Upton Sinclair

“ GRIMES. You've been listening to tales, ma'am. We do a lot for the people.
LAURA. You treat them to free coal and free picnics and free beer, and so you get their votes; and then you sell them out to capitalists like my father.
GRIMES. Humph!
LAURA. You sell them out to any one, high or low, who will pay for the privilege of exploiting them. You sell them to the rum-dealer and the dive-keeper and the gambler. You sell them to the white-slave trader.
GRIMES. There's no such person, Miss Hegan. ”

“ HEGAN. What do you ask me?
LAURA. I wish you to stop this mad career... to give up this money game... to drop it utterly! To stop selling stocks and manipulating markets; to stop buying politicians and franchises... to sell out everything... to withdraw. I want you to do it now... today.. . this very hour!
HEGAN. But, my dear...
LAURA. I want you to come with me, and help me to find happiness again, by doing some good in the world. I want you to use your power and your talents to help people, instead of to destroy them.
HEGAN. My child! ”

“ MONTAGUE. Miss Hegan, from the first time I met you I felt that you were the woman I should love. But then, as fate would have it, I found myself preparing to attack your father; so I said that we must never meet again. But now you see how it has happened. I have come to know you as I never hoped to know you, and I know that I love you.
LAURA. I had no idea...
MONTAGUE. You say that you are going away alone. Let us go together. We have the same purpose... we have the same battle to fight. We can go out to the people and help to teach them. ”

“ GRIMES. [Shrugs his shoulders.] As you please, ma'am. But you needn't mind me... I ain't easy to offend. And I'm only trying to understand you.
LAURA. [After a silence.] Mr. Grimes, I had the good fortune to be brought up in a beautiful and luxurious home; but not long ago I began to go down into the slums and see the homes of the people. I saw sights that made me sick with horror.
GRIMES. No doubt, ma'am.
LAURA. I found the people in the grip of a predatory organization that had bound them hand and foot, and was devouring them alive. ”

“ GRIMES. [Stares.] And do what, ma'am?
LAURA. Quit Wall Street, and devote himself to some useful work.
GRIMES. [After a pause.] And if he won't?
LAURA. I have told him he must choose between his present career and his daughter's love.
GRIMES. [Gazes at LAURA, then in front of him; slowly shakes his head.] I can't make out our young people. When I was a boy, young women looked up to their parents. What's your father done to you, that you should turn against him?
LAURA. I have not turned against him, Mr. Grimes.
GRIMES. [Indicating HEGAN, who sits in an attitude of despair.] ”

“ GRIMES. How different? We've got the police, and we've got the district attorney, and we've got the courts. What more do we want? What can they do but talk in the newspapers? And is there anything they haven't said about us already? [Takes HEGAN by the arm, and laughs.] Come, old man! As my friend Leary says: "Dis is a nine-day town. If yez kin stand de gaff for nine days, ye're all right!" We'll stand the gaff!
HEGAN. I'm tired of standing it.
GRIMES. Yes, we all get tired now and then. But this afternoon it'll be Murdock that's tired. Think of him, Hegan... try to realize him a bit! ”

“ MONTAGUE. I understand what you feel! And see what your decision means to me... it sets me free at last!
LAURA. Free!
MONTAGUE. Free to speak! Miss Hegan, I came to New York, and I met these rich people, and I saw how their fortunes were poisoning their lives. I saw men who could not have a real friend in the world, because of their money. I saw young girls whose souls were utterly dead in them because they had been brought up to think of themselves as keepers of money-bags, and to guard against men who sought to prey upon them. ”

“ HEGAN. And yet you have judged me! What would you say if I told you that we had information that one of the judges had received a thousand shares of Grand Avenue stock from Murdock? And that another had been promised a seat in the United States Supreme Court by that eminent Republican?
LAURA. Oh! Horrible!
HEGAN. You see what the game is?
LAURA. But, father! The buying and selling of the powers of the Government...
HEGAN. The "Government" consisting of politicians who have gotten themselves elected for the purpose of selling out to the highest bidder. ”

