Two days after this beginning of Hal’s political career, it was arranged
that the workers who were to make a demand for a check-weighman should
meet in the home of Mrs. David. When Mike Sikoria came up from the pit
that day, Hal took him aside and told him of the gathering. A look of
delight came upon the old Slovak’s face as he listened; he grabbed his
buddy by the shoulders, crying, “You mean it?”
“Sure meant it,” said Hal. “You want to be on the committee to go and
see the boss?”
“_Pluha biedna_!” cried Mike--which is something dreadful in his own
language. “By Judas, I pack up my old box again!”
Hal felt a guilty pang. Should he let this old man into the thing? “You
think you’ll have to move out of camp?” he asked.
“Move out of state this time! Move back to old country, maybe!” And Hal
realised that he could not stop him now, even if he wanted to. The old
fellow was so much excited that he hardly ate any supper, and his buddy
was afraid to leave him alone, for fear he might blurt out the news.
It had been agreed that those who attended the meeting should come one
by one, and by different routes. Hal was one of the first to arrive, and
he saw that the shades of the house had been drawn, and the lamps turned
low. He entered by the back door, where “Big Jack” David stood on guard.
“Big Jack,” who had been a member of the South Wales Federation at home,
made sure of Hal’s identity, and then passed him in without a word.
Inside was Mike--the first on hand. Mrs. David, a little black-eyed
woman with a never-ceasing tongue, was bustling about, putting things in
order; she was so nervous that she could not sit still. This couple had
come from their birth-place only a year or so ago, and had brought all
their wedding presents to their new home--pictures and bric-a-brac and
linen. It was the prettiest home Hal had so far been in, and Mrs. David
was risking it deliberately, because of her indignation that her husband
had had to foreswear his union in order to get work in America.
The young Italian, Rovetta, came, then old John Edstrom. There being not
chairs enough in the house, Mrs. David had set some boxes against the
wall, covering them with cloth; and Hal noticed that each person took
one of these boxes, leaving the chairs for the later comers. Each one as
he came in would nod to the others, and then silence would fall again.
When Mary Burke entered, Hal divined from her aspect and manner that she
had sunk back into her old mood of pessimism. He felt a momentary
resentment. He was so thrilled with this adventure; he wanted everybody
else to be thrilled--especially Mary! Like every one who has not
suffered much, he was repelled by a condition of perpetual suffering in
another. Of course Mary had good reasons for her black moods--but she
herself considered it necessary to apologise for what she called her
“complainin’”! She knew that he wanted her to help encourage the others;
but here she was, putting herself in a corner and watching this
wonderful proceeding, as if she had said: “I’m an ant, and I stay in
line--but I’ll not pretend I have any hope in it!”
Rosa and Jerry had insisted on coming, in spite of Hal’s offer to spare
them. After them came the Bulgarian, Wresmak; then the Polacks, Klowoski
and Zamierowski. Hal found these difficult names to remember, but the
Polacks were not at all sensitive about this; they would grin
good-naturedly while he practised, nor would they mind if he gave it up
and called them Tony and Pete. They were humble men, accustomed all
their lives to being driven about. Hal looked from one to another of
their bowed forms and toil-worn faces, appearing more than ever sombre
and mournful in the dim light; he wondered if the cruel persecution
which had driven them to protest would suffice to hold them in line.
Once a newcomer, having misunderstood the orders, came to the front door
and knocked; and Hal noted that every one started, and some rose to
their feet in alarm. Again he recognised the atmosphere of novels of
Russian revolutionary life. He had to remind himself that these men and
women, gathered here like criminals, were merely planning to ask for a
right guaranteed them by the law!
The last to come was an Austrian miner named Huszar, with whom Olson had
got into touch. Then, it being time to begin, everybody looked uneasily
at everybody else. Few of them had conspired before, and they did not
know quite how to set about it. Olson, the one who would naturally have
been their leader, had deliberately stayed away. They must run this
check-weighman affair for themselves!
“Somebody talk,” said Mrs. David at last; and then, as the silence
continued, she turned to Hal. “You’re going to be the check-weighman.
You talk.”
“I’m the youngest man here,” said Hal, with a smile. “Some older fellow
talk.”
But nobody else smiled. “Go on!” exclaimed old Mike; and so at last Hal
stood up. It was something he was to experience many times in the
future; because he was an American, and educated, he was forced into a
position of leadership.
“As I understand it, you people want a check-weighman. Now, they tell me
the pay for a check-weighman should be three dollars a day, but we’ve
got only seven miners among us, and that’s not enough. I will offer to
take the job for twenty-five cents a day from each man, which will make
a dollar-seventy-five, less than what I’m getting now as a buddy. If we
get thirty men to come in, then I’ll take ten cents a day from each, and
make the full three dollars. Does that seem fair?”
“Sure!” said Mike; and the others added their assent by word or nod.
“All right. Now, there’s nobody that works in this mine but knows the
men don’t get their weight. It would cost the company several hundred
dollars a day to give us our weight, and nobody should be so foolish as
to imagine they’ll do it without a struggle. We’ve got to make up our
minds to stand together.”
“Sure, stand together!” cried Mike.
“No get check-weighman!” exclaimed Jerry, pessimistically.
“Not unless we try, Jerry,” said Hal.
And Mike thumped his knee. “Sure try! And get him too!”
“Right!” cried “Big Jack.” But his little wife was not satisfied with
the response of the others. She gave Hal his first lesson in the
drilling of these polyglot masses.
“Talk to them. Make them understand you!” And she pointed them out one
by one with her finger: “You! You! Wresmak, here, and you, Klowoski, and
you, Zam--you other Polish fellow. Want check-weighman. Want to get all
weight. Get all our money. Understand?”
“Yes, yes!”
“Get committee, go see super! Want check-weighman. Understand? Got to
have check-weighman! No back down, no scare.”
“No--no scare!” Klowoski, who understood some English, explained rapidly
to Zamierowski; and Zamierowski, whose head was still plastered where
Jeff Cotton’s revolver had hit it, nodded eagerly in assent. In spite of
his bruises, he would stand by the others, and face the boss.
This suggested another question. “Who’s going to do the talking to the
boss?”
“You do that,” said Mrs. David, to Hal.
“But I’m the one that’s to be paid. It’s not for me to talk.”
“No one else can do it right,” declared the woman.
“Sure--got to be American feller!” said Mike.
But Hal insisted. If he did the talking, it would look as if the
check-weighman had been the source of the movement, and was engaged in
making a good paying job for himself.
There was discussion back and forth, until finally John Edstrom spoke
up. “Put me on the committee.”
“You?” said Hal. “But you’ll be thrown out! And what will your wife do?”
“I think my wife is going to die to-night,” said Edstrom, simply.
He sat with his lips set tightly, looking straight before him. After a
pause he went on: “If it isn’t to-night, it will be to-morrow, the
doctor says; and after that, nothing will matter. I shall have to go
down to Pedro to bury her, and if I have to stay, it will make little
difference to me, so I might as well do what I can for the rest of you.
I’ve been a miner all my life, and Mr. Cartwright knows it; that might
have some weight with him. Let Joe Smith and Sikoria and myself be the
ones to go and see him, and the rest of you wait, and don’t give up your
jobs unless you have to.”