The Machine
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Upton Sinclair >> The Machine
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. For ten years now I have been in charge of these properties .
. . I have had the interests of thousands of investors in my keeping .
. . and all the while I have been like a man surrounded by a pack of
wolves. I defended myself as I could . . . in the end, I found that
the best way to defend was by attacking. In other words, I had to go
into politics, to make the control of the "Government" a part of my
business. Don't you see?
LAURA. Yes, I see. But why play such a game?
HEGAN. Why? Because it is the only game I have ever known . . . the
only game there is to play. That is the way I have lived my life . . .
the way I have risen to power and command. I played it for myself, and
for my friends, and for those I loved.
LAURA. You played it for me! And, oh! father! father! . . . Can't you
see what that means to me? To realize that all my life has been based
upon such things! Don't you see how I can't let it go on . . . how, if
you refuse to do what I ask you to, it will be impossible for me to
touch a dollar of your money?
HEGAN. Laura!
LAURA. Just that, father! I should never again be able to face my
conscience!
HEGAN. [After a pause.] Listen to me, dear. You know that I have
always meant to withdraw . . .
LAURA. I know that. And that has been a confession! You know that you
are wrecking your life-wrecking everything! And if you mean to stop,
why not stop?
HEGAN. But, my dear, at this moment . . . in the midst of the battle .
. .
LAURA. At this moment you are on the point of doing something that
will put a brand upon your conscience for the balance of your career.
And at this moment you are confronted with the realization that you
are ruining your daughter's life. You see her before you, desperate .
. . frantic with shame and grief. And you have to make up your mind,
either to drive her from you, heart- broken . . . or else to turn your
face from these evils, and to take up a new way of life.
HEGAN. [Broken and crushed, sits staring at her.] Laura!
LAURA. [Stretching out her arms to him.] Father! A knock at the door;
they start.
GRIMES. [Enters.] Oh! Beg pardon!
HEGAN. Come in.
LAURA. [Starting up.] No!
HEGAN. Come in! You must know it!
GRIMES. What is it?
HEGAN. Shut the door! Grimes, the game is up!
GRIMES. How d'ye mean?
HEGAN. We've been betrayed. Somebody knows all about the Court
decision . . . about what passed between you and Porter, and between
you and me!
GRIMES. The hell you say!
HEGAN. We're threatened with exposure!
GRIMES. Who is it?
HEGAN. I don't know.
GRIMES. But, then . . .
HEGAN. My daughter tells me. But she is not at liberty to give the
names.
GRIMES. Well, I'll be damned! [He stares from HEGAN to LAURA; then
comes and sits, very deliberately, where he can gaze at them. A long
pause; then, nodding toward
LAURA.] What's her game?
HEGAN. [Weakly.] She will tell you.
GRIMES. [Looking at her.] Well?
LAURA. I am here to plead with my father to turn back from this
wickedness.
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.] Look
at him!
[A pause.]
LAURA. I am pleading with him for his own good . . . to give up this
cruel struggle . . .
GRIMES. To turn tail and run from his enemies?
LAURA. It is of my duty to the public that I am thinking, Mr. Grimes.
GRIMES. You owe no duty to this world higher than your duty to your
father.
LAURA. You think that?
GRIMES. I think it.
LAURA. [Hesitates a moment, then turns.] Father! What do you say? Is
that true?
HEGAN. [Crushed.] I don't know, my dear.
GRIMES. God Almighty! And this is Jim Hegan ! [To LAURA.] Where'd you
get onto these ideas, ma'am?
LAURA. [In a low voice.] I think, Mr. Grimes, it might be best if you
did not ask me to discuss this question. Our points of view are too
different.
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. 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.
LAURA. You offer an insult to my intelligence, Mr. Grimes. I have met
with him and his work. 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.
LAURA. And you permit them.
GRIMES. I?
LAURA. You permit them
GRIMES. I can't attempt to discuss prostitution with a lady. Such
things existed long before I was born.
LAURA. You could use your power to drive the traffic from the city.
GRIMES. Yes, ma'am; I suppose I could. But if I'd been that sort of a
man, do you think I'd ever had the power?
LAURA. How neatly parried! What sort of a man are you, anyway ?