“ Many another man has been born to a fate like yours, and has fought his way up from the pit... to be a tower of strength for goodness and service, an honor to his people and himself.
GRIMES. I've not met any such, ma'am.
LAURA. No; you've not sought for them. You did not need them in your business. The men you needed were the thugs and the criminals, who could stuff ballot-boxes for you... the dive-keepers and the vice-sellers, who would contribute to your campaign funds! And you have dealt with them... you have built up the power they gave you into a mighty engine of corruption and wrong! ”

“ MONTAGUE. It is far worse, because of its vast scope. It carries every form of corruption in its train. It means the prostitution of our whole system of government... the subsidizing of our newspapers, and of the great political parties. It means that judges are chosen who will decide in favor of the corporations; that legislators are nominated who will protect them against attack. It means everywhere the enthronement of ignorance and incompetence, of injustice and fraud.
LAURA. And in the end the public pays for it?
MONTAGUE. In the end the public pays for everything. ”

“ MONTAGUE. No. I should say that to any one. I am at war with the system... not with individuals. It is the old story of hating the sin and loving the sinner. Your father's rivals are just as reckless as he take Murdock, for instance, the man who is behind this Grand Avenue Railroad matter. It is hard for a woman to understand that situation.
LAURA. I can understand some things very clearly. I go down into the slums and I see all that welter of misery. ”

“ I used to think what a whole lot of people could do. You might as well ask me to think what her father could do... if he only wanted to do it, instead of poisoning the life-blood of the city, and piling up his dirty millions. Go about this town and see the misery and horror... and think that it's Jim Hegan who sits at the top and reaps the profit of it all! It's Jim Hegan who is back of the organization... he's the real power behind Boss Grimes. It's he who puts up the money and makes possible this whole regime of vice and graft... ”

“ GRIMES. But you told them last night you were going in with every dollar you could raise! You told Isaacson he could break with Murdock! And now you'll tell them you've turned tail and run! Why, Hegan, it's treason!
HEGAN. Listen to me...
GRIMES. I don't want to listen to you! Half an hour from now you'll be ashamed of yourself... wishing that nobody had heard you! You'll be begging me not to mention it! You... Jim Hegan... the traction king! To lose your nerve over a little thing like this! What's come over you, anyhow... after all the things we've been through together? Why, man... ”

“ And you are master of it... you use it to wring tribute from high and low! Selling immunity to dive-keepers and betraying helpless young girls! Naming legislators and judges, and receiving bribes to corrupt the highest Court in the State.
HEGAN. Laura...
LAURA. Father, I did not seek this discussion! He challenged me... and he shall hear the truth! For all these months the thing that has been driving me to desperation has been the knowledge that my father was the business associate and ally of a master of infamy like Robert Grimes!
GRIMES. Thanks, ma'am! And so now he's to break with me! ”

“ Every struggling unfortunate in the city pays for it, when he comes into contact with the system... when he seeks for help, or even for justice. It was that side of it that shocked me most of all... I being a lawyer, you see. The corrupting of our courts...
LAURA. The judges are bought, Mr. Montague?
MONTAGUE. The judges are selected, Miss Hegan.
LAURA. Selected! I see.
MONTAGUE. And that system prevails from the Supreme Court of the State down to the petty Police Magistrates, before whom the poor come to plead.
LAURA. And that is why the white-slave traffic goes unpunished! ”

“ Robert Grimes, himself! A thousand times, sir, has the truth about this monstrous infamy been put before the people of your city; and that they have not long ago risen in their wrath and driven its agents from their midst is due to but one single fact... that this infamous organization of crime and graft is backed at each election time by the millions of the great public service corporations. It is they...
MONTAGUE. [Interfering.] Bullen!
JACK. Let me go on! It is they, sir, who finance the thugs and repeaters who desecrate our polls. ”

