drich creature whose talents were crippled by his
contempt for "the rabble" and "demagoguery"--not until he had it forced
upon him that Ferguson could not be counter-mined, did they begin to
treat with me for peace.

I shall not retail the negotiations. The upshot was that I let the
administration drop the criminal cases against Roebuck in return for the
restoration of my power in the national committee of the party to the
smallest ejected postmaster in the farthest state. The civil action was
pressed by Ferguson with all his skill as a lawyer and a
popularity-seeking politician; and he won triumphantly in the Supreme
Court--the lower Federal Court with its Power Trust judge had added to
his triumph by deciding against him.

Roebuck was, therefore, under the necessity of going through the
customary forms of outward obedience to the Supreme Court's order to him
to dissolve. He had to get at huge expense, and to carry out at huger, a
plan of reorganization. Though he was glad enough to escape thus
lightly, he dissembled his content and grumbled so loudly that Burbank's
fears were roused and arrangements were made to placate him. The scheme
adopted was, I believe, suggested by Vice-President Howard, as shrewd
and cynical a rascal as ever lived in the mire without getting smutch or
splash upon his fine linen of respectability.

For several years there had been a strong popular demand for a revision
of the tariff. The party had promised to yield, but had put off
redeeming its promise. Now, there arose a necessity for revising the
tariff in the interest of "the interests." Some of the schedules were
too low; others protected articles which the interests wanted as free
raw materials; a few could be abolished without offending any large
interests and with the effect of punishing some small ones that had been
niggard in contributing to the "campaign fund" which maintains the
standing army of political workers and augments it whenever a battle is
on. Accordingly, a revision of the tariff was in progress. To soothe
Roebuck, they gave him a tariff schedule that would enable him to
collect each year more than the total of the extraordinary expenses to
which I had put him. Roebuck "forgave" me; and I really forgave Burbank.

But I washed my hands of his administration. Not only did I actually
stand aloof but also I disassociated myself from it in the public mind.
When the crash should come, as come it must with such men at the hel