i

unless the day of judgment shall, in its extraordinary phenomena, accomplish that result, it is scarcely to be held probable that any cataclysm inaugurated by god or man ever will essentially disturb the placid business of simply being alive. vesuvius erupts; a few human ants are scorched. a city burns, and a few ant-hills perish. an earthquake rocks half a continent; the other half stands firm. nothing much matters, and nothing happens. that men fly in the air, that men talk across seas by machines—as right presently they will talk mind to mind, free of all mechanical hindrance—attracts no attention beyond passing chronicle in the argot of the day. the large things of the age, of course, are the ball games and the encounters of the prize ring. why should we think? why should we feel apprehension, whereas we know full well that, come what may—unless that shall be, to wit: the ball game, the prize fight, or the day of judgment—nothing really can much matter, and nothing much can happen?

nothing much happened in kelly row. the old monotony of business and domestic routine went on with no alteration. grace went with her father daily to the common and accustomed scene of their labors; mrs. rawn baked bread, roasted meat when meat could be afforded—for this was in the america of to-day—swept the hall carpet and dusted off the dying gaul; while as to charles halsey, he still read late at night and made none too good use of india ink, try-square and straight-edge by day. no great disturbance was to be noted anywhere. all that was proposed was that the people should be—with a very commendable benevolence—offered the opportunity of purchasing for ever, to the behoof of a very few, something that had been given them free and for ever by the will of god. a simple thing, this, and of no consequence. it ranked not even with an earthquake; certainly not with a ball game.

ii

yet, with sufficient steadiness, the plans for all this went forward, and that with a commendable celerity also; for john rawn now proved himself no idler in a matter where his own welfare was concerned. he and halsey very often, in their daily meetings, discussed their future plans; halsey none too happily. rawn consoled him.

"never mind about it, charles. you shall be my right-hand man. you'll be able to understand my plans more perfectly than anybody else. and listen, charles—" he laid a hand on the young man's shoulder, "i'm not going to stand in the way of your own plans. you and grace shall marry as soon as you like, after we get this thing going. it won't be long. i shall have abundant means."

"how ever did you do it?" demanded the young man, even as his face lightened at what seemed to him the most desirable news in the world. he had just gained grace's consent and her mother's, but dreaded to ask that of her sterner parent. "how in the world did you manage it, mr. rawn? you hadn't any money, and you hadn't any influence."

"i did it by force of conviction," answered john rawn severely, setting his knuckles on the table and leaning forward as he faced him. "i did it by my own original thoughts. i impressed these other men with the importance of my invention."

iii

he strode up and down now, as he went on: "i'll tell you, charles, so that you can understand these things. i suppose you do a certain amount of reading on current events. you must know, as we all do, what a keen search there has been made by capitalists all over the country for water power sites? there are few who know to what extent the greater power sites have been monopolized already—that's kept quiet, and the people don't care. oh, i admire them, those leaders—those men who see into the future—those men who are our kings in industry. it's there i've wanted to stand all my life—among them, in their company, shoulder to shoulder with them, even-up with them—or better.

"of course, you know the newspapers and the magazines—all of them managed by a lot of reformers who have no weight in the world of affairs—have done all they could to thwart the plans of these brainier men. but they can't stop what's going to happen. a few men are going to control the resources of this country. a few men are going to administer the business affairs of this country. it can't be stopped. even the supreme court realizes that now. congress learned it long ago—the senate proves it every day of the week. my son, this invention of mine is going to make that likelihood a certainty, a certainty! i want my place among those men, those few leaders who are to control this country. and i'm going to have it!"

young halsey, dull white, simply sat staring at him as he went on.

"we all know what the old ideas of fuel and power are—they're obsolete. electricity is the power of the future, the power of to-day. speed, speed, speed is what we want. power, power, power is what every industry needs, as well as what every man craves.

"now, heretofore, the only question has been to get electricity over the country, to distribute it cheaply. the water powers manufacture it well enough, but even water powers cost money; and there has always been a limit to the range of transmission. now, when i set aside all these old, costly, inefficient methods, and hand, ready-made, to the great capitalists of this country the very answer to the last question they have been asking, what is going to be the natural result? when i tell them that i can wipe out all this enormous industrial waste that has been going on in power, what are they going to say to me? are they going to kick me out of their offices?

"they didn't kick me out. when i went to them—a few of them, men who run our road—and told them that i could separate electricity into two parts, two sorts, common and preferred, old and new, costly and cheap, localized and wholly mobile—what were they going to say to me? they didn't kick me out of the office! they got up and locked the office door. that's what they did. they were afraid i'd get away from them!