GRIMES. [Looks at hey fixedly.] I'll tell you the sort of man I am,
ma'am. [A pause.] I wasn't brought up in a beautiful, luxurious home.
I was brought up with five brothers, in two rooms on the top floor of
a rear tenement on Avenue B ; I was a little street "mick," and then I
was a prize "scrapper," and the leader of a gang. When a policeman
chased me upstairs, my mother stood at the head and fought him off
with a rolling-pin. That was the way we stood by our children, ma'am;
and we looked to them to stand by us. Once, when I was older, my
enemies tried to do me . . . they charged me with a murder that I
never done, ma'am. But dye think my old father ever stopped to ask if
I done it or not, ma'am? Not much. "Don't mention that, Bob, my boy,"
says he . . . "it's all part of the fight, an' we're wid yer." [A
pause.] 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! A man who has stopped at no evil to gain his
purpose!
GRIMES. I am what the game has made me.
LAURA. Not so! Not so! 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! 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!
[A knock at the door.]
ANDREWS. [Enters, centre.] Mr. Hegan, these orders for your brokers
must be signed.
HEGAN. I won't sign them!
ANDREWS. Sir?
HEGAN. Never mind them.
GRIMES. [Springing to his feet.] Jim Hegan, you're mad! [TO ANDREWS.]
Go out, will you? ANDREWS exit.] Hegan, man . . . surely you don't
mean this?
HEGAN. Yes . . . I'm sick of it!
GRIMES. But, man, think of the rest of us! . . . What are we to do?
HEGAN. You can buy just the same.
GRIMES. But without you? Why, we won't be able to corner Murdock! And
if he gets out of this hole, it'll be worse than ever! There'll be
hell to pay!
HEGAN. I don't care.
GRIMES. But, man, you've pledged yourself! Look at what Harris has
done! . . . What excuse will you be able to make to him? And what will
you tell Henry Stevens?
HEGAN. I'll tell them I've quit.
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 . . .
[The 'phone rings.]
HEGAN. Hello! Who is it? Oh, Isaacson. Yes; I'll speak with him.
Hello, Isaacson! Yes. No; I've not forgotten. I'll do whatever I said
I'd do. Er . . . yes; that's all right. I've been delayed. Yes. I'll
get the money to you. Right away. Oh, certainly, that's all right.
[Hangs up receiver.] Ah, God!
GRIMES. Hegan, listen here. You're in the midst of a battle. And
you're the general. Everything depends on you this morning. And you've
a right to be afraid . . but you've no right to let others see it.
You've no right . . . do you understand me? And, by God, I won't let
you! . . . I'll be a man for two of you! Shake yourself together now !
[Seizes him.] Come, man ! Shake yourself together!
HEGAN. But think of the exposure!
GRIMES. The exposure! And this is Jim Hegan talking! How many times
have you been exposed already? And how many times have I been?
HEGAN. But this is different.
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! You've got him where you want him at last! Remember what he did
to you in the Brooklyn Ferry case! Remember how he lied to you in the
Third Avenue case! And he told Isaacson, only last week, that he'd
never let up on you till he'd driven you out of the traction field!
HEGAN. Did he say that?
GRIMES. He did that! And only yesterday he said he was getting ready
to finish you! He's as sure of this Court decision as I am of the
sunrise! I'm told he's short already over a quarter of a million
shares!
HEGAN. But his judges'll get word to him . . . he'll buy!
GRIMES. Of course! But that's just why you ought to be busy! Buy
first, and make him pay . . . damn his soul!
ANDREWS. [Knocks and enters.] Mr. Stevens is here, Mr. Hegan.
GRIMES. Henry Stevens? We'll see him. [ANDREWS exit.] Come on, man!
We'll go over to your brokers and take the orders. It'll give you a
smell of the powder smoke.
LAURA. [AS HEGAN Starts to follow.] Father, you are going with him?
HEGAN. My dear child, what can I do?
LAURA. But think of the disgrace . . . the shame of it! You will carry
it with you all your life!
HEGAN. I can't help it. I am bound hand and foot.
LAURA. Father! [She rushes to him, and flings her arms about him.] Do
you realize what you are doing? You are driving me away from you! . .
. You are casting me off ! And all for a few more dollars !
