"But you said that it would take thirty days before the full effects of the drug could be observed."
"That is true. And we will not make any extravagant claims at this time."
"And you will send for the seven hundred doses at once?"
"Yes. My private secretary is here in his airplane. I will ask him to go to my laboratories, and have the drug rushed here. I will start him at once."
The Wolf of Wall Street had overheard all of the conversation. Biddle took him to one side, and gave him a Philadelphia address.
"You will have to take a letter there for me. They will give you the package, and you can send it back by special messenger."
"But how about me? I heard you promise to release the news to the papers in twenty-four hours."
"Well, what of it? I did not forget my promise. You have your plane. When you leave here get to the nearest big city. Take over a private line, and burn the news over to your city editor. Tell him anything you want. Right at this minute you have, or at least I think you have, over twenty thousand words typed and ready for the press. In a few hours, you can bring that news up to date, and have the special edition of the Purple Flash on the streets. You ought to have at least twenty hours lead on every other paper in the States. More than that, you have a rather clear idea of what it means. You can use all of your information except one thing, and that is my name. Now I will write the letter, and you can start. Better not let those boys outside the walls learn who you are. If they do, you will not get far."
"This is wonderful, Biddle," whispered the secret owner of the Purple Flash. "It will put my paper at the head of all of them, and increase the circulation by five million. Could I speak to a few of these doctors, and sign them up for some future articles?"
"No. The last thing in the world I want is for them to find out who you are. All I want is for you to keep quiet for a little while."
Once Hiram Smith was safely up in the air, Biddle returned to the Governor. He said:
"Suppose we start writing that statement for the papers?"
"I think that would be a good idea," assented the Executive. "What do you think we had better say?"
"Not too much and not too little. Something like this:
For the last two weeks Governor Watkins has been personally supervising the giving of a new form of medical treatment to all of the inmates of Farview Prison. The prisoners treated have been under the care of medical and sociological experts who at the end of thirty days will make a preliminary report.
For the present, all that can be said is that the health of the prisoners is excellent. One half of the prison population were treated two weeks ago, and the other half will he treated in the next thirty-six hours. The Governor intends remaining at Farview till the expiration of thirty days, at which time he will permit the medical experts conducting the experiment to make whatever statement they wish. Till that time, no statement not signed by the Governor can be considered trustworthy.
Signed: Watkins
"That ought to be satisfactory, Governor," said Biddle.
"Sure. Just enough to finish their insanity."
"Do you want to tell them the truth?"
"I would if I were sure, but suppose the Warden is right? What if they are not well, only think they are?"
Biddle shook his head:
"I think I know how you feel. I have used this serum on hundreds of animals. I saw its effect on five people in New York before I came to you. I think I know what it will do, but even now I am not sure. If I were sure, I would give a dose to my son. You see, he is, well, not actually sick; but abnormal in some ways. I do not want to give it to him till I am sure. So I am waiting. I hoped that after this prison experiment I could go ahead with him. Now, if I feel that way, what is to keep you from doubting? Suppose we get something to eat and then spend the rest of the night seeing some of your cases. I want to talk with them, especially some of the psychopathic personalities and mental defectives. I am a little more interested in their minds and souls than I am in their bodies."
"You think they are going to change—that way?"
"Yes. The serum seems to work in any kind of sickness, and after all a bad man is simply a sick man."
THE AROUSED NATION
WITHIN the next twenty-four hours, the Purple Flash gave to the nation, and incidentally to the world, the first of a series of articles on the new serum. The paper was being sold on the streets of New York one hour before the signed statement of the Governor of Ohio was handed to the impatient reporters surrounding the prison. They could each take that statement and embellish it as they saw fit, but pratically all they said was pure imagination. Meantime, the Purple Flash was giving to the world thousands of words, well written, and apparently so authentic that all of those who read were forced to believe. There were millions of American citizens, however, who only had access to the twisted, garbled accounts written by reporters who had little but fancy to draw on. Half truths are worse than whole lies; and at once a tangled fiction spread, especially through Ohio, as to just what was going on at Farview Prison. A Chicago paper, driven to despair by the success of the Purple Flash, started to publish a series of articles in which the direct charge was made that Ohio, forced to balance its budget, was experimenting with a new form of euthanasia, whereby thousands of its criminals, abnormals, and defectives would rapidly die and thus relieve the State of their financial care. The fact that many states were having difficulty in providing for their Welfare Departments made this slightly plausible. In addition, the personal attendance of the Governor of Ohio, his secreting himself in Farview Prison for several weeks, his calling out the National Guard, his employment of additional prison guards, the use of Medical experts, the definite secrecy, the quarantine, the peculiar and somewhat ambiguous statement given to the Press; all this could mean only one thing, and that was something so terrible that it could mean just that Ohio was starting to free herself of the burden of life care of the hopeless criminal class.