"they had thought of these things before—about as much as you have, i reckon. that is, they had hoped something would be discovered some time, by somebody. but i told them that i could send one-half of this divided power up into the air, now! i said i could store it in the air without cost to any one, and then take it down, at any manufacturing plant, anywhere, any lighting plant, any enterprise using power, whenever and wherever i pleased, at a cost not worth mentioning—and now! it was then they locked the office door, for fear i'd get away."

iv

"it's wonderful," said halsey, warmly as he could.

"i told them that, as certainly as anything is certain, i could take that stored charge out of the air, and set it at work in chicago, or cleveland, or pittsburgh, or minneapolis, or where i liked. i said i could put in the scrap heap every factory run under the old and obsolete power methods. then they began to sit up. i had 'em pale before i got through! i tell you, charles, i saw the president of this railroad we have been working for look pale and sick when i, i, john rawn, one of his underpaid clerks—a man who had had enough trouble to get to see him—who had to make some excuse to get to see him—stood up right to his face and proved these things."

halsey, duller white, listened on as rawn talked on.

"of course, they didn't believe it—he called in his crony, the general traffic manager—that beast ackerman—you see, they have some side lines of investment together, on their personal account—and it makes 'em a lot more than their salaries. but they were afraid not to believe what i said. they tried to talk and couldn't. about all they could say to me at the end of an hour or so was 'how much?'

"then i told them how much," concluded john rawn.

"how much was it, then?" halsey tried to smile, palely.

"that is not for me to say. business men handling large matters are pledged to mutual secrecy. the president of this railroad left for new york yesterday. i'm taking chances in telling you this much, and promising you as much as i have. i would not do it if i did not regard you as one of my own family. you must keep close in this, or else—" a savage look came into rawn's face, which he himself would scarcely have recognized, a new trait in his nature, kept back all these years; the savagery of the stronger having a weaker being in its power.

"breathe a word of this, even to grace," he said, "and it'll cost you grace, and it'll cost you more than that."

v

halsey made no answer but to sit looking at him, his eyes slightly distended. he loved this girl. if he must pay for that love, very well. love was worth all a man could have, all a man could do. he loved a girl, and he was young. any price for her seemed small.

rawn allowed his last remark to sink in before he resumed:

"it was some time ago that i went to these men. they sent for me often enough after that—"

"and could you prove it out?—"

"wait a minute—don't interrupt me when i'm speaking." rawn raised an imperious hand. "they sent for me, yes; until at length the president told me they hadn't known they had had this big and brainy a man right at their elbows all the time.

"then," he went on blandly, unctuously, "they showed me how large-minded and generous great business men can be when you come to know them. the people don't know these great business men—why, they're just as simple, and human, and kind! they said they wanted to identify me with their own fortunes. for instance, they put me in for five thousand shares of stock in a rubber company they are floating, and some automobile stock. the automobile industry is sure to grow. that rubber stock alone would make me rich, i have no doubt."

"but what have you done?—"

"wait a minute! these men, it seems, are in with a lot of other railroad men who are developing an oil field in lower california. they have been waiting till things got ripe. they've got two or three gushers capped out there that they're holding back until they get ready. they'll make millions out of that alone. these men play in with standard oil, and you know how strong their hold is since the supreme court threw down the cards. a salary! i a salary—what did i make? they have their salaries, but what do such sums count with men of real genius in affairs?

"well, they put me in for some of those oil shares, too. that alone would make me rich. i could stop right here, taking no chance, and be rich, now, to-day. it pays to trail in with the right bunch. what can the muckrakers do toward stopping men like that?

"i'm telling you things which of course i ought not to, but i know i can trust you, charles. and, as i told you, i'm going to keep you about me in the business. i believe in you, my son. we'll have plenty of work to do together."

"have you laid before them a complete plan, then, mr. rawn—how did you figure it all out so soon? i've worked on this a bit, and i never got much beyond a model that didn't quite turn the trick."

"i would hardly be foolish," smiled john rawn. "they do not have my secrets. let them complete their own plans. let them raise their money. let them form their company. let them give me legally my fifty-one shares of international power for control—then i'll tell them, not before. it's a question whether they're big enough to stack up in my class, that's all."

"why, you're like the keeley motor man!" grinned young halsey. "it lasted—for a while. but can you keep on putting this over with these people?"

"the president of this railroad started for new york yesterday, i told you! we've not been idle. two months ago we told our senators in congress what we wanted in the way of laws in the matter of our great central power dam. work is going on in the state legislatures, both sides of the river. money? there's no trouble raising money in america when you have a valid idea—no, not if it's only one-tenth as good as this. and this is the best and biggest monopoly this country ever saw. they'll pay for an idea like this!"

vi

"it's an idea that'll rivet chains on this country!" broke out halsey suddenly, starting up. "it's an idea that'll make still worse slaves of this american people!"

