t to want
and to have. All this is perfectly understood between us. I, and the
honest public clamoring for its rights, do not weigh a feather in the
scale, in his opinion, against the might of organization."

"Very good. I suspicioned something of the sort. He can't corrupt you,
and you couldn't get a better insight into corruption than through him;
so fire away. What's your program, anyhow?"

"It's too soon to make one--be sure that I am willing to return your
confidence with my own"--as the sharp china-blue eyes opposite
contracted; "but I can do little now except win the confidence of the
farmers in this district and of men like yourself. But if a reform party
does achieve power, if only for a term, the first thing for it to do is
to overhaul the ballot system. Before we reformed ours we were as deep
in the mire as yourselves. When the American voter is under the
supervision of an honest judiciary, a general system of local reforms
will follow as a matter of course."

Mr. Wheaton sighed. "You would have to begin with the judiciary. If you
reformed them, and had any strength left, and then reformed the ballot
in the manner of your own country, I guess you'd get about anything you
wanted. But you'll need a tidal reform wave, I'm afraid. However, you
never can tell what one year will bring forth in this country. On the
other hand, the results of certain reforms, fought and died for, have
done as much to make us pessimists as any of the immovable abuses. Take
the question of Civil Service Reform, for instance. In the old days when
you wanted to induce a man to give you the benefit of his abilities and
influence during an election, you held out hopes of preferment, and he
took your word if he knew your word was good, and worked with a decent
sort of ambition--all things being relative. What happens now? Few find
anything promising or attractive in the competitive examination. You ask
a man--the professional politician he is now, sure enough--to help you
get your candidate, or yourself, in, and what happens? The gentleman
coolly demands, 'How much?' and holds out his hand. You fill it or he
turns his back and walks off. There is just that much less of good left
to appeal to in this particular brand of human nature. Ours is a much
more complicated civilization than yours, Mr. Gwynne. You were dealing
with Britishers only, in 1832. We are trying to digest the riffraff of
the world, and can't do it, in spite of such incorri