The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-03-25
THE FARMER: MARCH 25, 1912

ed into the house bill providing that
no railroad should own stock In
another one: that no man should vote
control. by proxy or ownership, in
peting roads and that no railroad Off
cial should hold either office or stock
in another line of rails who reached
between any two same shipping points.
This was the straw, or. rather. the
bale of straw, which snapped Rollins
already highly strung nervous tension.
He came to Breed and Kelvin in much
surprise to Kelvin and Breed as it
might have been. for it was they who
had instructed Hepperdon as to the
psychological moment in which to
have Oswald introduce his bill.
81 exported nothing else" said Breed,
glancing Mt the marconirram and hand
ing it to Kelvin. "You know. we told
you in the first place that it might be
necessary to make certain conces-
SONS
"Never!' declared Rollins. "we'N
fight them to the last ditch. They have
introduced this bill, but they have not
yet passed it,
"But they will the minute it comes
to a VOTE" said Kelvin. Come up to
gram, Mr.. Rollins"
In his Office Phillip displayed a GU
rious sheet of cardboard almost as
large as the top of his desk upon
which the name of every senator and
every United States representative was
set down. A few were marked Il red
rs men who were not for sale, but the
rest, the vast majority. were divided
Into groups, one owned" by Hopper
don, another by Raymer. another by
Valentine, ETC., and the names were
in some places cross grouped showing
that certain of the senators and GER
tain of the representatives served sew
eral nonconficting interests. The dia-
gram told at glance precisely how
every man would vote on this bill.
This thing is Incredible" declared
Rollins. "Such state Of affairs can
not exist"
''Such a state Of affairs does exist, :"
asserted Kelvin. "You may close your
eyes and touch pencil point in sue
cession upon any half dozen names
there not ringed with red. Wire
those gentlemen aud ask them to tell
you by tomorrow how they intend to
vote on this bill.'
"I'll do it, said Rollins.
BY afternoon Rollins had answers
to all his wires. Four declared with
out reserve that they were for the
billion principle. Two answered eva
sively.
cit looks bad, but we mustn't allow
this state of AFFAIRS" protested ROl-
Inns. I'VE must use counter strategy"
There is only one that l know of, "
stated Kelvin quietly. Concessions"
II will resign from my management
before l make solitary concession
declared Rollins.
would you pay $1,000 for building
lot If you knew that you could imme-
diately sell it Tor $10,O00f''' demanded
Kelvin. l1@
Certainly" replied Rollins. 'But l
don't see where the illustration ap-
plies"
'In just this way" explained Kel-
vim. with concessions buy legisla-
tors from enough Of these men to Sc
cure legislative control and go after
the balance. This gives your fiat rate
pretty wide scope, Rollins. and 1t pro-
tects us until we can control our own
legislation. We have, Mr.. Breed and
myself, as you must have appreciated
by now. certain large ideas of reform.
There never WAS a more just and
equitable contrivance than your fiat
freight rate, but you can see at once
what powerful interests are arrayed
against it. We must conciliate those
interests in order to cripple them. We
will rent Hepperdon's and Raymer's
senators until we can buy them or
supplant them with some Of our own"
Rollins was silent for a long time
'Tt is very simple proposition. Roll
lins." urged Breed. you are only
granting these concessions in order to
be able later on to refuse them"
"Doing evil that good may come,
eh 2" laughed Rollins little uneasily.
''Put it that way If you like" re-
sponded Breed dryly. "but when you
are president of the United States.
with the house of representatives and
the senate in thorough sympathy with
you
"Presidentv' exclaimed Rollins.
Eyes. president" returned Breed. 81
don't mind telling you our slate now.
Our program includes this coming
campaign running Kelvin for presi-
dent and yourself for vice president.
Mr.. Kelvin wants but four years as
president. At the expiration of his
term of Office we intend to put you up
for president"
"And We'll elect you," supplemented
Kelvin confidently.
PRESIDENT repeated Rollins In a
daze
They had touched the right cord.
To be president!
"The plans are under way" stated
Breed. ave have had them secretly
at work for year. Today we could
@fE~ 90