orporation. A machine, over-long in power, by the approved process of
making itself strong makes itself weak. It must pass around the
offices. When it picks the best men it makes enemies of all those it
disappoints. That includes principals and followers. For a time these
"best men" have enough of a personal following to repel boarders. But
party "best men" must make enemies in fortifying themselves and their
friends.

Every time a matter is decided between factions, or a political seeker
wins a subordinate job, a rival and his friends are sent away to sulk.
And so at last, in the process of making the fortress impregnable, the
big wall falls and "the unders" come into the citadel.

Chairman Presson would not allow that the situation in that year of
reform unrest was as bad as the "unders" seemed to think. But he was
worried because he was finding all men liars. And when men are lying and
marking time in politics and glancing over their shoulders, look out for
the stampede!

In a stampede "a logical candidate" is the first one to be trampled on.
This one was threatened in earnest.

His opponent in his own party was Protest walking on two legs and
thundering anathema through a mat of mustaches that made him a marked
figure in any throng. His enemies called him "Fog-horn" Spinney; his
admirers considered him a silver-tongued orator. As a professional
organizer of leagues, clubs, orders, and societies he knew by their
first names men enough to elect him if he could be nominated. And Arba
Spinney's methods may be known from the fact that once he got enough
votes to make him a State Senator by asking his auditors at each rally
to feel of the lumps in the corners of their ready-made vests. A man who
is fingering the sheddings of shoddy feels like voting for the candidate
who declares that he will make a sheep a respectable member of society
once more.

As "a logical candidate," David Everett, ending his four years as a
member of the Governor's executive council, was the refinement of
political grooming. And he was "safe." A well-organized political
machine has no use for any other sort!

Arba Spinney, vociferous, rank outsider, apostrophizing the "tramp of
the cowhide boots," reckless in his denunciation of every man who held
office, promising everything that would catch a vote, urging overturn
for the sake of overturn and a new deal, marked the other extreme. For
the mass, Change, labelled Reform, seems wholly desirab