"He has talked too wild," said this one. "He oughtn’t to have threatened till after election. Of course, I know what he’s got to do if he’s elected, but he needn’t have begun it beforehand. I haven’t got anything against him, but he’s shown his hand too soon, and so he won’t make a good candidate."
The business men spoke much as Forbes had spoken. The Municipal Reform League was a radical organization, but it ought to be radical within reason. Huber’s public utterances had been too sweepingly radical. They feared him; they thought him too hot-headed. He was still too young. In pursuing Big Business, he was sure to trample smaller, legitimate business; he would upset credit.
The majority of the committee was loyal to Luke and had its way. Luke received the nomination, but such dissenters as were converted came to him half-heartedly, and two of the timorous business men withdrew from the organization.
"Then, there is Yeates, too," said Venable. "He wasn’t at the meeting, but he telephoned he was coming here to see you about this time, and I gathered that he isn’t in a particularly pleasant frame of mind."
Luke thought of Venable’s long years of battle for reform.
"You know what’s at the back of all this?" he said.
"I can guess. Your published attack was rather clear, Mr. Huber."
"Then, are you and the League prepared to go right ahead?"
"I always suspected these people," he said. "I always felt sure they were against us. They were never so strongly against us as they are now, but their being so much more against us now only makes me the more certain that what we are doing is right."
"They have a good deal of power, Mr. Venable."
"I know that better than you do, my boy; but they can’t hurt me personally, if that is what you mean. What little money I have comes from the rents of an uptown apartment house. It’s in a good neighborhood and full of steady people. Nobody can take that away from me. It isn’t as if I drew my income from bonds, but if I did, and if these people could ruin me"—he took Luke’s hand—"I should go right ahead."
They had been talking in Luke’s office. Shortly after Venable left it, Yeates was shown in. The young man was excited.
"Look here, Huber," he said. "A little bit’s good, but you’re going pretty damned far."