Labor unions -- United States -- Drama; Social classes -- United States -- Drama; Strikes and lockouts -- Drama
I've rather arduous duties, my young brother.
Besides my Church work there are Boards and Boards
And meetings of this Charity and that
That you in business know but little of.
My interest in the poor is not unknown.
HARRY EGERTON.
You've been in father's confidence for years.
BISHOP HARDBROOKE.
I'm proud to say I have.
HARRY EGERTON.
There's seldom passed
A Sunday that he's not been in his pew.
BISHOP HARDBROOKE.
A creditable record.
RALPH ARDSLEY.
I should say.
BISHOP HARDBROOKE.
And one that any son might emulate
With profit, I should think.
HARRY EGERTON.
It's very strange
My father doesn't know some things are wrong.
BISHOP HARDBROOKE.
You mean he doesn't see things as you do.
HARRY EGERTON.
Yes, all my life I've wondered when I've seen
Check after check go out with father's name
To help along some Mission over sea
Or roof some rising Charity at home,
I've often wondered that he's never seen
Those little shacks upon the hill out there
Nor heard the cry of widows from these saws.
BISHOP HARDBROOKE.
I would suggest, my brother, that we leave
The deeper things of God for quiet times
And turn our minds to something nearer home.
HARRY EGERTON.
I know of nothing nearer home than this,
The cry of men for justice at our doors.
BISHOP HARDBROOKE.
Suppose we get the Company to agree
To let bygones be bygones with the men,
And to restore conditions as they were----
RALPH ARDSLEY.
In other words to meet the men's demands.
BISHOP HARDBROOKE.
And put the guards they ask about the saws.
That would remove the causes, would it not,
Of the misunderstanding?
RALPH ARDSLEY.
Every one.
BISHOP HARDBROOKE.
Would there be any valid reason then
Why Peace should not return and all be friends
As formerly?
HARRY EGERTON.
For weeks they waited for it.
(_Listens back_)
BISHOP HARDBROOKE.
What's time to do with right and wrong, my brother?
HARRY EGERTON.
But men in misery often have a vision
Beyond the eye of prosperous days to see.
BISHOP HARDBROOKE.
If it was fair last week, then why not now?
HARRY EGERTON.
They're building something fairer.
(_Walks back_)
RALPH ARDSLEY.
It's no use.
BISHOP HARDBROOKE.
On what foundations, Harry? All about
I see the wreck and ruin of our land;
Her altars down, her sacred institutions----
(_Cheering outside_)
Harry, I beg of you to stop and think
What it has cost, this Law that you defy
And cast before the swine of riotous feet.
(_Continuous cheering_)
I appeal to you, my brother----
HARRY EGERTON.
Bishop Hardbrooke----
BISHOP HARDBROOKE.
In the name of everything that you hold dear----
HARRY EGERTON.
There's nothing you could say that could persuade me----
BISHOP HARDBROOKE.
Think of your country plunged in civil war!
HARRY EGERTON.
To stay even with a word what's rising there.
BISHOP HARDBROOKE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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