_Mr. Morrison Tackles a Man with a Mind of His Own and a Man without
One_
Mr. Morrison was a slick bird--in fact, a very slick bird. It was his
soul's delight to preen his unctuous feathers and to shiver them into
the most effective and comfortable position, to settle his head between
his shoulders, and, with moistened lips, to view his little world from
dreamy, half-closed eyes. This, however, only happened in restful
moments of complacent self-contemplation. He never allowed these moods
to interfere with business. He had broached the subject of marriage to
Pierre, and Pierre had of course fallen in with his views. The fact that
Elise evidently loathed him disturbed no whit his placid mind. He was in
no hurry. He assumed Elise as his own whenever he chose to say the word.
He regarded her in much the same way as a half-hungered epicure a
toothsome dinner, holding himself aloof until his craving stomach should
give the utmost zest to his viands without curtailing the pleasure of
his palate by ravenous haste. He served Pierre with diligence and
fidelity. The Blue Goose would sooner or later come to him with Elise.
He had ambitions, political especially, not acquired, but instinctive.
Not that he felt inspired with a mission to do good unto others, but
that others should do good unto him, and also that the particular kind
of good should be of his own choosing. He knew very well the
temperaments of his chosen constituency, and he adapted himself to their
impressionable peculiarities. To this end he dispensed heavily padded
gratuities with much ostentation on selected occasions, but gathered his
tolls in merciless silence. He did this without fear, for he knew that
the blare of the multitude would drown the cries of the stricken few.
Mr. Morrison had long meditated upon the proper course to take in order
best to compass his ends. The unrest among the employees of the Rainbow
Company came to him unsought, and he at once grasped the opportunity.
The organisation of a miners' and millmen's union would be an obvious
benefit to the rank and file; their manifestation of gratitude would
naturally take the very form he most desired. To this end before the
many he displayed the pyrotechnics of meaningless oratory, in much the
same manner as a strutting peacock his brilliant tail; but individuals
he hunted with nickel bullets and high-power guns. On various occasions
he had displayed the peacock tail; this particular afternoon he took
down his flat-trajectoried weapon and went forth to gun for Bennie.
Bennie had washed the dinner dishes, reset his table, prepared for the
coming meal, and now, as was his custom, was lying in his bunk, with an
open book in his hands, prepared to read or doze, as the spirit moved
him.
Mr. Morrison appeared before him.
"Howdy, Bennie! Taking a nap?"
"I'm taking nothing but what's my own." Bennie looked meaningly at
Morrison.
Morrison slipped into what he mistook for Bennie's mood.
"You're wise, if you get it all. Many's the ignorant devil that takes
only what's given him and asks no questions, worse luck to him!"
"You'll do well to go on," remarked Bennie, placidly. "There's many that
gets more, and then damns the gift and the giver."
"And just what might that mean, Bennie?" Morrison looked a little
puzzled.
"It means that, if more got what they deserved, 'twould be better for
honest men." Bennie was very decided.
Morrison's face cleared. He held out his hand.
"Shake!" he said.
Bennie took the proffered hand.
"Here's hoping you'll come to your own!" he remarked, grimly.
The clasped hands each fell to its own. Morrison's hands went to his
pocket as he stretched out his crossed legs with a thankful look on his
face.
"I'm not specially troubled about myself. I've had fairly good luck
looking out for Patrick Morrison, Esq. It's these poor devils around
here that's troubling me. They get nipped and pinched at every turn of
the cards."
"It's God's truth you're talking. And you want to help them same poor
devils?"
"That's what."
"Then listen to me. Smash your roulette and faro. Burn down the Blue
Goose, first taking out your whisky that'll burn only the throats of the
fools who drink it. Do that same, and you'll see fat grow on lean bones,
and children's pants come out of the shade of the patches."
Morrison lifted his hat, scratching his head meditatively.
"That isn't exactly what I'm at."
"Eagles to snowbirds 'tis not!" put in Bennie, aside.
Morrison gave no heed to the interruption.
"Every man has the right to spend his own money in his own way."
"The poor devils get the money and the Blue Goose furnishes the way,"
Bennie again interpolated.
Morrison was getting uneasy. He was conscious that he was not making
headway.
"You can't do but one thing at a time in good shape."
