Labor unions -- United States -- Drama; Social classes -- United States -- Drama; Strikes and lockouts -- Drama
You say the State's been fair with them. All right.
But it ain't the State that feeds them, it's the Mill;
And it ain't the State that clothes them, it's the Mill;
And it ain't the State they think of when they think
Of better homes hereafter, it's the Mill.
And there ain't no fairness that ain't fair in here,
And there ain't no freedom that ain't free in here,
Though there ain't no use of saying that to you.
SAM WILLIAMS.
We have to live.
GENERAL CHADBOURNE.
(_Ignoring Anderson, as he does throughout_)
Employers have the right
To buy their labor in the open market,
And if you fellows here can't meet the price----
VOICE.
(_From the crowd_)
You'd have us starve?
GENERAL CHADBOURNE.
You'll have to step aside
And give way to some stronger men that can
SAM WILLIAMS.
And you expect men to obey a law
That gives no hope of anything but this?
GENERAL CHADBOURNE.
You'd been to work and you'd been satisfied
If some outsiders hadn't come along
And fired your ignorant minds.
(_Murmurs in the crowd_)
CHRIS KNUDSON.
Hold your tongues, men.
HARRY EGERTON.
Pardon me, General Chadbourne--
HARVEY ANDERSON.
(_To Buck Bentley_)
Land o' the free!
HARRY EGERTON.
We are all of us outsiders in a way,
Yourself as well as Harvey here and I.
But in a way there's no such thing. We're men,
And that which injures one injures us all.
GENERAL CHADBOURNE.
I'm here on duty; quite a different thing.
HARRY EGERTON.
What I have done I have done not without cause
Nor hastily.
GENERAL CHADBOURNE.
You know yourself these men
Would have been to work.
SAM WILLIAMS.
We'd had to----
GENERAL CHADBOURNE.
There you are!
SAM WILLIAMS.
If it hadn't been for Mr. Egerton.
HARRY EGERTON.
Yes, probably they would.
HARVEY ANDERSON.
That's just the point.
GENERAL CHADBOURNE.
Then who is responsible?
HARVEY ANDERSON.
They'd gone to work.
HARRY EGERTON.
For this, I am. But for conditions here----
GENERAL CHADBOURNE.
(_To Captain Haskell_)
Remember that.
WORKMEN.
No! We! We seized the mill!
HARRY EGERTON.
I led them.
BUCK BENTLEY.
It was we unlocked the gates.
WORKMEN.
But we marched in, so we're responsible.
HARVEY ANDERSON.
We won't dispute about who did it, partners.
There's glory enough for all.
(_Cheers_)
I'm in it too.
(_He laughs_)
HARRY EGERTON.
But for conditions that produced this strike
God knows and I know it was not these men.
I only wish that that was farther off.
GENERAL CHADBOURNE.
If wrong's been done there's legal remedies.
HARRY EGERTON.
Conditions, General, that outreach the law.
SAM WILLIAMS.
For it's that 'open market'----
VOICE.
(_From the crowd_)
Who makes the law?
SAM WILLIAMS.
Their legal right to buy the cheapest men
And drive them just as hard and just as long
As they can stand it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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