"yet just a while ago," said rawn, with a fine air of christian fortitude, "you said that you were trying to get hold of this very same idea."

"yes, yes, i was! i am! i did! but i wanted to take a burden off from the shoulders of the world, not to put a greater there. i wanted to lessen the dread and despair that our people feel to-day. i wanted to work it out, i say, so that every man could have the benefit—and free!"

"every man is going to have it," remarked john rawn grimly, "but not free. what did i tell you a while ago? get an idea, cinch it—and then sell it! the people can have this benefit, yes; but they'll pay for it. that's the way success is made."

"ah, is it so?" was halsey's answer. he flung himself against the table, his pale face thrust forward over his outspread arms. "success! you mean only that the corporation grip on this country will be stiffened more than any one ever dreamed. that's what your idea means, then? that's your success?"

rawn nodded. "of course. that has to be. business conditions have changed. i told you, a few men are to control the destiny of this country. individual competition—it's foolish now. there are differences among men. we have to take the world as we find it, and improve it if we can. when a fortunate man hits upon some great improvement in the living conditions of humanity, he gets rich. that's the way of life. why fight it? why not get on the right side, instead of the wrong side of the world? why not trail in with the main bunch, if that's where the money is?"

"go on, then, go on!" said halsey after a long while, the expression on his face now changing. "i'm going to trail in, as you say. when does the riveting begin?"

"the public will be taken in when the larger interests have completed all their plans," answered john rawn. "the stock of international may not go on the market for some time; indeed, i doubt if much of it ever gets out beyond our fellows,—it's too good a thing to share with the public. i know what'll happen with my fifty-one per cent.—it'll stay in my safety-box until john rawn is in need of bread.

"we start with fifteen million bonds," he continued, "thirty millions preferred stock, with a forty per cent., common, as a bonus. it looks as though the thing would be all inside. the management—"

"but you?—you'll think me personal—"

"not at all. i'll hold the control."

"of what?"

"of all of it," said john rawn, gently smiling, as he leaned his knuckles on the dingy table in the dining-room in kelly row.

halsey smiled at him, tapping his finger on the side of his head. "i see," said he.

"no, i'm not crazy. what do you think you see?"

"things don't happen in that way, mr. rawn. inventors don't get off in the money like that. don't tell me that."

"right you are," said rawn, dropping a clenched fist on the table top. "inventors don't! but men of that same class—men of grip and grasp—they do get off where the money is! i'll show you. they won't rob john rawn!"

vii

"did they take it easy?" queried halsey finally.

"threatened to kill me, that was all! as i said, they locked the door. it was the traffic manager, ackerman, who took it roughest. we both looked along his pistol barrel. 'all right,' i said. 'shoot. kill me, and what is there left? you can't take me in with you—it's only a question whether i'll take you in with me!

"'now, you listen,' i said to standley and ackerman—and i wasn't afraid of them—'i'll show you how to make something that everybody has to have. i'll put speed into the work of every laboring man—i'll double his efficiency, double his hours and halve his pay, and i'll cut off his ability to help himself. i'll make labor unions impossible. i'll gear up, pace up, stiffen up the whole theory of life and work, i tell you, gentlemen,' said i, 'so that one hour will count for two, one man will count for two, one wage will count for two! do you get me, gentlemen?' i asked of them—just those two were in the office then, and the door was locked behind me. 'you're big men,' said i, 'but you're not as big as i am. it's a cheap bluff about that gun,' i said to ackerman. 'put it up. you wouldn't dare kill me, or dare do anything i didn't want you to. i came to you because it was easier to walk down this hall than it was to walk across the street. do you want me to walk across the street?'"

rawn chuckled gently; and now indeed he did present the very image of self-confidence. "well, then, they saw it," said he finally. "they didn't want me to walk across the street! standley laughed at ackerman. 'no use to kill him yet,' says he. i laughed then, we all laughed. 'no, it wouldn't be any use,' said i to them. 'the question is, how much i ought to give you.'

"ackerman took it hard. he's a bulldog sort of man. 'you're damned impudent!' said he. 'i'll have you fired.'

"'i'm fired now!' says i to them. 'you think i'm only a common clerk. didn't both of you come up from clerking? can't i take you higher yet than where you are now?' the old man, standley, nodded then; and pretty soon he reached out and took my hand. 'come in, son,' says he. 'you're on.'

