When the Magnates arrange for a great parade, Benson warns the Labor leaders not to attempt to force any workingman to march.  This causes the parade to turn out a dismal failure.

“We must have more money,” the leaders assert.

Two millions of dollars is set aside for use in St. Louis alone.  Against such odds can the Independence party win?

CHAPTER XXIII.

A DAY AHEAD OF SCHEDULE.

It is two o’clock P.M., on October twelfth.  In sixty minutes the New York Stock ’Change will close.  The day has been exceedingly quiet; brokers are standing in groups discussing the whys and wherefores of this and that stock scheme; all are of little consequence.  Indeed, there has been nothing done on the floor since the abrupt departure of James Golding, the Head of the Banking Syndicate for Europe, three weeks before this pleasant twelfth day of October.

Golding’s mission abroad is vaguely guessed to be the floating of a bond issue for the government, as there has been an alarming shrinkage in the money market, and the Secretary of the Treasury has called upon the Banking interests to relieve the strain on the Treasury.

The slightest indication of weakness in the money market has its instant effect on stocks.  New York quotations are looked upon as the criterion of the country, and for that reason the brokers are disposed to be cautious.  Wall street traditions make it seem proper for the brokers to wait the result of the European trip.

Since the inauguration of the system of bank favoritism, which, was one of the strong features of the previous Plutocratic Platform, and on which the Party was able to raise an enormous Campaign fund, the secrets of the Government and its favorite bankers are not shared with the brokers in ordinary stocks and industrials.  For this reason the timidity of the brokers is more pronounced than ever before.

To them it seems inexplicable that the Government should seek to float a bond issue on the eve of an election.  They do not grasp the full import of this scheme to force the people to support the Plutocratic candidates as the preservers of the country’s credit.

A broker, running the tape through his fingers listlessly, reads this sentence:  “London, Oct. 12,—­James Golding announces his intention to float $245,000,000 three per cent.  U.S. gold bonds in London.”

In an instant he realizes that the confidence of the market will be restored.  Rushing to the pit he begins to buy everything that is offered.  Half a hundred tickers in the Exchange convey the same news to as many brokerage firms.

A wild scramble is started; everyone is anxious to go “long” on stocks which they have been cautiously selling for days past.  Point by point the listed stocks advance.

The clock strikes half-past two.  Will half an hour suffice to readjust the market?