“ I looked about me at the world, ma'am, and I found it was full of all sorts of pleasant things, that I'd never had, and never stood a chance of havin'. They were for the rich... the people on top. And they looked on with scorn... I was poor and I was low, and I wasn't fit for anything. And so I set to climb, ma'am. I shouldered my way up. I met men that fought me; I fought them back, and I won out. That's the sort of man I am.
LAURA. I see. A selfish man, bent upon power at any price! A brutal man, profiting by the weakness of others! An unscrupulous man, trading upon fear and greed! ”

“ I see the forces of evil that exist there, defiant and hateful... the saloons and the gambling-houses, and that ghastly white-slave traffic, of which Annie Rogers is the victim. And there is the political organization, taking its toll from all these, and using it to keep itself in power. And there is Boss Grimes, who is at the head of all... and he is one of my father's intimate associates. I ask about it, and I am told that it is a matter of "business." But why should my father do business with a man whose chief source of income is vice? ”

“ Imagine a girl brought up in luxury, with a father whom she loves very dearly, and who loves her more than any one else in the world. Everything is done to make her happy... to keep her contented and peaceful. But as she grows up, she reads and listens... and, little by little, it dawns upon her that her father is one of the leaders in this terrible struggle that you have spoken of. She hears about wrongdoing; she is told that her father's enemies have slandered him. ”

“ ANDREWS. Give them here; I'll see to them.
PARKER. Any orders for the brokers this morning?
ANDREWS. I'm writing them myself.
PARKER. Something special, eh? All right. [Looks at ticker.] Hello! Listen to this: "There is a rumor, widely current, that the decision of the Court of Appeals in the matter of the Public vs. the Grand Avenue Railroad Company will be handed down to-day!" Gee whiz, I wonder if that's so?
ANDREWS. I have heard the rumor.
PARKER. There was a reporter here yesterday, trying to pump me. I'll bet they're watching the boss.
ANDREWS. Yes; no doubt of that. ”

“ MONTAGUE. Miss Hegan, Mr. Bullen has brought me evidence which proves that the decision of the Court, which is to be made known tomorrow, has been... improperly affected.
LAURA. [Quickly.] By whom?
MONTAGUE. By Robert Grimes.
LAURA. [Starts wildly.] And the evidence involves my father?
MONTAGUE. Your father will be the chief one to profit from the change.
LAURA. [Sinks back against the table; stares away from them, whispering.] To Grimes... two hundred thousand on Court deal! I see! I see! [Faces them, weakly.] And what... what do you mean to do? ”

“ There was a girl of the slums... her name was Annie Rogers. She was a decent girl; and she was lured into a dive and drugged and shut up in a brothel, a prisoner. She escaped to the street, pursued, and a friend of mine saved her. And, high and low, among the authorities of this city, we sought for justice for that girl, and there was no justice to be had. Yesterday afternoon I learned that she cut her own throat.
GRIMES. I see.
LAURA. And that happened, Mr. Grimes! It happened in the City of New York! I saw it with my own eyes!
GRIMES. Such things have been, ma'am. ”

“ MONTAGUE. It would establish a precedent of vast importance. But how could that be done?
LAURA. We have a hold upon these men... we could compel them to give way!
MONTAGUE. They would never do it, Miss Hegan... they have too much at stake.
LAURA. But... the evidence you have! Mr. Bullen said you could send Grimes to jail.
MONTAGUE. That was just wild talk. Grimes has the district attorney and the courts. He could never be punished for anything.
LAURA. But the exposure!
JACK. He's been exposed a hundred times. What does that matter to him?
LAURA. But then... my father is involved. ”

“ It means that you have been seeing the white-slave traffic in action.
HEGAN. I don't understand.
JACK. [Quietly, but with suppressed passion.] Tens of thousands of girl slaves are needed for the markets of our great cities... for the lumber camps of the North, the mining camps of the West, the ditches of Panama. And every four or five years the supply must be renewed, and so the business of gathering these girl-slaves from our slums is one of the great industries of the city. ”