“Dun’no’s I kin agree with you, Jim. Seems to me time’s too short. Maybe I should ’a’ fought, but there wa’n’t much encouragement. Folks was flockin’ to Peleg. Shouldn’t wonder if a dose of Peleg ’u’d be the thing to cure ’em.” “You mustn’t leave them in the lurch. It’s natural you should feel hard against them, but they-they’ve been fooled. It’s not their fault.” “Somehow, Jim, I don’t feel as able to undertake things as I did once.” Zaanan’s voice was weary, old. “Looks to me like it would be wastin’ time to stir things up now. Calc’late I’m done for, Jim.” “All your friends haven’t left you. But they need you to lead them. They don’t know what to do.” “There hain’t nothin’ to do, Jim, against Moran and all his money.” “But won’t you come out and try? Go down fighting, anyhow.” “Hain’t no occasion for it, Jim. Better save up what strength I’ve got left. No use wastin’ it in vain efforts.” A surge of sympathy for the old man welled up in Jim. Sitting there in the latter end of his days, deserted by friends, abandoned by those for whom he had striven for a score of years, he could not be contemplated unmoved. In his discouragement he was pitiful indeed. “Judge,” Jim said, impulsively, “I wish I could drop everything and jump into this thing for you. I can’t do that, but I can do something. Until caucus day I’m going to give every possible minute to this election, whether you help or not.” “Much obleeged,” said Zaanan, without enthusiasm. “What’s your special int’rest in this thing, eh? Seems to me like you was consid’able wrought up over it.” Jim hesitated. What was his interest? Was it merely hatred for Moran, or was it something worthier? He paused to search his soul for the answer. “Before my father induced me to take over this business I had other plans. I had been a newspaper man in the city. I had seen things, and it seemed to me that there was room for somebody who wanted to help. The people—the people at the bottom of the heap—need help, Judge. They don’t belong. They pay their dues in money or labor, but they’re not members. They have none of the privileges. Perhaps they aren’t entitled to the privileges; perhaps they wouldn’t know what to do with them if they got them, but they’re entitled to something. Our Declaration of Independence says something about all men being born free and equal. In theory that may be true. In practice only those are free and equal who are strong enough to force others to recognize their freedom and equality. I wanted to do something—one man could do only a little—toward helping the bottom of the heap out from under to where the weight of the top of the heap wouldn’t crush them.” “Um! One of them newfangled socialists, eh?” “I don’t know. I don’t know just what a socialist is, but if what I’ve said makes me one, then I’m guilty of the charge.” “Hain’t jest normal for a feller employin’ men and women like you do.”