ltix at all in this reformatory business, but I can tell
you the Republicans won't take such a view as that. They'll say that the
party spent a hundred thousand dollars of the people's money in a hard
times year, just to make a few more jobs f'r favorites. They'll throw
that up at us from every stump in the State. And when our leaders
explain that it was done for the maw'l good of the State, they'll give
us the laugh--same as they did when we established the Foundling
Hospital in '98. Now I tell you the party can't stand any talk of that
kind this year. We're on shaky ground right now f'r the same reason that
we're all so proud of--spendin' money f'r the maw'l uplift of the State.
We either got to slow up f'r awhile or take a licking. That's what all
the talk comes down to--one simple question: Will we hold off this big
expense f'r just two years, or will we send the old party down to
defeat?"

West laughed, not quite comfortably.

In all this dialogue, Mr. Neal had over him the enormous advantage of
exact and superior knowledge. To tell the truth, West knew very little
about the reformatory situation, and considered it, among the dozens of
matters in which he was interested, rather a small issue. Having turned
the campaign over to his assistant, he had dismissed it from his mind;
and beyond his general conviction that the reformatory would be a good
thing for the State, he had only the sketchiest acquaintance with the
arguments that were being used pro and con. Therefore Plonny Neal's
passionate earnestness surprised him, and Plonny's reasoning, which he
knew to be the reasoning of the thoroughly informed State leaders,
impressed him very decidedly. Of the boss's sincerity he never
entertained a doubt; to question that candid eye was impossible. That
Plonny had long been watching him with interest and admiration, West
knew very well. It began to look to him very much as though Queed,
through excess of sociological zeal, had allowed himself to be misled,
and that the paper's advanced position was founded on theory without
reference to existing practical conditions.

West keenly felt the responsibility of his post. To safeguard and
promote the welfare of the Democratic party had long been a cardinal
principle of the paper whose utterances he now controlled. Still, it
must be true that Neal was painting the situation in colors altogether
too black.

"You're a pretty good stump performer yourself, Plonny. Don't you kno