The Chicago Freepress, carefully avoiding the libel law, became eloquent in its defense of the forgotten men, the lifers in the Ohio prisons. After all, they were human beings, made in the image of God. Though sentenced to life imprisonment, deprived of their citizenship, without homes, family, or hope, they were still worthy of help.
The Freepress pointed out that, if this condition were encouraged, there would be nothing to prevent other states following the example of Ohio. It showed how much Illinois, New York, California, could save by the immediate destruction of all of its criminals and abnormals. It asked whether there was any real difference between the slaughter of the Innocents at the time Christ was born and the slaughter of the criminals at a time when His teachings were being forgotten by a mob of politicians driven to impotent fear by the mob of taxpayers at their heels.
In some way this paper obtained the names of the inmates of the Farview Penitentiary. It hunted up their relatives, the wives, mothers, and children, of these men. The reporters told them that their beloved men were being killed in the name of science, and then obtained their pictures, and took their statements, and recorded their tears. It made wonderful sob stuff. Other papers followed the example of the Freepress.
Charges were made that the Purple Flash was being subsidized by the Ohio Governor to give a false account of the experiment in order to deceive the public. Soapbox orators addressed the unemployed on every street corner. For a few days, the issue tended to become a national one. Fraternal organizations paid the expenses of the families of the criminals to Farview, where their hands, held at the wrists by agitators, knocked without avail on the steel gates of the prison.
Everyone talked of the serum. Those who knew the least about it talked the most. It was discussed from the pulpit, the radio, and the stage. Meanwhile, day after day, the Purple Flash continued its series of articles, which were so impossible that no one believed in them. At the same time, all read them.
At last, the excitement became so acute tha
t the President of the United States determined that it was his duty, as the head of the nation, to make a personal investigation of the matter; and, irrespective of what the real truth was, to give it to a nation fast growing hysterical. Without parade or publicity, he made the journey from Washington to Farview, and was inside the walls of the prison twenty-four hours before the group of experts were ready to give their statement to the papers.
The first interview with Welfare Watkins took place behind closed doors in the Warden's office. Sidney Biddle was the third member of the conference.
"I suppose you know why I am here," began the President. "There has been such a hysteria shown over the news from Ohio that I felt it my duty to come here and make a personal inquiry. I trust, Governor, that you will not feel that I am doubting you and the work of your State, but—you have read the papers."
The Governor smiled at the President, as he replied:
"That is all right. No apologies needed. If you had waited another day, my specialists would have given you their report, and when that report is given to the Press, some of the papers, especially those in Chicago, will be rather ashamed of the tommy-rot they have been feeding the gullible public. There is only one thing we have been doing with these convicts and that is helping them; restoring their health, apparently burning the evil from their personalities, making real men out of them. Have you read the articles in the Purple Flash?"
"I have. The terrible side of their method of deceiving the public is the fact that they are so well written that they seem to be the truth."
"Suppose we have Mr. Biddle answer that. You should understand, Mr. President, that Mr. Biddle is very much interested in this experiment. He knows more about it than anyone else. What do you think of the truth of the articles in the Flash?"
"The main facts are all true. Of course, the editors had no real scientific information concerning the composition of the serum used. Their guesses of the future use of the serum may seem to be science fiction; but the premises are correct, and their conclusions may be equally correct. The secret owner of the Flash is vitally interested. His son was one of the first five human beings to receive the serum."
The President looked at Biddle in astonishment. At last he said:
"There must be a mistake somewhere. My personal physician, Rear Admiral Sloane, went over the account of those first five cases, and he told me that no medicine could accomplish what was claimed. He said that it would have to be a cure-all, a panacea."
"He should have said that there was no known medicine that could do it," was Biddle's calm reply. "But now that you are here, why not see the prisoners? The thirty day period will be up for half of them tomorrow, and it has been about eighteen days since the other half received their serum. I suppose, Governor, that there will be no objection to the President seeing the men?"
"None at all. Suppose I have them line up on the parade ground? I could have you interview the Prison Surgeon and the Chaplain. I could have the various specialists and the psychologists tell you about the changes that have taken place in these fourteen hundred men, but I guess it will be best to have you see them as a group first. Do you know what the usual collection of life term prisoners look like? Are you acquainted with the prison pallor? Can you identify the look of hopeless hate, the insane eye, the lustful cunning, of the psychopath? Do you know how a man feels when he knows that he will never leave a prison till he dies?"
"I have been in a good many prisons," acknowledged the President.
"Then you will be able to detect the difference between the average lot of prisoners and these men we are going to show you. I will give the order, the men will fall in, the band will start playing, and the men will pass in review. We have done a lot of drilling lately. The men are feeling so well that they are keen for all forms of exercise. I will call the Warden, and in ten minutes we can go out and watch them. They have a setting-up exercise that is especially fine. They strip to the waist for that."