"You're a damned liar! At the Blue Goose you're doing everyone all the
time."
Morrison rose impatiently. The nickel bullets were missing their billet.
He began tentatively to unfold the peacock's tail.
"You see," he said, "it's like this. In union is strength. What makes
the rich richer? Because they hang together like swarming bees. You pick
the honey of one and you get the stings of all. Learn from the rich to
use the rich man's weapons. Let us poor workingmen band together like
brothers in a common cause. Meet union with union, strength with
strength. Then, and only then, can we get our own."
"It took more than one cat to make strings for that fiddle," Bennie
remarked, thoughtfully. "Just what might that mean?"
Morrison again looked puzzled. He went back to his bullets.
"To be specific," he spoke impressively, "as things stand now, if one
workingman thinks he ought to have more pay he goes to the company and
asks for it. The company says no. If he gets troublesome, they fire him.
If one man works in a close breast with foul air the company tells him
to go back to his work or quit. It costs money to timber bad ground. One
poor workman's life doesn't count for much. It's cheaper for the company
to take chances than to put in timber." He paused, looking sharply at
Bennie.
"You're talking sense now. How do you propose to help it?"
Morrison felt solid ground beneath his feet.
"Do as I said. Learn from the rich. Unite. If the men are not getting
fair wages, the union can demand more."
Bennie lifted an inquiring finger.
"One word there. You want to organise a union?"
"That's it. That's the stuff." Morrison was flatteringly acquiescent. "A
company can turn down one man, but the union will shove it up to them
hard."
"If one man breaks five tons of ore a day, and another man breaks only
one, will the union see that both get the same pay?"
"A workingman is a workingman." Morrison spoke less enthusiastically. "A
man that puts in his time earns all that he gets."
Bennie looked musingly at the toes of his boots.
"The union will equalise the pay?"
"You bet it will!"
"They'll make the company ventilate the mines and keep bad ground
timbered?"
"They'll look after these things sharp, and anything else that comes
up."
"The union will run the company, but who'll run the union?"
Morrison waxed enthusiastic.
"We'll take our turn at bossing all right. Every man in the union stands
on the same floor, and when any of the boys have a grievance the
president will see them through. The president and the executive
committee can tie up the whole camp if the company bucks."
"Is the union organised?" asked Bennie.
"Not yet. It's like this." Morrison's voice had a tinge of patronage.
"You see, I want to get a few of the level-headed men in the camp worked
up to the idea; the rest will come in, hands down."
"Who have you got strung?"
"Well, there's Luna, and----"
"Luna's a crowd by himself. He's got more faces than a town-clock
telling time to ten streets. Who else?"
"There's Thompson, the mine foreman----"
"Jim Thompson? Don't I know him now? He'll throw more stunts than a
small boy with a bellyful of green apples. Who else?"
Morrison looked a little sulky.
"Well, how about yourself. That's what I'm here to find out."
Bennie glared up wrathfully.
"You'll take away no doubts about me, if my tongue isn't struck by a
palsy till it can't bore the wax of your ears. When it comes to bosses,
I'll choose my own. I'm American and American born. I'd rather be bossed
by a silk tile and kid gloves than by a Tipperary hat and a shillalah,
with a damned three-cornered shamrock riding the necks of both. It's a
pretty pass we've come to if we've got to go to Irish peat-bogs and
Russian snow-banks to find them as will tell us our rights and how to
get them, and then import dagoes with rings in their ears and Hungarians
with spikes in their shoes to back us up. Let me talk a bit! I get my
seventy-five dollars a month for knowing my business and attending to
it, because my grub goes down the necks of the men instead of out on the
dump; because I give more time to a side of bacon than I do to
organising unions. And I'll tell you some more facts. The rich are
growing richer for using what they have, and the poor are growing poorer
because they don't know enough to handle what they've got. Organise a
union for keeping damned fools out of the Blue Goose, and from going
home and lamming hell out of their wives and children, and I'll talk
with you. As it is, the sooner you light out the more respect I'll have
for the sense of you that I haven't seen."
Morrison was blazing with anger.
"You'll sing another tune before long. We propose to run every scab out
of the country."
