Part 55 (1/2)
”Just the same you ought to have the best libel lawyer you can get from New York. All the good local men are tied up with Pierce or afraid of him.”
”Can't afford it.”
To this point the big man had been leading up. ”I've been thinking over this Pierce matter, Hal, and I've made up my mind. Pierce is getting to think he's the whole thing around here. He's bullied this town all his life, just as he's bullied his employees until they hate him like poison. But now he's gone up against the wrong game. Roast Certina, will he? The pup! Why, if he'd ever run his factories or his store or his Consolidated Employees' Organization one hundredth part as decently as I've run our business, he wouldn't have to stay in nights for fear some one might sneak a knife into him out of the dark.”
This was something less than just to Elias M. Pierce, who, whatever his other faults, had never been a fearful man.
”Libel, eh?” continued the genius of Certina, quietly but formidably.
”We'll teach him a few things about libel, before he's through. Here's my proposition, Boyee. You can fight Pierce, but you can't fight all Worthington. Every enemy you make for the 'Clarion' becomes an ally of Pierce. Quit all these other campaigns. Stop roasting the business men and advertisers. Drop your attack on the Mid and Mud: you've got 'em licked, anyway. Let up on the street railway: I notice you're taking a fall out of them on their overcrowding. Treat the theaters decently: they're ent.i.tled to a fair chance for their money. Cut out this Consumers' League foolishness (I'm surprised at Milly Neal--the way she's lost her head over that). Make friends instead of foes. And go after Elias M. Pierce, to the finish. Do this, and I'll back you with the whole Certina income. Come on, now, Boyee. Be sensible.”
Hal's reply came without hesitation. ”I'm sorry, Dad: but I can't do it.
I've told you I'd stand or fall on what you've already given me. If I can't pull through on that, I can't pull through at all. Let's understand each other once and for all, Dad. I've got to try this thing out to the end. And I won't ask or take one cent from you or any one else, win or lose.”
”All right, Boyee,” returned his father sorrowfully. ”You're wrong, dead wrong. But I like your nerve. Only, let me tell you this. You think you're going to keep on printing the news and the whole news and all that sort of thing. I tell you, it can't be done.”
”Why can't it be done?”
”Because, sooner or later, you'll b.u.mp up against your own interests so hard that you'll have to quit.”
”I don't see that at all, sir.”
”No, you don't. But one of these days something in the news line will come up that'll hit you right between the eyes, if ever it gets into print. Then see what you'll do.”
”I'll print it.”
”No, you won't, Boyee. Human nature ain't built that way. You'll smother it, and be glad you've got the power to.”
”Dad, you believe I'm honest, don't you?”
”Too blamed honest in some ways.”
”But you'd take my word?”
”Oh, that! Yes. For anything.”
”Then I put my honor on this. If ever the time comes that I have to suppress legitimate news to protect or aid my own interests, I'll own up I'm beaten: I'll quit fighting, and I'll make the 'Clarion' a very sucking dove of journalism. Is that plain?”
”Shake, Boyee. You've bought a horse. Just the same, I hate to let up on Pierce. Sure you won't let me hire a New York lawyer for the libel suit?”
”No. Thank you just as much, Dad. That's a 'Clarion' fight, and the 'Clarion's' money has got to back it.”
It was the gist of this decision which, some days later, had reached E.M. Pierce, and caused him such satisfaction. With the ”Clarion”
depending upon its own resources, unbacked by the great reserve wealth of Certina's proprietor, he confidently expected to wreck it and force its suspension by an overwhelming verdict of damages. For, as Dr.
Surtaine had surmised, he held a card up his sleeve.
CHAPTER XX
THE LESSER TEMPTING