Mr. Hendricks to Doctor Smalley, after a half hour of almost taciturnity, while Willy Cameron smoked his pipe and listened. "Watch him rise to this, though." And aloud: "Why don't you fellows drop the League of Nations, which none of you knows a damn about anyhow, and get to the thing that's coming in this country?" "I'll bite," said Mr. Clarey, who sold life insurance in the daytime and sometimes utilized his evenings in a similar manner. "What's coming to this country?" "Revolution." The crowd laughed. "All right," said Mr. Hendricks. "Laugh while you can. I saw the Chief of Police today, and he's got a line of conversation that makes a man feel like taking his savings out of the bank and burying them in the backyard." Willy Cameron took his pipe out of his mouth but remained dumb. Mr. Hendricks nudged Doctor Smalley, who rose manfully to the occasion. "What does he say?" "Says the Russians have got a lot of paid agents here. Not all Russians either. Some of our Americans are in it. It's to begin with a general strike." "In this town?" "All over the country. But this is a good field for them. The crust's pretty thin here, and where that's the case there is likely to be earthquakes and eruptions. The Chief says they're bringing in a bunch of gunmen, wobblies, and Bolshevists from every industrial town on the map. Did you get that, Cameron? Gunmen!" "Any of you men here dissatisfied with this form of government?" inquired Willy, rather truculently. "Not so you could notice it," said Mr. Clarey. "And once the Republican party gets in—" "Then there will never be a revolution." "Why?" "That's why," said Willy Cameron. "Of course, you are worthless now. You aren't organized. You don't know how many you are or how strong you are. You can't talk. You sit back and listen until you believe that this country is only capital and labor. You get squeezed in between them. You see labor getting more money than you and howling for still more. You see both capital and labor raising prices until you can't live
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