r before," Austen
responded instantly, with a light in his own eyes. "My nomination was
the only disturbing factor in the situation for you and the politicians
who had your interests in hand, and it was as inevitable as night and
day that the forces of the candidates who represented the two wings of
the machine of the Northeastern Railroads should have united against Mr.
Crewe. I want to say to you frankly that if my father had not been the
counsel for your corporation, and responsible for its political success,
or if he could have resigned with honour before the convention, I should
not have refused to let my name go in. After all," he added, in a lower
tone, and with a slight gesture characteristic of him when a subject was
distasteful, "it doesn't matter who is elected governor this autumn."

"What?" cried Mr. Flint, surprised out of his attitude as much by
Austen's manner as by Austen's words.

"It doesn't matter," said Austen, "whether the Northeastern Railroads
have succeeded this time in nominating and electing a governor to whom
they can dictate, and who will reappoint railroad commissioners and
other State officials in their interests. The practices by which
you have controlled this State, Mr. Flint, and elected governors
and councillors and State and national senators are doomed. However
necessary these practices may have been from your point of view, they
violated every principle of free government, and were they to continue,
the nation to which we belong would inevitably decay and become the
scorn of the world. Those practices depended for their success on
one condition,--which in itself is the most serious of ills in a
republic,--the ignorance and disregard of the voter. You have but
to read the signs of the times to see clearly that the day of such
conditions is past, to see that the citizens of this State and this
country are thinking for themselves, as they should; are alive to the
dangers and determined to avert it. You may succeed in electing one
more governor and one more senate, or two, before the people are able
to destroy the machinery you have built up and repeal the laws you have
made to sustain it. I repeat, it doesn't matter in the long run. The era
of political domination by a corporation, and mainly for the benefit of
a corporation, is over."

Mr. Flint had been drumming on the desk, his face growing a darker
red as Austen proceeded: Never, since he had become president of the
Northeastern