens! Great
heavens! then Stevens must now have knowledge of my--my--business!"
She calmed herself and straightened a dainty, slender finger against
her cheek.
"It must be something about that naval base bill, I'm sure. That's
been worrying Peabody all session," she mused as she pressed a button
to summon her maid.
CHAPTER XXIII
"THE BOSS OF THE SENATE" GAINS A NEW ALLY
Mrs. Spangler would have flattered herself on guessing correctly as to
Senator Peabody's uneasiness had she heard and seen all that had taken
place in his apartment at the Louis Napoleon Hotel, where he had
hurriedly taken Senator Stevens on leaving the Langdon house.
Not only would the two Senators lose their immense profits on the
Altacoola transaction if Langdon persisted in his opposition, but they
would lose as well the thousands of dollars spent by their agents in
purchasing options on hundreds of acres, and where they could not
get options, the land itself. This land would be on their hands,
unsalable, if the base went somewhere else. Moreover, they feared that
Langdon's revolt would bring unpleasant newspaper publicity to their
operations.
"There's only one course to pursue, Stevens," snapped Peabody as they
took off their overcoats. "That is to be prepared as best we can for
the very worst and meet it in some way yet to be determined. But first
we must try to figure out what Langdon is going to do--what it can be
that he says he will tell us to-morrow at 12:30 if we appear. He must
have something very startling up his sleeve if he makes good his
assertions. I can't see how--"
"Nor I," frowned Stevens, "and my political eyesight is far better
than that fool Langdon's. Under ordinary circumstances we could let
him go ahead with his minority report for Gulf City, but as things
stand he'll have every newspaper reporter in Washington buzzing around
and asking impertinent questions--"
"Yes, and you and I would have to go to Paris to live with our life
insurance friends from New York, wouldn't we?" laughed Peabody
sarcastically. "I'm going to send for Jake Steinert," he added.
"Steinert?" Stevens ejaculated. "What--"
"Oh, that's all right. Maybe he can suggest something," said Peabody,
going to the telephone. "We've too much at stake to make a mistake,
and Jake may see a point that we've overlooked. Luckily I saw him
downstairs in the grill-room as we came through to the elevator."
"Steinert is all right himself," continued Stevens, "but his
methods--"
"Can't be too particular now about his methods--or ours, Stevens, when
a bull like Langdon breaks loose in the political china shop. Fortune
and reputation are both fragile."
A ring of a bell announced the arrival of Jake Steinert, whose
reputation as a lobbyist of advanced ability had spread wide in the
twenty years he had spent in Washington. Of medium height, sallow
complexion, dark hair and dark eyes, his broad shoulders filled the
doorway as he entered. An illy kept mustache almost hid a thin-lipped,
forceful mouth, almost as forceful as some of the language he used.
His eyes darted first to Peabody and then to Stevens, waiting for
either of them to open the conversation.