Part 71 (1/2)
”That's all very fine,” he growled, ”but where would I get my start? I got no eight thousand or anybody to lend me ten dollars.”
”The banks will lend to men who will make money make money. It's not the guarantee they want so much as inspiration. Pierpont Morgan said he lent on character, not on collateral.”
”Morgan, humph!”
”The trouble isn't with Morgan, but with you. What do you do with your nights? Study? study? beat your brains for ideas? No, you go home, tired, play with the children, talk with the wife, smoke, go to bed.
It's a beautiful life, but it's not a money-making life. You can't make money by working eight hours a day for another man's money.
You've got to get out and find it or dig it up.
”That business with the old hull put me on my feet, put dreams in my head. I looked about for other chances, took some of them and wished I hadn't. But I kept on trying. The war in Europe came. The world was crazy for s.h.i.+ps. They couldn't build 'em fast enough to keep ahead of the submarines. On the Great Lakes there was a big steamer not doing much work. I heard of her. I went up and saw her. The job was to get her to the ocean. I managed it on borrowed money, bought her, and brought her up the Saint Lawrence to the sea--and down to New York. I made a fortune on that deal. Then did I retire and smoke my pipe of peace? No. I looked for another chance.
”When our country went into the war she needed s.h.i.+ps of her own. She had to have s.h.i.+pyards first to build 'em in. My lifelong ambition was to make s.h.i.+ps from the keel-plate up. I looked for the best place to put a s.h.i.+pyard, picked on this spot because other people hadn't found it. My partners and I got the land cheap because it was swamp. We worked out our plans, sitting up all night over blue-prints and studying how to save every possible penny and every possible waste motion.
”And now look at the swamp. It's one of the prettiest yards in the world. The Germans sank my _Clara_. Did I stop or go to making speeches about German vampires? No. I went on building.
”The Germans tried to get my next boat. I fought for her as I'll fight the Germans, the I. W. W., the Bolshevists, or any other sneaking coyotes that try to destroy my property.
”I lost this right arm trying to save that s.h.i.+p. And now that I'm crippled, am I asking for a pension or an admission to an old folks'
home? Am I pa.s.sing the hat to you other workers? No. I'm as good as ever I was. I made my left arm learn my right arm's business. If I lose my left arm next I'll teach my feet to write. And if I lose those, by G.o.d! I'll write with my teeth, or wigwag my ears.
”The trouble with you, Iddings, and the like of you is you brood over your troubles, instead of brooding over ways to improve yourself. You spend time and money on quack doctors. But I tell you, don't fight your work or your boss. Fight nature, fight sleep, fight fatigue, fight the sky, fight despair, and if you want money hunt up a place where it's to be found.”
If Iddings had had brains enough to understand all this he would not have been Iddings working by the day. His stubborn response was:
”Well, I'll say the laboring-man is being bled by the capitalists and he'll never get his rights till he grabs 'em.”
”And I'll say be sure that you're grabbing your rights and not grabbing your own throat.
”I'm for all the liberty in the world, for the dignity of labor, the voice of labor, the labor-union, the profit-sharing basis, the republic of labor. I think the workers ought to have a voice in running the work--all the share they can handle, all the control that won't hurt the business. But the business has got to come first, for it's business that makes comfort. I'll let any man run this shop who can run it as well as I can or better.
”What I'm against is letting somebody run my business who can't run his own. Talk won't build s.h.i.+ps, old man. And complaints and protests won't build s.h.i.+ps, or make any important money.
”Poor men are just as good as rich men and ought to have just the same rights, votes, privileges. But the first right a poor man ought to preserve is the right to become a rich man. Riches are beautiful things, Iddings, and they're worth working for. And they've got to be worked for.
”A laboring-man is a man that labors, whether he labors for two dollars a day or a thousand; and a loafer is a loafer, whether he has millions or dimes. Well, I've talked longer than I ever did before or ever will again. Do you believe anything I say?”
”No.”
Davidge had to laugh. ”Well, Iddings, I've got to hand it to you for obstinacy; you've got an old mule skinned to death. But old mules can't compete with race-horses. Balking and kicking won't get you very far.”
He walked away, and Mamise went along. Davidge was in a somber mood.
”Poor old fellow, he's got no self-starter, no genius, no ideas, and he's doomed to be a drudge. It's the rotten cruelty of the world that most people are born without enough get-up-and-get to bring them and their work together without a whistle and a time-clock and an overseer. What scheme could ever be invented to keep poor old Iddings up to the level of a Sutton or a Sutton down to his?”
Mamise had heard a vast amount of discontented talk among the men.
”There's an awful lot of trouble brewing.”
”Trouble is no luxury to me,” said Davidge. ”Blessed is he that expects trouble, for he shall get it. Wait till this war is over and then you'll see a real war.”