XIV
On the third morning after Torrini's expulsion from the yard, Mr.Slocum walked into the studio with a printed slip in his hand. Asimilar slip lay crumpled under a work-bench, where Richard hadtossed it. Mr. Slocum's kindly visage was full of trouble andperplexity as he raised his eyes from the paper, which he had beenre-reading on the way up-stairs.
"Look at that!"
"Yes," remarked Richard, "I have been honored with one of thosedocuments."
"What does it mean?"
"It means business."
The paper in question contained a series of resolutionsunanimously adopted at a meeting of the Marble Workers' Associationof Stillwater, held in Grimsey's Hall the previous night. Droppingthe preamble, these resolutions, which were neatly printed with atype-writing machine on a half letter sheet, ran as follows:--
_Resolved,_ That on and after the First of June proximo, thepay of carvers in Slocum's Marble Yard shall be $2.75 per day,instead of $2.50 as heretofore.
_Resolved,_ That on and after the same date, the rubbers andpolishers shall have $2.00 per day, instead of $1.75 as heretofore.
_Resolved,_ That on and after the same date the millmen areto have $2.00 per day, instead of $1.75 as heretofore.
_Resolved,_ That during the months of June, July, and Augustthe shops shall knock off work on Saturdays at five P.M., instead ofat six P.M.
_Resolved,_ That a printed copy of these Resolutions be laidbefore the Proprietor of Slocum's Marble Yard, and that his immediateattention to them be respectfully requested. _Per order ofCommittee M. W. A._
"Torrini is at the bottom of that," said Mr. Slocum.
"I hardly think so. This arrangement, as I told you the other daybefore I had the trouble with him, has been in contemplation severalweeks. Undoubtedly Torrini used his influence to hasten the movementalready planned. The Association has too much shrewdness to espousethe quarrel of an individual."
"What are we to do?"
"If you are in the same mind you were when we talked over thepossibility of an unreasonable demand like this, there is only onething to do."
"Fight it?"
"Fight it."
"I have been resolute, and all that sort of thing, in times past,"observed Mr. Slocum, glancing out of the tail of his eye at Richard,"and have always come off second best. The Association has drawn upmost of my rules for me, and had its own way generally."
"Since my time you have never been in so strong a position to makea stand. We have got all the larger contracts out of the way.Foreseeing what was likely to come, I have lately fought shy oftaking new ones. Here are heavy orders from Rafter & Son, theBuilders' Company, and others. We must decline them by to-night'smail."
"Is it really necessary?" asked Mr. Slocum, knitting his foreheadinto what would have been a scowl if his mild pinkish eyebrows hadpermitted it.
"I think so."
"I hate to do that."
"Then we are at the mercy of the Association."
"If we do not come to their terms, you seriously believe they willstrike?"
"I do," replied Richard, "and we should be in a pretty fix."
"But these demands are ridiculous."
"The men are not aware of our situation; they imagine we have alot of important jobs on hand, as usual at this season. Formerly theforeman of a shop had access to the order-book, but for the last yearor two I have kept it in the safe here. The other day Dexter came tome and wanted to see what work was set down ahead in the blotter; butI had an inspiration and didn't let him post himself."
"Is not some kind of compromise possible?" suggested Mr. Slocum,looking over the slip again. "Now this fourth clause, about closingthe yard an hour early on Saturdays, I don't strongly object to that,though with eighty hands it means, every week, eighty hours' workwhich the yard pays for and doesn't get."
"I should advise granting that request. Such concessions are neverwasted. But, Mr. Slocum, this is not going to satisfy them. They havethrown in one reasonable demand merely to flavor the rest. I happento know that they are determined to stand by their programme to thelast letter."
"You know that?"
"I have a friend at court. Of course this is not to be breathed,but Denyven, without being at all false to his comrades, talks freelywith me. He says they are resolved not to give an inch."
"Then we will close the works."
"That is what I wanted you to say, sir!" cried Richard.
"With this new scale of prices and plenty of work, we mightprobably come out a little ahead the next six months; but it wouldn'tpay for the trouble and the capital invested. Then when tradeslackened, we should be running at a loss, and there'd be anotherwrangle over a reduction. We had better lie idle."
