The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1913-02-18
CHAPTER vi.
John Rawn, Prominent Citizen.

The blare and blaze or American
life went on in all its capitals of indus
try. Buildings sprang up, factories
poured their smoke increasingly into
the sky. Men ran hither and thlther
like ants, busy about what seemed
to them Of Importance. Vast hives Of
heaped-up stone twice daily poured
out their population of small creatures,
some Of them crippled, hurt, shorn in
the battle of life, their faces pale,
their forms bowed and stunted before
their time. Out Of the rich west poured
always a steady stream Of the prod
ucts Of the soil and of the mines,
wealth unspeakable, dug from the re-
sources of this admirable country of
ours. Many produced it, few con-
itro1led it, all required it.
But there came a sort Of hush over
all the country, as though an eclipse
were passing, or some gloom cast by
To- cloud coming between these cities
and the sun Men said that business
was not so good as it should be, though
the country was richer than ever.
None understood the popular unrest.
Many pondered, many attempted to
explain, but they found all save the
easy and obvious explanation. The
masses remained morose, dissatisfied.
Pamphlets appeared. In the journals
pretending to give voice to popular
trend Of thought there were now to
,be seen many screeds from many un-
known men. Some men said that
prices should rise, others that rates of
transportation should rise, but that
wages should decrease. Others SAID
that wages should increase-a few
only of these, not many; for those who
needed most a larger wage were those
most dumb of expression, least able
and least apt to make any public pro-
test. Our proudest may be our poor
est-our neediest our most silent.
In John Rawn's slowly growing fac
tories near the western capital wages
did not rise. He kept on his fight with
the labor organizations. For this rea-
son he met additional expense and ad-
ditional delay in carrying on his plans,
but still waged war, relaxing not at
all. meeting picllets with policemen,
force with force. The popular dlscon-
ten. Of the day meant nothing to him.
His eye was fixed ahead. To Halsey's
complaints on the one side, mis- dlrec-
tors discreet grumbling on the other,
he paid as little attention on the one
hand as upon the other. John RaWn
had q dream, and he knew that his
dream must come true. His dream
was one of a Wide-reaching and relent-
less power, shared by those few men
destined by fate to own the so-called
American republic. Let the people do
what they would, all they could. This
was his dream. 1t had come to him
in all its fullness one evening in the
great city Of the east. He exulted.
AS to the Industrial situation in In
ternational Power Rawn now began
to prove himself a good business man,
and he received more and more the
grudged confidence Of his associates,
who came from almost every rank Of
big business. Through the aid and ad-
vice of these, his private fortune be-
gan 20 mount up enormously. So also
did International Power make money.
The only sore place Of the directors
overstrained nerves centered in affairs
at the gaunt building in the suburb,
where a dozen mysterious machines,
toothed and armed, cogged and coiled,
still stood in a state Of half-comple-
ion, as inchoate and mysterious now
as they had been at their inception.
None Of the workmen, none OF the
foremen, could guess what they would
look like when completed.
There was something else, which
not the most suspicious guessed-John
Rawn himself did not know! His sue
cess was & vast bubble. Halsey was
the only man who ever had known the
full secret Of mantling one of the MI
raculous receivers which they all had
seen and all had accepted. Rawn,
bold enough. kept this to himself, al
though he feared to go to Halsey and
make any demands. Halsey held grim
peace for. montbs-indeed, for moro