Part 27 (1/2)
The catastrophe once started came with a rush, for when I reached the office the next day the psychologist was awaiting me and told me that the strike was on. I rushed out immediately and went down to the works.
The psychologist followed me. As I entered the great industrial laboratories I saw all the men at their usual places and going through their usual operations. I turned to my companion who was just coming up, and said: ”What do you mean; I thought you told me the strike was on, that the men had already walked out?”
”What do you mean by 'walked out'?” he returned, as puzzled as I.
”Walked out of the works,” I explained; ”away from their duties, quit work. Struck!”
”But they have struck. Perhaps you have never seen a strike before, but do you not see the strike badges?”
And then I looked and saw that every workman wore a tiny red flag, and the flag bore no imperial eagle.
”It means,” I gasped, ”that they have renounced the rule of the Royal House. This is not a strike, this is rebellion, treason!”
”It is the custom,” said the labour psychologist, ”and as for rebellion and treason that you speak of I hardly think you ought to call it that for rebellion and treason are forbidden.”
”Then just what does it mean?”
”It means that this particular group of workers have temporarily withdrawn their allegiance to the Royal House, and they have, in their own minds, restored the old socialist regime, until they can make pet.i.tion to the Emperor and he pa.s.ses on their grievance. They will do that in their halls tonight. We, of course, will be connected up and listen in.”
”Then they are not really on strike?”
”Certainly they are on strike. All strikes are conducted so.”
”Then why do they not quit work?”
”But why should they quit work? They are striking because their hours are already too short--pardon, Herr Chief, but I warned you!
”I think I know what you mean,” he added after a pause; ”you have probably read some fiction of old times when the workers went on strike by quitting work.”
”Yes, exactly. I suppose that is where I did get my ideas; and that is now forbidden--by the Emperor?”
”Not by the Emperor, for you see these men wear the flags without the eagle. They at present do not acknowledge his authority.”
”Then all this strike is a matter of red badges without eagles and everything else will go on as usual?”
”By no means. These men are striking against the descending authority from the Royal House. They not only refuse to wear the eagle until their grievance is adjusted but they will refuse to accept further education, for that is a thing that descends from above. If you will go now to the picture halls, where the other s.h.i.+ft should be, you will find the halls all empty. The men refuse to go to the moving pictures.”
That night we ”listened in.” A bull-throated fellow, whom I learned was the Talking Delegate, addressed the Emperor, and much to my surprise I thought I heard the Emperor's own voice in reply, stating that he was ready to hear their grievance.
Then the bull voice of the Talking Delegate gave the reason for the strike: ”The Director of the Works, speaking for your Majesty, has granted us a part time vacation, and shortened our hours from six to four. We thank you for this honour but we have decided we do not like it. We do not know what to do during those extra two hours. We had our games and amus.e.m.e.nts but we had our regular hours for them. If we play longer we become tired of play. If we sleep longer we cannot sleep as well. Moreover we are losing our appet.i.te and some of us are afraid to eat all our portions for fear we will become fat. So we have decided that we do not like a four-hour day and we have therefore taken the eagles off our flags and will refuse to replace them or to go to the educational pictures until our hours are restored to the six-hour day that we have always had.”
And now the Emperor's voice replied that he would take the matter under consideration and report his decision in three days and, that meanwhile he knew he could trust them to conduct themselves as good socialists who were on strike, and hence needed no king.
The next day the psychologist brought a representative of the Information Staff to my office and together we wrote the reply that the Emperor was to make. It would be necessary to concede them the full six hours and introduce the system of complicating the labour operations to make more work. Much chagrined, I gave in, and called in the motion study engineers and set them to the task. Meanwhile the Royal Voice was sent for and coached in the Emperor's reply to the striking workmen, and a picture film of the Emperor, timed to fit the length of the speech, was ordered from stock.
The Royal Voice was an actor by birth who had been trained to imitate His Majesty's speech. This man, who specialized in the Emperor's speeches to the workers, prided himself that he was the best Royal Voice in Berlin and I complimented him by telling him that I had been deceived by him the evening before. But considering that the workers, never having heard the Emperor's real voice, would have no standard of comparison, I have never been able to see the necessity of the accuracy of his imitation, unless it was on the ground of art for art's sake.
CHAPTER XII
THE DIVINE DESCENDANTS OF WILLIAM THE GREAT GIVE A BENEFIT FOR THE CANINE GARDENS AND PAY TRIBUTE TO THE PIGGERIES