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Effingham Swan
Francis Tasbrough, owner of the local quarry, is the wealthiest man in Fort Beulah. Even though he repeatedly claims that “it [fascism] can’t happen here in America,” he enthusiastically supports Buzz Windrip and then takes a prominent job in the administration, as District Commissioner. He uses his position to steal as much money as he possibly can from the government, Minute Men, and local businesses. He turns against his old friend Doremus Jessup for his own political benefit and sends Shad Ledue to the Trianon camp when he finds out that Ledue has been extorting even more money from the Minute Men, without sharing the spoils. Tasbrough’s political career reveals how corruption, profit, and self-interest are the real driving forces behind authoritarian governments like the Windrip administration.
Francis Tasbrough Quotes in It Can’t Happen Here
The It Can’t Happen Here quotes below are all either spoken by Francis Tasbrough or refer to Francis Tasbrough. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
“People will think they’re electing [Windrip] to create more economic security. Then watch the Terror! God knows there’s been enough indication that we can have tyranny in America—the fix of the Southern share-croppers, the working conditions of the miners and garment-makers, and our keeping Mooney in prison so many years. But wait till Windrip shows us how to say it with machine guns! […] On the whole, with scandalous exceptions, Democracy’s given the ordinary worker more dignity than he ever had. That may be menaced now by Windrip—all the Windrips. All right! Maybe we’ll have to fight paternal dictatorship with a little sound patricide—fight machine guns with machine guns. Wait till Buzz takes charge of us. A real Fascist dictatorship!”
“Nonsense! Nonsense!” snorted Tasbrough. “That couldn’t happen here in America, not possibly! We’re a country of freemen.”
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Chapter 32
Quotes
At exercise hour, the discipline of the men marching out to the quadrangle was broken when one prisoner stumbled, with a cry, knocked over another man, and loudly apologized—just at the barred entrance of Shad Ledue’s cell. The accident made a knot collect before the cell. Doremus, on the edge of it, saw Shad looking out, his wide face blank with fear.
Someone, somehow, had lighted and thrown into Shad’s cell a large wad of waste, soaked with gasoline. It caught the thin wallboard which divided Shad’s cell from the next. The whole room looked presently like the fire box of a furnace. Shad was screaming, as he beat at his sleeves, his shoulders. Doremus remembered the scream of a horse clawed by wolves in the Far North.
When they got Shad out, he was dead. He had no face at all.
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Francis Tasbrough Quotes in It Can’t Happen Here
The It Can’t Happen Here quotes below are all either spoken by Francis Tasbrough or refer to Francis Tasbrough. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2
Quotes
“People will think they’re electing [Windrip] to create more economic security. Then watch the Terror! God knows there’s been enough indication that we can have tyranny in America—the fix of the Southern share-croppers, the working conditions of the miners and garment-makers, and our keeping Mooney in prison so many years. But wait till Windrip shows us how to say it with machine guns! […] On the whole, with scandalous exceptions, Democracy’s given the ordinary worker more dignity than he ever had. That may be menaced now by Windrip—all the Windrips. All right! Maybe we’ll have to fight paternal dictatorship with a little sound patricide—fight machine guns with machine guns. Wait till Buzz takes charge of us. A real Fascist dictatorship!”
“Nonsense! Nonsense!” snorted Tasbrough. “That couldn’t happen here in America, not possibly! We’re a country of freemen.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 32
Quotes
At exercise hour, the discipline of the men marching out to the quadrangle was broken when one prisoner stumbled, with a cry, knocked over another man, and loudly apologized—just at the barred entrance of Shad Ledue’s cell. The accident made a knot collect before the cell. Doremus, on the edge of it, saw Shad looking out, his wide face blank with fear.
Someone, somehow, had lighted and thrown into Shad’s cell a large wad of waste, soaked with gasoline. It caught the thin wallboard which divided Shad’s cell from the next. The whole room looked presently like the fire box of a furnace. Shad was screaming, as he beat at his sleeves, his shoulders. Doremus remembered the scream of a horse clawed by wolves in the Far North.
When they got Shad out, he was dead. He had no face at all.
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