"Stick to that, sir, and may be it will not be necessary."
"But if they strike"--
"They won't all strike. At least," added Richard, "I hope not. Ihave indirectly sounded several of the older hands, and they havehalf promised to hold on; only half promised, for every man of themat heart fears the trades-union more than No-bread--until No-breadcomes."
"Whom have you spoken with?"
"Lumley, Giles, Peterson, and some others,--your pensioners, Icall them."
"Yes, they were in the yard in my father's time; they have notbeen worth their salt these ten years. When the business was turnedover to me I didn't discharge any old hand who had given his bestdays to the yard. Somehow I couldn't throw away the squeezed lemons.An employer owes a good workman something beyond the wages paid."
"And a workman owes a good employer something beyond the workdone. You stood by these men after they outlived their usefulness,and if they do not stand by you now, they're a shabby set."
"I fancy they will, Richard."
"I think they had better, and I wish they would. We have enoughodds and ends to keep them busy awhile, and I shouldn't like to havethe clinking of chisels die out altogether under the old sheds."
"Nor I," returned Mr. Slocum, with a touch of sadness in hisintonation. "It has grown to be a kind of music to me," and he pausedto listen to the sounds of ringing steel that floated up from theworkshop.
"Whatever happens, that music shall not cease in the yard excepton Sundays, if I have to take the mallet and go at a slab all alone."
"Slocum's Yard with a single workman in it would be a pleasingspectacle," said Mr. Slocum, smiling ruefully.
"It wouldn't be a bad time for _that_ workman to strike,"returned Richard with a laugh.
"He could dictate his own terms," returned Mr. Slocum, soberly."Well, I suppose you cannot help thinking about Margaret; but don'tthink of her now. Tell me what answer you propose to give theAssociation,--how you mean to put it; for I leave the matter whollyto you. I shall have no hand in it, further than to indorse youraction."
"To-morrow, then," said Richard, "for it is no use to hurry up acrisis, I shall go to the workshops and inform them that theirrequest for short hours on Saturdays is granted, but that the otherchanges they suggest are not to be considered. There will never be abetter opportunity, Mr. Slocum, to settle another question which hasbeen allowed to run too long."
"What's that?"
"The apprentice question."
"Would it be wise to touch on that at present?"
"While we are straightening out matters and putting things on asolid basis, it seems to me essential to settle that. There was nevera greater imposition, or one more short-sighted, than this rule whichprevents the training of sufficient workmen. The trades-union willdiscover their error some day when they have succeeded in forcingmanufacturers to import skilled labor by the wholesale. I would liketo tell the Marble Workers' Association that Slocum's Yard hasresolved to employ as many apprentices each year as there is roomfor."
"I wouldn't dare risk it!"
"It will have to be done, sooner or later. It would be a capitalflank movement now. They have laid themselves open to an attack onthat quarter."
"I might as well close the gates for good and all."
"So you will, if it comes to that. You can afford to close thegates, and they can't afford to have you. In a week they'd be back,asking you to open them. Then you could have your pick of the livehands, and drop the dead wood. If Giles or Peterson or Lumley or anyof those desert us, they are not to be let on again. I hope you willpromise me that, sir."
"If the occasion offers, you shall reorganize the shops in yourown way. I haven't the nerve for this kind of business, though I haveseen a great deal of it in the villages, first and last. Strikes areterrible mistakes. Even when they succeed, what pays for the losttime and the money squandered over the tavern-bar? What makes up forthe days or weeks when the fire was out on the hearth and thechildren had no bread? That is what happens, you know."
"There is no remedy for such calamities," Richard answered. "Yet Ican imagine occasions when it would be better to let the fire go outand the children want for bread."
"You are not advocating strikes!" exclaimed Mr. Slocum.
"Why not?"
"I thought you were for fighting them."
"So I am, in this instance; but the question has two sides. Everyman has the right to set a price on his own labor, and to refuse towork for less; the wisdom of it is another matter. He puts himself inthe wrong only when he menaces the person or the property of the manwho has an equal right not to employ him. That is the blunderstrikers usually make in the end, and one by which they lose publicsympathy even when they are fighting an injustice. Now, sometimes it_is_ an injustice that is being fought, and then it is right tofight it with the only weapon a poor man has to wield against a powerwhich possesses a hundred weapons,--and that's a strike. For example,the smelters and casters in the Miantowona Iron Works are meanlyunderpaid."
