Section 69
Peter was really happy now, because the authorities were thoroughly
roused, and when he brought them new facts, he had the satisfaction
of seeing something done about it. Ostensibly the action was taken
by the Federal agents, or by the District Attorney's office, or by
the city police and detectives; but Peter knew that it was always
himself and the rest of Guffey's agents, pulling the wires behind
the scenes. Guffey had the money, he was working for the men who
really counted in American City; Guffey was the real boss. And all
over the country it was the same; the Reds were being put out of
business by the secret agents of the Chambers of Commerce and the
Merchants' and Manufacturers' Associations, and the "Improve America
League," and such like camouflaged organizations.
They had everything their own way, because the country was at war,
the war excitement was blazing like a prairie fire all over the
land, and all you had to do was to call a man a pro-German or a
Bolshevik, and to be sufficiently excited about it, and you could
get a mob together and go to his home and horsewhip him or tar and
feather him or lynch him. For years the big business men had been
hating the agitators, and now at last they had their chance, and in
every town, in every shop and mill and mine they had some Peter
Gudge at work, a "Jimmie Higgins" of the "Whites," engaged in spying
and "snooping" upon the "Jimmie Higgins" of the "Reds." Everywhere
they had Guffeys and McGivneys to direct these activities, and they
had "strong arm men," with guns on their hips and deputy sheriffs'
and other badges inside their coats, giving them unlimited right to
protect the country from traitors.
There were three or four million men in the training camps, and
every week great convoys were sent out from the Eastern ports,
loaded with troops for "over there." Billions of dollars worth of
munitions and supplies were going, and all the yearnings and
patriotic fervors of the country were likewise going "over there."
Peter read more speeches and sermons and editorials, and was proud
and glad, knowing that he was taking his humble part in the great
adventure. When he read that the biggest captains of industry and
finance were selling their services to the government for the sum of
one dollar a year, how could he complain, who was getting twenty
dollars every week? When some of the Reds in their meetings or in
their "literature" declared that these captains of industry and
finance were the heads of companies which were charging the
government enormous prices and making anywhere from three to ten
times the profits they had made before the war--then Peter would
know that he was listening to an extremely dangerous Bolshevik; he
would take the name of the man to McGivney, and McGivney would pull
his secret wires, and the man would suddenly find himself out of a
job--or maybe being prosecuted by the health department of the city
for having set out a garbage can without a cover.
After persistent agitation, the radicals had succeeded in persuading
a judge to let out McCormick and the rest of the conspirators on
fifty thousand dollars bail apiece. That was most exasperating to
Peter, because it was obvious that when you put a Red into jail, you
made him a martyr to the rest of the Reds you made him conspicuous
to the whole community, and then if you let him out again, his
speaking and agitating were ten times as effective as before. Either
you ought to keep an agitator in jail for good, or else you ought
not put him in at all. But the judges didn't see that--their heads
were full of a lot of legal bunk, and they let David Andrews and the
other Red lawyers hood-wink them. Herbert Ashton and his Socialist
crowd also got out on bail, and the "Clarion" was still published
and openly sold on the news-stands. While it didn't dare oppose the
war any more, it printed every impolite thing it could possibly
collect about the "gigantic trading corporation" known as the
British Government, and also about the "French bankers" and the
"Italian imperialists." It clamored for democracy for Ireland and
Egypt and India, and shamelessly defended the Bolsheviki, those
pro-German conspirators and nationalizers of women.
So Peter proceeded to collect more evidence against the "Clarion"
staff, and against the I. W. Ws. Presently he read the good news
that the government had arrested a couple of hundred of the I. W. W.
leaders all over the country, and also the national leaders of the
Socialists, and was going to try them all for conspiracy. Then came
the trial of McCormick and Henderson and Gus and the rest; and Peter
picked up his "Times" one morning, and read on the front page some
news that caused him to gasp. Joe Angell, one of the leaders in the
dynamite conspiracy, had turned state's evidence! He had revealed to
the District Attorney, not only the part which he himself had played
in the plan to dynamite Nelse Ackerman's home, but he had told
everything that the others had done--just how the dynamite had been
got and prepared, and the names of all the leading citizens of the
community who were to share Nelse Ackerman's fate! Peter read, on
and on, breathless with wonder, and when he got thru with the story
he rolled back on his bed and laughed out loud. By heck, that was
the limit! Peter had framed a frame-up on Guffey's man, and of
course Guffey couldn't send this man to prison; so he had had him
turn state's evidence, and was letting him go free, as his reward
for telling on the others!
The court calendars were now crowded with "espionage" cases;
pacifist clergymen who had tried to preach sermons, and labor
leaders who bad tried to call strikes; members of the
Anti-conscription League and their pupils, the draft-dodgers and
slackers; Anarchists and Communists and Quakers, I. W. Ws., and
Socialists and "Russellites." There were several trials going on all
the time, and in almost every case Peter had a finger, Peter was
called on to get this bit of evidence, or to investigate that juror,
or to prepare some little job against a witness for the defense.
Peter was wrapped up in the fate of each case, and each conviction
was a personal triumph. As there was always a conviction, Peter
began to swell up again with patriotic fervor, and the memory of
Nell Doolin and Ted Crothers slipped far into the background. When
"Mac" and his fellow dynamiters were sentenced to twenty years
apiece, Peter felt that he had atoned for all his sins, and he
ventured timidly to point out to McGivney that the cost of living
was going up all the time, and that he had kept his promise not to
wink at a woman for six months. McGivney said all right, they would
raise him to thirty dollars a week.
