"The people," Benson raged—"the people with votes don’t know surplus value from the binominal theorem. Perhaps they will vote for their daughters—they can see them. But they won’t get excited about their great-great-grandchildren."
There was a squabble among the committee-men. The Scotchman was too canny to take sides; he wanted to refer the matter to the local, which was not to meet until two days before the election.
"Aber," said the brewery man, "Ve need etwas gongrete."
Lipsky accused him of being a "reformer."
After an hour’s wrangle, it was decided that they could not stop us from attacking Root. But we were to hold up the posters asking votes for Lipsky. He would not permit his name to be used without the consent of the local.
As they were going downstairs, I heard Kaufmann protesting—"Aber, Genossen—ich bin eine echte revoluzionaire!"
So Benson ran the campaign unaided. The effect of his posters was electric. The next day he brought out some more:—
Of course they both denied. But as the posters made no specific allegations, they did not know what to deny. Their output was conflicting. During the afternoon, Benson stirred things up again with a series—
Breen was rattled, and said it was all a lie, that the red light business had not been discussed at the meeting in Billy Bryan’s saloon. Both Root and the Old Man had denied the meeting. So Benson had them on the run. The more they explained the worse they tangled things. The cadet from whom I had forced our information, fearing the wrath of The Old Man, was of course keeping his mouth shut. We did not give away on him. So they could not guess Benson’s source of knowledge, and would have given anything to know just how much he knew.
The Socialist local nearly broke up over the affair. A number were absolutely set against accepting aid from a "Bourgeois philanthropist," like Benson. Lipsky was in a violently embarrassing position. Suddenly there was a good chance of his election. The people of the district were manifestly excited over the issue. They were ready to vote for any one who would promise effective war against the cadets. It must have been a frightful temptation to him. But he stood fast for his principles. He did not want to be elected on a chance reform issue. If the people of the neighborhood stood for Marxian economics, he would be glad to represent them. But he would have nothing to do with demagogy.