"
"I'd be carrying out my contract, would I, by disbanding that militia and
opening this State House to the mob?" demanded North.
"This is a peculiar emergency, sir," Morrison insisted. "Outside are
massing all the elements of a know-nothing, rough-house m?l?e. Even the
Legion boys don't know just where they're at till there's a showdown. I
can depend on 'em right now while they're waiting for that showdown.
They'll fight their finger-nails off to hold the plain rowdies in line.
Such boys have been showing their mettle in one city in this country,
haven't they? But a mere licking, no matter which side wins, doesn't last
long enough for any general good unless the licking is based on principle
and the principle is thereby established as right! Now let me tell you,
Governor North. You can't fool those Legion boys outside. They have come
home with new conceptions of what is a square deal. They're plumb on to
the old-fashioned tricks in cheap politics. They're not letting
officeholders play checkers with 'em any longer.
"Governor--and you, Senator Corson--this is now a question of to-night--an
emergency--an exigency! I have told those boys that they will be shown!
You've got to show 'em.
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