HEGAN. My dear, it is not that. My word is pledged.
LAURA. You are trampling me in the dust. You are spurning all that is
best in your life!
GRIMES. Come, come, man ! The game is called
HEGAN. Let me go, my dear.
LAURA. Father!
HEGAN. No! No! [He gently, but firmly, puts her arms from him.] Good-
bye, dear.
LAURA. Father! [HEGAN and GRIMES go out centre; she sinks by the
table, and buries her face in her arms, sobbing; after a considerable,
interval, a knock on the door, centre.] Come in!
MONTAGUE. [Enters.] Well?
LAURA. I have failed. [Rises and stretches out her arms.] Failed! He
has gone with Grimes!
MONTAGUE. I saw him go, Miss Hegan.
LAURA. [Swiftly.] And yet . . . I have not failed utterly. I have
failed to turn back the decision . . . to save him from this disgrace.
But that is not all.
MONTAGUE: How do you mean?
LAURA. I shall not give him up . . . and, in the end, I shall have my
way; I can see that quite clearly. Ah, how I hurt him! I almost broke
his heart! And just now he is in the midst of the battle . . . the
rage of it is on him. But, afterwards, he will recollect . . . he will
be overwhelmed with grief! And then he will see! He will do what I
have begged him to!
MONTAGUE. Yes . . . perhaps that is so.
LAURA. I know what my love means to him! I know what he is at heart!
And when he sees that I mean to carry out my threat, to go by myself
and to refuse to touch his money . . . that will be more than he can
bear, Mr. Montague!
MONTAGUE. You mean to do that?
LAURA. I mean to do it! I mean to do it today; and I will never yield
to him . . . never until he has atoned for this wrong he has done! And
don't you see that I will win in the end?
MONTAGUE. Yes; I see.
LAURA. [Quickly.] Understand, that has nothing to do with your course.
I am not asking you to spare him. You must go ahead and do your duty .
. . you must do just what you would have done if I had never stood in
the way.
MONTAGUE. It is a terrible thing to me, Miss Hegan. I cannot turn back
. . .
LAURA. You must not! You must not think of it! It will be a part of my
father's punishment . . . and he has deserved it. He has prepared that
cup, and he must drink it . . . to the dregs!
MONTAGUE. You can bear it?
LAURA. It is not any question of what I can bear. It is a question of
the rights of the people. I saw that quite clearly, as my father
talked with me. Whether it is he who wins, or whether it is Murdock,
it is always the people that lose. And, let it hurt whom it may, the
people must have the truth!
MONTAGUE. And then . . . you will be able to forgive me! Ah, what a
weight you lift from me! I hardly dared to face the thought of what I
had to do! Hesitating.] And then, the thought that you mean to
renounce your father's wealth . . . that you are going out into the
world . . . alone . . .
LAURA. It will not be hard for me. You cannot know how I have hated my
past life. To know that my father has plundered the public . . . and
then to give his money, and call it charity. To be flattered and
fawned upon . . . to be celebrated and admired . . . and never for
anything that I am, but always for my money!
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. I hated the thing . . . I fled from it as I would from a
plague. In that world I had met a woman I might have loved . . . a
woman who was noble and beautiful and true; and yet I dared not speak
to her . . . I dared not even permit myself to know her . . . because
I was a poor man, and she was rich. But now she is to be poor also!
And so I may speak!
LAURA. [Starting.] Oh!
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.
LAURA. You . . . you know that you love me?
MONTAGUE. I love you! I want nothing so much as the chance to serve
you and help you. The chance to tell you so is more than I had ever
ventured to hope for. To find you free and alone . . . to be able to
speak to you, with no thought of wealth or position! To tell you that
I love you . . . just you! You!
LAURA. I hardly dare to think of it . . . now . . . here . . .
MONTAGUE. We can put all the past behind us . . . we can take a new
start and win our own way. If only you love me!
LAURA. Ah, to let myself be happy again. How can I?
MONTAGUE. If you love me, then we have the key to happiness . . . then
everything is clear before us. We can face the world together! Do you
love me? [Stretches out his arms to her.] Laura!
LAURA. [Sways toward him.] I love you.
MONTAGUE. [Embraces her.] My love!
CURTAIN