"What, have they struck?"
"There's a general strike threatened in the village; foundry-men,spinners, and all."
"So much the worse for everybody! I did not suppose it was as badas that. What has become of Torrini?"
"The day after he left us he was taken on as forgeman at Dana's."
"I am glad Dana has got him!"
"At the meeting, last night, Torrini gave in his resignation assecretary of the Association; being no longer a marble worker, he wasnot qualified to serve."
"We unhorsed him, then?"
"Rather. I am half sorry, too."
"Richard," said Mr. Slocum, halting in one of his nervous walks upand down the room, "you are the oddest composition of hardness andsoftness I ever saw."
"Am I?"
"One moment you stand braced like a lion to fight the whole yard,and the next moment you are pitying a miscreant who would have laidyour head open without the slightest compunction."
"Oh, I forgive him," said Richard. "I was a trifle hasty myself.Margaret thinks so too."
"Much Margaret knows about it!"
"I was inconsiderate, to say the least. When a man picks up a toolby the wrong end he must expect to get cut."
"You didn't have a choice."
"I shouldn't have touched Torrini. After discharging him andfinding him disposed to resist my order to leave the yard, I ought tohave called in a constable. Usually it is very hard to anger me; butthree or four times in my life I have been carried away by a devil ofa temper which I couldn't control, it seized me so unawares. That wasone of the times."
The mallets and chisels were executing a blithe staccato movementin the yard below, and making the sparks dance. No one walking amongthe diligent gangs, and observing the placid faces of the men as theybent over their tasks, would have suspected that they were awaitingthe word that meant bread and meat and home to them.
As Richard passed through the shops, dropping a word to a workmanhere and there, the man addressed looked up cheerfully and made afurtive dab at the brown paper cap, and Richard returned the salutesmilingly; but he was sad within. "The foolish fellows," he said tohimself, "they are throwing away a full loaf and are likely to getnone at all." Giles and two or three of the ancients were squaring ablock of marble under a shelter by themselves. Richard made it apoint to cross over and speak to them. In past days he had not beenexacting with these old boys, and they always had a welcome for him.
Slocum's Yard seldom presented a serener air of contented industrythan it wore that morning; but in spite of all this smooth outside itwas a foregone conclusion with most of the men that Slocum, withShackford behind him, would never submit to the new scale of wages.There were a few who had protested against these resolutions andstill disapproved of them, but were forced to go with theAssociation, which had really been dragged into the current by theother trades.
The Dana Mills and the Miantowona Iron Works were paying lighterwages than similar establishments nearer the great city. The managerscontended that they were paying as high if not higher rates, takinginto consideration the cheaper cost of living in Stillwater. "But youget city prices for your wares," retorted the union; "you don't paycity rents, and you shall pay city wages." Meetings were held atGrimsey's Hall and the subject was canvassed, at first calmly andthen stormily. Among the molders, and possibly the sheet-ironworkers, there was cause for dissatisfaction; but the dissatisfactionspread to where no grievance existed; it seized upon the spinners,and finally upon the marble workers. Torrini fanned the flame there.Taking for his text the rentage question, he argued that Slocum waswell able to give a trifle more for labor than his city competitors."The annual rent of a yard like Slocum's would be four thousand orfive thousand dollars in the city. It doesn't cost Slocum two hundreddollars. It is no more than just that the laborer should have ashare--he only asks a beggarly share--of the prosperity which he hashelped to build up." This was specious and taking. Then there camedown from the great city a glib person disguised as The Workingman'sFriend,--no workingman himself, mind you, but a ghoul that lives uponsubscriptions and sucks the senses out of innocent human beings,--whomanaged to set the place by the ears. The result of all which wasthat one May morning every shop, mill, and factory in Stillwater wasserved with a notice from the trades-union, and a general strikethreatened.
But our business at present is exclusively with Slocum's Yard.
The Stillwater Tragedy Page 14
