Argosy All-Story Weekly, November 12, 1927 — page 112: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

586 ' Washington gave vent to a sigh of ex- asperation. | “Mr. Galloway, I am not interested in any of these ponderous questions. I am excited by airplanes and electricity and steam engines. I want to see them all. I want to see everything. JI don’t want to be asked to decide national problems. Let somebody else decide them. “ Mr. Galloway,” the young man earnest- ly continued, “JI came up here to tell you that I want to place myself in your hands. I need your advice on hundreds of things, and I trust you. I want you to be near me wherever I go.” Larry murmured that he would be de- lighted to place himself at his disposal in- definitely. ‘ “TI would like to have you decide all these serious, ponderous questions for me.” “IT would prefer,” was Larry’s answer, “to have you-decide them for yourself. I will give you my honest opinions on all sub- jects that puzzle you. My most important duty, as I see it, as your adviser, is to safe- guard your tremendous popularity from mistakes, and to see that it is used for some constructive purpose. ‘‘ Beyond giving the American people the opportunity for the greatest display of good will and good feeling that has ever come to them,” Larry earnestly went on, “it seems to me that you have two serious responsi- bilities. _ There are dozens of constructive things you might do; I have boiled down the list to what I honestly believe are the two most important.” “T’ll do just what you tell me, Mr. Gal- loway,” Washington said promptly; and Larry found himself wishing that this young man would not take his responsibilities so lightly. *“ Have you,” he asked, “‘ seen a modern map of the United States?” He saw that Washington’s waning in- terest had been thoroughly recaptured. “J was thunderstruck!”’ he exclaimed. “Miss Morgan showed me the United States in an atlas. I could not believe that the country has become so thickly popu- lated, and that so many large cities have sprung up.” “In spite of all these modern inven- ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. tions,” Larry continued, “ the States are still loosely held together. The New Eng- land States are still hated by the Southern States; the East has problems which do not affect the West, and vice versa. It is in- your power to knit all sections more closely; to give every part of the country an understanding of the hopes and prob- lems of every other part.” Washington’s eyes had become vague again. “That is, as I see it, your first duty,” Larry added. “And what is my other duty?” “To overhaul the machinery of govern- ment!” “TY do not understand.” Larry explained: “ The American people are too busy, too much interested in other things, to care how the country is run. They hire politicians to run it for them. They think they do! As a matter of fact, the politicians decide themselves who will or won’t occupy an office. They arrange it all to suit themselves. When election time comes, the people elect the man the politi- cians want them to elect.” George Washington was beginning to fid- get again. He set fire to eight or ten matches in an attempt, eventually success- ful, to light another Golden Glow. His wandering eyes returned to Larry’s face. There was a look of heaviness in them. Larry briskly continued: “ Men who have had no training and no experience to fit them for the jobs become Congressmen, Governors, mayors, judges, ambassadors, even Presidents. Often a candidate’s only qualification for office is that he is too lazy or incompetent to do anything else. The people don’t care; they aren’t interested. They are furious when a crooked office holder is found out. But they soon forget. “We have even seen the spectacle, colonel, of a man’s reélection when he has been proved, on prima facie evidence, guilty of theft, graft, misconduct. “The people are not sufficiently in- terested in city, State, Federal government to do anything about it. As a consequence, more and more power has been grasped by the politicians, many of whom are rogues, concerned only with their own schemes.” ad COMME OOS