human
You're a pretty good stump performer yourself, Plonny. Don't you know that exactly the same argument will be urged two years from now?
gpt
I know it won't, said Plonny with the calmness of absolute conviction.
human
A fat legislature _always_ follows a lean one. They come in strips, same as a shoulder of bacon.
gpt
Well! I wouldn't think much of a party whose legs were so weak that a little step forward--everybody knows _it's_ forward--would tumble it over in a heap.
human
The party! I ain't thinking of the _party_, Mr. West. I'm thinking, said Neal, the indignation in his voice giving way to a sudden apologetic softness,
gpt
Me? What on earth have I got to do with it?
human
Everything. If the party gets let in for this extravagance, you'll be the man who did it.
gpt
Well, I suppose I will have to stand that. I must do what I think is right, you know, and take the consequences.
human
Two years from now, said Mr. Neal, gently,
gpt
Possibly not,
human
While the consequences now, continued Mr. Neal, still more gently,
gpt
Well, Plonny! I'm not asking anything of the party leaders--
human
But suppose some of your friends wanted to ask something for _you_?
gpt
Listen here, Mr. West. I understand your feelings and your position just like they was print, and I was reading them over your shoulder. You're walking with y'r eyes on the skies, and you don't like to look at the ground to see that you don't break nothing as you go forward. Your mind's full of the maw'l idea and desire to uplift the people, and it's kind of painful to you to stop and look at the plain practical way by which things get done. But I tell you that everybody who ever got anything big done in this world, got it done in a practical way. All the big men that you and I admire--all the public leaders and governors and reform mayors and so on--got where they have by doing practical good in a practical way. Now, you don't like me to say that if you do so-and-so, you'll be in bad with the State leaders, f'r that looks to you as if I thought you could be infloonced by what would be your personal advantage. And I honor you f'r them feelin's which is just what I knew you'd had, or I wouldn't be here talkin' to you now. But you mustn't blame others if they ain't as partic'lar, mebbe, as to how things might _look_. You mustn't blame y'r friends--and you've got a sight more of them than you have any idea of--if they feel all broke up to see you get in bad, both for your own sake and f'r the sake of the party.
human
You want to serve the people, Mr. West? How could you do it better than in public orf'ce. Lemme talk to you straight f'r once--will you? Or am I only offendin' you by buttin' in this way, without having ever been asked?
gpt
I'm glad of it, f'r I can hardly keep it in my system any longer. Listen here, Mr. West. As you may have heard, there's to be a primary f'r city orf'cers in June. Secret ballot or no secret ballot, the organization's going to win. You know that. Now, who'll the organization put up f'r Mayor? From what I hear, they dassen't put up any old machine hack, same's they been doin' f'r years. They might want to do it, but they're a-scared the people won't stand f'r it. From what little I hear, the feelin's strong that they _got_ to put up some young progressive public-spirited man of the reformer type. Now s'posin' the friends of a certain fine young man, sittin' not a hundred miles from this table, had it in their minds to bring _him_ forward f'r the nomination. This young man might say he wasn't seekin' the orf'ce and didn't want it, but I say public orf'ce is a duty, and no man that wants to serve the people can refuse it, partic'larly when he may be needed to save the party. And now I ask you this, Mr. West: What show would the friends of this young man have, if he had a bad spot on his record? What chance'd there be of namin' to lead the party in the city the _man who had knifed the party in the State_?