"well, that's nearly all there was about it, charley. i say to you, too, 'come in, son—you're on.'

viii

"now then," he went on in his monologue, "we're up to the wait while the laws are being made, and while all the plans for financing the proposition are going through. we'll have to pro-rate this stuff with the big railway companies, of course, and with the oil and steel industries, and some of the other leading combinations—standley and ackerman'll have no trouble, with their acquaintance among the big men of the east. you can't stop such men. give them this idea of mine and you can't keep them from controlling this country. these are things that can't be altered."

"but it will alter the world!" exclaimed young halsey, at last beginning to arouse. "who knows how much power there is in the water of even one big river? you can use it over and over again. why, on that one river—"

"our river," said john rawn, smiling.

"the people's river!" retorted halsey fiercely. "their river! god made that river, and all the rest of them, for something, i don't know what. but it wasn't for this."

"it'll have to work," answered john rawn. "that river'll have to work to earn its keep—they'll all have to!"

"and the country—the republic—what will become of it?"

"the republic? that was a compromise. we perhaps had to live through that. conditions in government change." mr. rawn spoke largely, finely, with a nice appreciation of all values.

"my god!" whispered halsey. "what do you mean?"

ix

rawn paid small attention to him, and he broke out yet more vehemently. "but it is an enormous thing—you are dealing with the power of powers! the great force of the world is gravitation. it makes the world move, keeps the sun in its place. water running down hill never tires. it doesn't know any eight-hour day."

"that term will cease to exist within two years," said john rawn grimly. "it is a detestable thing. it has hampered business long enough."

"what do you mean?"

"there's no such thing as an arbitrary length for a day's work. the agreed day has lasted long enough. money is made by setting other men to work for you, and then seeing that they do work. when you have something every man must use, when you've got the final whip-hand, it's you who set the working day, and not those who work for you."

"you're talking of using what god gave to human beings, and talking of making worse slaves of them to that gift. that's monstrous, mr. rawn!"

"is it, then? to our notion it has been monstrous what these labor combinations have tried to do. our great industrial leaders have been used unjustly. yet labor is only mechanical power, that has to eat, and sleep, and wear clothes. our kind of power doesn't have to do those things."

"but, mr. rawn! if that were true—of course it can't be true—what would there be left for the average man? i say that a man has a right to work when he likes, and a right to stop when he likes."

"precisely; but the labor unions say that he must stop when they like. why don't you use your brains, charles? the old war was between capital, that is to say, concentrated power, and labor, which is unconcentrated power. that war has held back business in this country for years. now, when i told these men, standley and ackerman, that i had something which would wipe out every labor union within a few years—well, they had to come in with me, that was all. they had to.

x

"the trouble with you," contended rawn, himself now speaking fiercely as he loomed and lowered above halsey, "the trouble with all you dreamers is that you have no real imagination. what's the use talking about the rights of the average man? when did the average man ever start or stop a revolutionary idea? when these things come, they come, and you can't help them. they had machinery riots in great britain a generation or two ago, but the spinning jennies stuck. it's always been so—progress sticks. the people have to adjust. but why should capital keep on fighting labor, or truckling to it, or treating with it, when we can take labor for nothing, as you just said, out of the power of gravitation—send it where we like, practically for nothing—labor that is power, labor that doesn't have to eat and doesn't have to be paid wages? i say if you had any imagination in your soul, my son, you'd rise to a thought like that."

"but that average man still must eat," said halsey bitterly.

"let him eat from our hands, then!" croaked john rawn harshly. "i tell you, when i explained this thing—when i showed them what we had in our hands, those big men broke into a sweat. they could see it, if you can't.

"but as for me," he continued, standing erect and spreading apart his hands, his voice softened almost to tremulousness, "when i saw where this thing really was going to put us all—in control of the labor question—beyond the attacks of the muckraking brigade—beyond the supreme court, if the time ever came for that—when i saw what perfect political, legislative, and industrial control we'd have in all this country—i say, when i realized what all this meant, i felt small and humble—i did indeed. i saw that i was only an instrument of providence, that's all. the people? why, we'll be the custodians of their welfare, that's all. some men are set apart, devoted to that duty—humble agents of providence, my son."

xi

a frown of consecrated unselfishness sat upon the brow of john rawn. the younger man sat looking at him, wondering whether there were not here really some homeric jest. "i didn't know it was in you," said he, rather unfortunately, at last, and hastened to cover: "that's right—it is imagination!"

rawn raised a hand magnificently. "never mind as to that, charles. a great many didn't know it was in me. why, a few months ago i told my wife something of this. she asked if i'd ever be rich enough to give her a silk dress! when the factory's up and the wheels are moving—then i'll take her out to the place, and i'll say to her just what you said to me—'you didn't think it was in me, did you? but it was!' women nearly always think their husbands can't do anything in the world. a silk dress! my god! and she wanted a new gate in the picket fence, too."