"Run, and be damned to you! I've got a thousand-acre ranch and five
hundred head of cattle. I've sucked it from the Rainbow at seventy-five
a month, and I've given value received, without any union to help me.
Only take note of this. I've laid my eggs in my own nest, and not at the
Blue Goose."
Morrison turned and left the room. Over his shoulder he flung back:
"This isn't the last word, you damned scab! You'll hear from me again."
"'Tis not the nature of a pig to keep quiet with a dog at his heels."
Bennie stretched his neck out of the door to fire his parting shot.
Morrison went forth with a vigorous flea in each ear, which did much to
disturb his complacency. Bennie had not made him thoughtful, only
vengeful. There is nothing quite so discomposing as the scornful
rejection of proffers of self-seeking philanthropy. Bennie's indignation
was instinctive rather than analytical, the inherent instinct that puts
up the back and tail of a new-born kitten at its first sight of a
benevolent-appearing dog.
Morrison had not gone far from the boarding-house before he chanced
against Luna.
Morrison was the last person Luna would have wished to meet. Since his
interview with Firmstone he had scrupulously avoided the Blue Goose, and
he had seen neither Morrison nor Pierre. His resolution to mend his ways
was the result of fear, rather than of change of heart. Neither Morrison
nor Pierre had fear. They were playing safe. Luna felt their
superiority; he was doing his best to keep from their influence.
"Howdy!"
"Howdy!" Luna answered.
"Where've you been this long time?" asked Morrison, suavely.
Luna did not look up.
"Down at the mill, of course."
"What's going on?" pursued Morrison. "You haven't been up lately."
"There's been big things going on. Pierre's little game's all off." Luna
shrank from a direct revelation.
"Oh, drop this! What's up?"
"I'll tell you what's up." Luna looked defiant. "You know the last lot
of ore you pinched? Well, the old man's got it, and, what's more, he's
on to your whole business."
Morrison's face set.
"Look here now, Luna. You just drop that little _your_ business. It
looks mighty suspicious, talking like that. I don't know what you mean.
If you've been pulling the mill and got caught you'd better pick out
another man to unload on besides me."
"I never took a dollar from the mill, and I told the old man so. I----"
But Morrison interrupted:
"You've been squealing, have you? Well, you just go on, only remember
this. If you're going to set in a little game of freeze-out, you play
your cards close to your coat."
Luna saw the drift of Morrison's remarks, and hastened to defend
himself.
"It's gospel truth. I haven't squealed." He gave a detailed account of
his midnight interview with Firmstone, defining sharply between his
facts and his inferences. He finally concluded: "The old man's sharp.
There isn't a corner of the mine he doesn't know, and there isn't a
chink in the mill, from the feed to the tail-sluice, that he hasn't got
his eye on." Luna's mood changed from the defensive to the assertive.
"I'll tell you one thing more. He's square, square as a die. He had me
bunched, but he give me a chance. He told me that I could stop the
stealing at the mill, that I had got to, and, by God, I'm going to, in
spite of hell!"
Morrison was relieved, but a sneer buried the manifestation of his
relief.
"Well," he exclaimed, "of all the soft, easy things I ever saw you're
the softest and the easiest!"
Luna only looked dogged.
"Hard words break no bones," he answered, sullenly.
"That may be," answered Morrison; "but it doesn't keep soft ones from
gumming your wits, that's sure."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean just this. You say the old man had you bunched. Well, he's got
you on your back now, and roped, too."
Luna answered still more sullenly:
"There's more'n one will be roped, then. If it comes to a show-down,
I'll not be alone."
"All right, Mr. Luna." Morrison spoke evenly. "When you feel like
calling the game just go right ahead. I'm not going to stop you."
Luna made no immediate reply. Morrison waited, ostentatiously
indifferent. Luna finally broke the silence.
"I don't see how the old man's got me roped."
"Well, now you're acting as if you had sense. I'll tell you. I'm always
ready to talk to a man that's got sense. Just answer a few straight
questions. In the first place, you've been stealing from the mill."
"I tell you I haven't," broke in Luna; "but I can tell you who has." He
looked sharply at Morrison.
Morrison waved his hand with wearied endurance.
