Part 62 (1/2)

”We can't have this, Ahab--this won't do--a few days of this and we'll have bloodshed.”

It did not occur to Ahab Wright that he had been singing ”Onward, Christian Soldiers,” and ”I Am a Soldier of the Cross,” and ”I'll Be Washed in the Blood of the Lamb,” all of his pious life, without ever meaning anything particularly sanguinary. He heard the war song of the revolution, and being a literal and peth-headed man, prepared to defend the flag with all the ardor that had burned in John Kollander's heart for fifty years.

”I tell you, Mr. Mayor, we need the troops. The Sheriff agrees with me--now you hear that,” said young Joe. ”Will you wait until some one is killed or worse, until a mine is flooded, before sending for them?”

”You know, Ahab,” put in old Joe, ”the Governor said on the phone this morning, not to let this situation get away from you.”

The crowd was joining the singing. The words--the inspiring words of the labor chant had caught the people on the sidewalk, and a great diapason was rising:

”March on! March on!--all hearts resolved On victory or death.”

”Hear that--hear that, Ahab!” cried old Joe. ”Why, the decent people up town here are going crazy--they're all singing it--and that little devil is waving a red flag with the white one!”

Ahab Wright looked and was aghast. ”Doesn't that mean rebellion--anarchy--and bloodshed?” he gasped.

”It means socialism,” quoth young Joe, laconically, ”which is the same thing.”

”Well, well! my! my! Dear me,” fretted Ahab, ”we mustn't let this go on.”

”Shall I get the Governor on the phone--you know we have the Sheriff's order here--just waiting for you to join him?” asked young Joe.

The Haves were moving the realm of the discussion about their property from pure reason to the baser emotions.

”Look, look!” cried the Mayor. ”Grant Adams is standing on that platform--and those women have to hold him up--it's shameful. Listen!”

”I want to say to my old neighbors and friends here in Harvey,” cried Grant, ”that in this strike we shall try with all our might, with all our hearts' best endeavors, to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Our property in the mines and mills in this Valley, we shall protect, just as sacredly as our partners on Wall Street would protect it. It is our property--we are the legatees of the laborers who have piled it up. You men of Harvey know that these mines represent little new capital. They were dug with the profits from the first few shafts.

The smelters rose from the profits of the first smelters in the district. Where capital has builded with fresh investment--we make no specific claim, but where capital has builded here in this district from profits made in the district--profits made by reason of cheating the crippled and the killed, profits made by long deadly hours of labor, profits made by cooking men's lungs on the slag dump, profits made by choking men to death, unrequited, in cement dust, profits sweated out of the men at the gla.s.s furnaces--where capital has appropriated unjustly, we expect to appropriate justly. We shall take nothing that we do not own. This is the beginning of the rise of the Democracy of Labor--the dawn of the new day.” He waved his arm and his steel claw and chanted:

”March on!--March on!--all hearts resolved,”

And in a wave of song the response came

”To victory or death.”

Grant Adams flaunted his black slouch hat; then he sprang from the platform, and hurried to the front of the procession. The band struck up a lively tune and the long trail of white-clad women and white-badged men became animate.

”Well, Ahab--you heard that? That is rebellion,” said old Joe, squinting his mole-like eyes. ”What are you going to do about that--as the chief priest of law and order in this community?”

Five minutes later Ahab Wright, greatly impressed with the dignity of his position, and with the fact that he was talking to so superior a person as a governor, was saying:

”Yes, your excellency--yes, I wanted to tell you of our conditions here in the Valley. It's serious--quite serious.” To the Governor's question the Mayor replied:

”No--no--not yet, but we want to prevent it. This man Adams--Grant Adams, you've heard about him--”

And then an instant later he continued, ”Yes--that's the man, Governor--Dr. Nesbit's friend. Well, this man Adams has no respect for authority, nor for property rights, and he's stirring up the people.”

Young Joe Calvin winked at his father and said during the pause,

”That's the stuff--the old man's coming across like a top.”

Ahab went on: ”Exactly--'false and seditious doctrines,' and I'm afraid, Governor, that it will be wise to send us some troops.”