"i didn't know that about women," said halsey simply. "i thought it was the other way about."

"well, well, i hope it may be that way in your case. listen, charles. i love my girl, grace. she has always been a good child. i'm putting you in a place where you can take good care of her. i want you to stick to her for ever, through thick and thin. remember, my son, that your wife is your wife, and that nothing must separate you from her."

"maybe it'll work out something after my idea, after all." halsey spoke pleasantly as he could at this mention of grace.

"we'll take our chances but what it will work out our way!" said john rawn, grinning in return. "you want to work for man, do you? well, i want men to work for me!"

xii

"but we've no quarrel," he said suddenly, wheeling about. "we'll be partners from the start. there are some minor particulars to work out. i've got to have some sort of shop out in the back yard. bring your little machine there—the model you said would not quite work."

"how long before we begin, mr. rawn?" asked halsey simply.

"i have my last pay envelope in my pocket now, to-day."

"didn't they give you any capital to start with?"

"i did not dare ask it."

"but how much funds have you of your own?"

"mighty little. i've been kept down all my life. it's been pretty much week to week with me, although laura's been a wonderful manager, i'll say that."

"i've saved a little money," said halsey, quietly as before. "i even believe grace has saved her salary—eight a week. you see, we were making plans—here's my bank-book. a little over five hundred. how much would you need, mr. rawn, to take care of you for the next few days that you require for this work?"

"i've got to have some working models made, and it'll take some cash," said rawn. "i've hardly had time to work out all these things as yet. all right. all the more pleasure for you to feel that you had a hand in it."

he reached across the table and took the dog-eared bank-book which halsey extended, and ran his eye down the column of pitiable figures. the total was more than he himself had ever saved in all his life. yet john rawn stood there now calm, large and strong, and spoke in millions.

xiii

"all right, mr. rawn," said halsey cheerfully. "take it along. i'll draw the balance out for you. i reckon grace and i won't have to wait any longer this way than we would the other."

"well, be mighty careful to keep things to yourself, that's all!" was rawn's answer. "if you're going to be my son-in-law, you're going to be loyal to my ideas. one of my ideas is that a man has a right to what he can take."

"mr. rawn, do you know anything about socialism?" asked halsey suddenly.

"not very much. why should i?"

"there's sort of a brotherhood, or chapter, or society, or what you'd call it here, you know."

"i've heard so."

"and they let anybody who is interested come to the meetings—i've been there often—did i ever tell you? our rooms are up-stairs over a saloon, up under the rafters. we have lanterns there, the way the revolutionists used to have over in europe, when they had to meet in secret. we have speakers there sometimes—from milwaukee, new york, even from europe. and i want to tell you it's astonishing what a talk you'll hear there sometimes, from some chap that you wouldn't think had it in him—just rough-dressed fellows that look as if they hadn't a dollar in the world."

"they usually haven't," said john rawn coldly. "they want to get the dollars of men like myself and my friends, who really have done something in the way of developing this country. but one thing sure, you'll cut out that brotherhood business when you go to work with us. the rights of man!—the future of this country! why, good god, boy, with the grip you can get on business, with us to help you, what difference does it make to you whether you call this a republic or anything else? what is this republic? that is, what was it?"

xiv

halsey sat staring at him fixedly for some time, without making answer. rawn, carelessly buttoning up in his pocket the bank-book, as though it had been his own, rose at length and held out his hand.

(halsey and rawn)

(halsey and rawn]

"you're a good boy, charles," said he. "you've done the best you knew, and that's about all i've done. you couldn't say, of course, that our ideas have been the same in regard to this discovery, so i suppose we can't wonder they are not the same in regard to its eventual application. let's not argue about that. we'll start out with our little shop, the first thing."

the young man still looked at him, still withheld comment. rawn, once more full of himself, almost forgot him now. he stood erect, his arms spread out, in a favorite posture, as though exhorting a multitude. a pleasant, gentle, generous smile spread over his countenance, a smile which showed his content with himself, his future prospects, his past performances.

"you ought to have been there with me, charles, when i talked to old standley and his side partner, ackerman. that was the big scene of my whole life!"

"the big scene?" said halsey, half musingly. "no! maybe not. we don't know what there may be on ahead."

"isn't that the truth!" assented john rawn graciously. "when a man of brains and energy gets his start, there's no telling where he won't go, or what he won't do. yes, that's the truth!"