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"Here is an illustration given me by a man who ran for mayor in one of the great cities of the country a few years ago. A better man has seldom been nominated anywhere, nor one with higher purposes, greater sincerity, or a finer sense of public service. The fight was a hot one and concededly close. He had for weeks been going about the city speaking nightly in five or six different places. One night about 10 o'clock he found himself in a small hall in which there were about 300 persons. It was not until he reached the meeting that he learned that his audience was composed exclusively of anti-vivisectionists.
" 'These people, whispered the ward executive, as he was being introduced, don't care a damn about the tax rate, or the schools, or the health department, or any other issue of the campaign. All they care about is this antivivisection stuff. If you are with them on that, they will be with you, and if you are against them, they will be against you to a man. They are worth about 1,500 votes. There are no reporters here and if you say the right thing we can get them all.'
"What this candidate really believed and would like to have said was that he was wholly and strongly opposed to the antivivisection movement, that he considered it the worst sort of nonsense, that anti-vivisectionists generally are misguided, soft-headed people who are working against the real interests of humanity and checking the advance of science.
"What he did say was this—that he was extremely interested in the sub-ject—that there was much merit in some of the arguments against vivisection, that he was greatly impressed with the character of the men and women in the antivivisection movement, and that, if elected mayor, he promised to look thoroughly into the question and, if satisfied of its soundness, to give the movement his cordial support!
"What he said to me afterward was that this speech cost him his self-respect, and yet he saw no way out of it at the time, and if he had to do it over again would have said the same thing. ' If,' he said, 'I had only myself to consider, perhaps I would have had the nerve to say what I really believed and risked defeat. But if I am defeated I am not the only sufferer. It means the defeat of my running mates. It means the loss of control of my party. It means disappointment and loss to the men who have financed my campaign and put up the money to make my fight. It means a blow to the hundreds who have worked and fought for me and to thousands who have some sort of stake in my success.
"'Had I the right to kick the bucket over merely to gratify my own personal desire to be absolutely honest and sincere ? ' "