Fifteen minutes later the reviewing party saw over fourteen hundred men pass in review, in perfect time, beautiful formation. They marched with the sure step and certain time of well drilled soldiers; and back of every movement was glorious health, the joy of being alive and well. Later they took off their coats and shirts, and went through a complicated series of setting-up exercises. The President broke his fifty minute silence:
"No prison pallor there," he exclaimed. "Those men are sunburned athletes. Where are your sick men, the hospital cases?"
"That is not sunburn," replied Biddle. "For some reason not clear to me, the serum turns the skin a beautiful golden tan. The two women I gave it to have the most wonderful complexion you ever saw. In regard to the sick men, those who were in the hospital dying from cancer, tuberculosis, syphilis, and every possible result of vicious living, they are out on the parade ground. There has not been a death in the prison this month, and at the present time there is not a single patient in the prison hospital. Physically, they are well."
The President shook his head:
"But the Chicago papers said that you were experimenting with a new form of euthanasia; that you were going to kill them?"
"Doesn't look like it, does it?" answered the Governor. "And these men are not only well physically, but there is a change mentally. Just wait till you hear the sociologists, psychologists, and psychiatrists report on the changes in their mentality, their personality, their viewpoint on life, their moral sense. It raises a very serious question. Biddle and I have talked about it. We do not know what we ought to do with these men."
"They are all old offenders, are they not?"
"Yes. But suppose we show that they were sick when they broke the laws, and that now they have recovered from their sickness and won't break any more laws. Shall they be punished for being sick?"
"I don't know," admitted the President, "but I want to talk to some of them. I want to see for myself, and I want to talk to some of the doctors who have spent the month here, and I think I want to talk with the Warden. After that, if what appears true is true, I feel it my duty to issue a statement to the American people. Tell me one thing. Who discovered this remedy? Does the man know the full extent of its power? What is he going to charge for it? Can the nation buy it? Is there a chance that he will become worried over the publicity, and go and sell it to a foreign power? How is he going to act. . . ?
"What?—this man Biddle the inventor? Then I must talk to him first."
The President of the United States was a man who was close to the common people. As far as the nation was concerned, he was as welfare minded as the Governor of Ohio. He was not an intense isolationist, but he did feel that the good of his people was more important than the good of a dozen nationalities of Europe and Asia. While he was not a socialist, he believed in equal opportunities for those who were equally capable of profiting by them.
During the three years he had served as President, he had seen the national debt grow, taxes increase, and unemployment become more prevalent. While he had watched the convicts on parade, he had been impressed by their glorious bouyancy, their apparent health. He knew with a fair degree of accuracy what the Federal prisons were costing the taxpayer; and whatever may have been the route of his thinking, he rapidly reached the point where he saw that the wealth of the nation would have to improve with the health of the individual. The prevention of crime was secondary, in his thought, to the cure of diseases which otherwise were forcing the nation, the commonwealths, and the large cities to spend an ever increasing percentage of their funds on hospitalization.
In the cure of hookworm and in the fight against yellow fever, malaria, smallpox, and tuberculosis, the nation had ever been active in association with various foundations. It was natural for the Chief Executive to feel that if a new drug, a startling medicine, a universal panacea, were discovered, that it should belong to the nation. Laws would have to be made for its use, machinery devised for its distribution; in every way it would have to be protected and guard
ed against the attacks of the unscrupulous who would wish to commercialize it or to make its use possible only to the wealthy, the pampered favorites of fortune.
He wanted to talk to Biddle.
The result of that conference had ramifications neither dreamed of.
CONGRESS CHANGES
THE PRESIDENT worked at intense pressure for twelve hours, and at the end of that time issued the following statement to the Press:
I wish to announce that I have personally made an investigation of the health programme of the State of Ohio as practiced at Farview Prison, and feel that it has been to the definite advantage of all of the inmates. All have been greatly benefited and nothing has happened to any of them that in any way can be considered as prejudicial to their health, happiness, or future, should they at any time be pardoned and restored to their former citizenship.
Signed: Richard Caldwell
And, exactly twelve hours after this statement was broadcast to the nation, the general report of the specialists who had been observing the work of the serum was likewise released to the Press. After that there was a rapid exodus from Farview Prison. The seal of secrecy being broken, a wide expression of universal opinion was given. These men were all specialists in their line, men who knew so much about a little that some of them had reached the point where they knew everything about nothing. For thirty days they had lived in an atmosphere of the fantastic and impossible, they had seen the impossible happen, every belief of theirs shattered. It was almost necessary for them to reconstruct their scientific world. Under ordinary circumstances, most of them would have doubted and remained silent, but now they had to talk; and as talking was very profitable, they gave their opinions to the world.
Life Everlasting and Other Tales of Science, Fantasy, and Horror Page 6