As time wore on, every industry on the island, localized, and every man became specialized. Inventions and machinery multiplied. But every new labor-saving machine saved labor, of course, and produced better goods than hand labor. So every new machine took a job away from several workmen. There was much complaint about this but new inventions kept coming. There were now twenty different hat factories in the manufacturing village, each trying to undersell the other. One day they combined and built a large addition on the largest factory building. Then they moved most of the other hat factory machinery in, and destroyed the old buildings and the machinery they did not want. They also discharged nineteen engineers, nineteen foremen, fifty bookkeepers, two hundred drivers and packers and many other men, because they no longer needed them. These poor discharged workmen did not know what to do, for they had spent their lives at that business and knew no other. First, there was a great hue and cry raised by all the little villages, for they all felt sorry for the poor discharged workmen. But soon, this big partnership concern began to sell the same hats for far less than formerly, and they told the people that they could afford to because they did not have so many men to pay, so much rent, so much advertising, and were running things more economically. Other big partnerships were formed all over the island, and after a while, so great was the economy of combination that many men could not get any work to do. Every big partnership soon took in all the little concerns on the island, or else it drove them out of business by competition. Some men became discouraged and began to drink rum, and others even began to cheat and steal. One day, some of the big partnerships had a banquet, and they talked things over and they said: "We're making money and getting rich, but we could do it faster if we did not have to pay so much wages. Let us raise prices and cut wages down." This they did, and finally the workingmen got together into a partnership of their own. They organized, and they all said they must have just so much wages or they would not work at all. This forced the big partnership people to pay better wages for a while, but the two partnerships, employer and employee, were always quarrelling. One day a very serious thing happened in the coal village. The workmen refused to work because they thought they were not getting enough wages. They stopped mining coal, and, while they were idle, all other workmen on the island sent them money and provisions out of sympathy. It was dead winter and people began to suffer and some of the factories had to shut down. Even the railroads could not run their engines. But the people made such an uproar that the coal owners finally surrendered a little, reluctantly, and again the mines were operated.