"Well, you're foreman at the mill. If there's been stealing, and you
know your business, you know where it was done and how it was done. If
you don't know your business what are you there for, and how long are
you going to stay? You say yourself the old man is sharp, and he is. How
long is he going to keep either a thief or a fool in your place?"
"I'm not a thief," Luna answered, hotly. "I'm not a fool, either, and
I'm not going to be made one any longer by you, either."
"If you're not a fool listen to me, and keep quiet till I'm through."
Morrison leaned forward, checking his words with his fingers. "The old
man's sharp, and he's got you roped, any turn. There's been stealing at
the mill. You say this. You're foreman there. It doesn't make any
difference whether you stole or someone else. They hold you responsible.
The old man's got the cards in his hands. The men saw him come in the
mill, shut down, and take samples to back him up."
"Well, what of it?"
"What of it, you fool! This is what of it. He's got you just where he
wants you. You'll walk turkey from now on, according to his orders. If
there's any dirty work to be done you'll do it. You squeal or you kick,
and he'll start the whole slide and bury you."
"I'm not obliged to do any dirty work for him or any other man. Not even
for you. I can quit."
"And get another job?" Morrison asked, mockingly.
"That's what."
"Let me just point out a few things. You get mad and quit. Call for your
time. Pack your turkey and go to another mill. They will ask your name.
Then, 'Excuse me a minute.' Then they'll go to a little book, and
they'll find something like this, 'Henry Luna, mill man, foreman Rainbow
mill. Richard Firmstone, superintendent. Discharged on account of
stealing ore from the mill.' Then they'll come back. 'No place for you,
Mr. Luna,' and you'll go on till hell freezes, and that little record of
yours will knock you, every clip. When you wear the skin off your feet,
and the shirt off your back, you'll come back to the Rainbow, and Mr.
Firmstone will politely tell you that, if you've walked the kick out of
you, he'll give you another try."
Luna was open-eyed. He had grasped but one thing.
"What little book are you talking about?" he asked.
"It's known as the Black List, little lambie. You'll know more about it
if you keep on. Every company in Colorado or in the United States has
one. You'll run up against it, all right, if you keep on."
Luna had vague ideas of this powerful weapon; but it had never seemed so
real before. He was growing suspicious. He recalled Firmstone's words,
"I've told you a good deal, but not all by a good long measure." They
had seemed simple and straightforward at the time, but Morrison's
juggling was hazing them.
"What's a fellow to do?" he asked, helplessly.
"Nothing alone, except to take what's given you. You stand alone, and
you'll be cut alone, worked overtime alone, kicked alone, and, when it
gets unendurable, starve alone. But, if you've got any sense or sand,
don't stand alone to get kicked and cuffed and robbed by a company or by
a bunch of companies. Meet union with union, strength with strength,
and, if worst comes to worst, fight with fight. Us workingmen have
things in our own hands, if we stand together." Morrison was watching
the foreman narrowly. "And there's another thing. When a long-toothed,
sharp-nosed, glass-eyed company bull-dog puts up a padded deck on a
workingman, he'll have the backing of the union to put him down."
"The union ain't going to take up no private grievance?" Luna spoke,
half questioningly.
"They ain't, heh? What's it for, then? Bunching us up so they can pick
us off one by one, without hunting us out like a flock of sheep. That
ain't the union." Morrison paused, looking keenly at Luna. "There's no
use scattering. There's nothing as skittish as a pocketful of dollars in
a dress suit. If there's a grievance, private or common, go to the
company in a bunch. Remonstrate. If that don't work, strike, fight,
boycott! No weapons? The poor man's dollar will buy rifles and
cartridges as quick as a rich man's checks. We've got this advantage,
too. Rich men have to hire men to fight for them; but, by God, we can
fight for ourselves!"
Luna's thick wits were vibrating betwixt fear and vengeance. He had all
the ignorant man's fear of superior brains, all the coward's sneaking
resentment of a fancied imposition. He could see that fear had blinded
his eyes to the real but covert threat of Firmstone's words. Here was
his chance to free himself from Firmstone's clutches. Here his chance
for revenge.
Morrison was watching him closely.
"Are you with us, or are you going down alone?"
Luna held out his hand.
"I'm with you, you bet!"
"Come up to the Blue Goose some night when you're on day-shift. We'll
talk things over with Pierre."
Then they parted.