Every time a matter is decided between factions, or a political seeker
wins a subordinate job, a rival and his friends are sent away to sulk.
And so at last, in the process of making the fortress impregnable, the
big wall falls and "the unders" come into the citadel.
Chairman Presson would not allow that the situation in that year of
reform unrest was as bad as the "unders" seemed to think. But he was
worried because he was finding all men liars. And when men are lying and
marking time in politics and glancing over their shoulders, look out for
the stampede!
In a stampede "a logical candidate" is the first one to be trampled on.
This one was threatened in earnest.
His opponent in his own party was Protest walking on two legs and
thundering anathema through a mat of mustaches that made him a marked
figure in any throng. His enemies called him "Fog-horn" Spinney; his
admirers considered him a silver-tongued orator. As a professional
organizer of leagues, clubs, orders, and societies he knew by their
first names men enough to elect him if he could be nominated.
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