"And South," said I, with deliberate intent to inflame, for I knew how he must feel about those delegates we had bought away from him.
There were teeth enough in his smile--but little else. "I think Burbank and Cromwell will be about even on the first ballot," said he. "May the best man win! We're all working for the good of the party and the country. But--I came, rather, to get your ideas about platform."
I opened a drawer in the table at which I was sitting and took out a paper. "We've embodied our ideas in this," said I, holding the paper toward him. "There's a complete platform, but we only insist on the five paragraphs immediately after the preamble."
He seemed to age as he read. "Impossible!" he finally exclaimed. "Preposterous! It would be difficult enough to get any money for _Cromwell_ on such a platform, well as our conservative men know they can trust him. But for _Burbank_--you couldn't get a cent--not a damn cent! A rickety candidate on a rickety platform--that's what they'd say."
"May I ask," he presently went on, "has ex-Governor Burbank seen this--this astonishing document?"
Burbank had written it. I confess when he first showed it to me, it had affected me somewhat as it was now affecting Goodrich. For, a dealer with business men as well as with public sentiment, I appreciated instantly the shock some of the phrases would give the large interests. But Burbank had not talked to me five minutes before I saw he was in the main right and that his phrases only needed a little "toning down" so that they wouldn't rasp too harshly on "conservative" ears, "Yes, Mr. Burbank has seen it," said I. "He approves it--though, of course, it does not represent his _personal_ views, or his _intentions_."
"If Mr. Burbank approves _this_," exclaimed Goodrich, red and tossing the paper on the table, "then my gravest doubts about him are confirmed. He is an utterly unsafe man. He could not carry a single state in the East where there are any large centerings of capital or of enterprise--not even our yellow-dog states."
"He can and will carry them all," said I. "They _must_ go for him, because after the opposition have nominated, and have announced their platform, your people will regard him as, at any rate, much the less of two evils. We have decided on that platform because we wish to make it possible for him to carry the necessary Western states. We can't hold our rank and file out here unless we have a popular platform. The people must have their way _before_ election, Senator, if the interests are to continue to have their way _after_ election."