In a hard school of experience
the voter has learned to discount the final-moment cry of fraud. Would
an exposure, however convincing, appearing only in the Monday and
Tuesday morning newspapers have the desired effect?
Blount walked by devious ways from the railroad station to the Temple
Court, and secluded himself behind the locked door of his office to have
a chance to think the problem out to some effective conclusion. What
should he do? Should he find Blenkinsop and get him and the United Press
representative together at once, laying before them the damning evidence
and telling them to use it as they could? Or was there some surer way of
firing the mine of protest and exposure?
There was one other way, at least, but the mere thought of it made him
sick and shaken. As an upright citizen and a member of the bar, was it
not his duty to lay the evidence, not before the public in the
newspapers, but before a competent court of justice? And in that event,
was there in this land of graft and corruption a judge sufficiently
fearless and incorruptible to act with the needful vigor and promptness?
When Blount asked himself this question, the answer came quickly. Though
it was the common accusation, well or ill founded, that the lower courts
of the State were the creatures of the corporations, the judges on the
supreme bench still commanded the respect of the people.
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