Sometimes the
corruption was bold. More often it was insidious. To see how one
by one men hitherto honest surrendered to bribery was a sight
pathetic and tragic.
The Farnum cousins were the centers around whom the reformers
rallied. James directed their counsels in the House and Jeff
pounded away in the _World_ with vital trenchant editorials and
news stories. Every day that paper carried to the farthest corner
of the state bulletins of the battle. Farmers and miners and
laboring men watched its roll of honor to see if the local
representatives were standing firm. As the weeks passed the fight
grew more bitter. Now and again men fell by the wayside disgraced.
But the pressure from their constituents was so strong that Jeff
believed his bill would go through.
His friends forced it through the committee and pushed it to a
vote. House Bill 33, as the initiative and referendum amendment
was called, passed the lower legislative body with a small
majority. The pool rooms offered five to four that it would carry
in the senate.
It was on the night of the twenty-first of December that the
amendment passed the House. On the morning of the twenty-third the
_Herald_ sprang a front page sensation.
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