Page:The spirit of the leader (IA spiritofleader00heyl).pdf/223

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Bristow frowned and tapped an impatient pencil against his desk. "You know I don't believe in that sort of stuff, Praska. We talked it over a couple of weeks ago. Now you come in here to fight it out all over again."

"No," Praska shook his head. "I didn't come here to argue anything. I came here to ask you to do what the Congress, every member of it, thinks ought to be done."

"The whole Congress?" Bristow asked thoughtfully, and got up from his chair and began to pace the room. After a time he halted in the center of the floor.

"What right," he demanded, "has the Congress to tell me what I ought to publish?"

"The Congress is the voice of Northfield," said Praska.

Bristow sighed. "That's what has got me licked," he said after a moment. "When you and I had it out downstairs it was my opinion against yours. This is different. This is the combined opinion of the Congress against me. In America the majority rules. That's democracy. That's fair. Bring me that verdict and I'll put it in."

Bristow published the Fry story in the next issue of the school paper, under a single-column head on page one:

Dismissed and Censured