Herein Banneker had refrained from following him. Ever the cat at the
hole's mouth, the patient lurker, the hopeful waiter upon the event, the
proprietor of The Patriot forbore to press his editorial chief. He still
mistrusted the strength of his hold upon Banneker; feared a defiance
when he could ill afford to meet it. What he most hoped was some
development which would turn Banneker's heavy guns upon Laird so that,
with the defeat of the fusion ticket candidate, the public would say,
"The Patriot made him and The Patriot broke him."
Laird played into Marrineal's hands. Indignant at what he regarded as a
desertion of principles by The Patriot, the fusion nominee, in one of
his most important addresses, devoted a stinging ten minutes to a
consideration of that paper, its proprietor, and its editorial writer,
in its chosen role of "friend of labor." His text was the Veridian
strike, his information the version which McClintick furnished him; he
cited Banneker by name, and challenged him as a prostituted mind and a
corrupted pen. Though Laird had spoken as he honestly believed, he did
not have the whole story; McClintick, in his account, had ignored the
important fact that Marrineal, upon being informed of conditions, had
actually (no matter what his motive) remedied them.
Pages:
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690