Pelle was once more among his own people; he did not regret that
fortune had withdrawn her promise; at heart he was glad. After all,
this was where he belonged. He had played a great part in the great
revolt—was he to be excluded from the battle?
The leaders welcomed him. No one could draw the people as he could,
when it came to that; the sight of him inspired them with a cheerful
faith, and gave them endurance, and a fearless pugnacity. And he was so
skilled, too, in making plans!
The first thing every morning he made his way to the lock-out office,
whence the whole campaign was directed; here all the many threads ran
together. The situation for the moment was considered, men who had
precise knowledge of the enemy’s weak points were called together, in
order to give information, and a comprehensive plan of campaign was
devised. At secret meetings, to which trustworthy members of the
various trades were invited, all sorts of material for offence was
collected— for the attack upon the employers, and for carrying on the
newspaper agitation. It was a question of striking at the
blood-suckers, and those who were loose in the saddle! There were
trades which the employers kept going for local reasons—these must be
hunted out and brought to a standstill, even at the cost of increasing
unemployment. They were making energetic preparations for war, and it
was not the time to be squeamish about their weapons. Pelle was in his
element. This was something better than ruining a single shoemaker,
even if he was the biggest in the city! He was rich in ideas, and never
wavered in carrying them into execution. Warfare was warfare!
This was the attacking side; but, permeated as he was by a sense of
community, he saw clearly that the real battle was for maintenance. The
utmost foresight and widely comprehensive instructions were required if
the masses were to last out the campaign; in the long run it would be a
question of endurance! Foreign strike-breakers had to be kept at a
distance by prompt communications to the party newspapers of the
different countries, and by the setting of pickets in the railway
stations and on the steamers. For the first time the workers took the
telegraph into their own service. The number of the foreign
strikebreakers must by every possible means be kept down, and in the
first place supplies must be assured, so that the unemployed masses
could keep famine at bay.
In a vision, Pelle had beheld the natural solidarity of the workers
extended over the whole earth, and now this vision was of service to
him. The leaders issued a powerful manifesto to the workers of Denmark;
pointing to the abyss from which they had climbed and to the pinnacles
of light toward which they were striving upward; and warning them, in
impressive phrases, to stand firm and to hold together. A statement as
to the origin of the lock-out and the intention which lay behind it was
printed and distributed throughout the country, with appeal for
assistance and support, in the name of freedom! And by means of appeals
to the labor parties of foreign countries they reminded the people of
the vast solidarity of labor. It was a huge machine to set in motion;
federation had increased from one small trade union until it
comprehended the whole kingdom, and now they were striving to
comprehend the laboring populations of the whole world, in order to win
them over as confederates in the campaign. And men who had risen from
the masses and were still sharing the same conditions, were managing
all this! They had kept step with the rapid growth of the movement, and
they were still growing.
The feeling that they were well prepared inspired them with courage and
the prospect of a favorable result. From the country offers of
employment for the locked-out workers daily reached the central office.
Money was sent too—and assistance in the form of provisions; and many
families outside the capital offered to take in the children of
unemployed parents. Remittances of money came from abroad, and the
liberal circles of the capital sympathized with the workers; and in the
workers’ quarter of the city shopkeepers and publicans began to collect
for the Federation.
The workers displayed an extraordinary readiness to undergo sacrifices.
Books of coupons were circulated everywhere in the workshops, and
thousands of workers gave each week a fourth part of their modest
wages. The locked-out workers left their work with magnificent courage;
the sense of community made them heroic. Destitute though they were as
a result of the hard winter, they agreed, during the first two weeks,
to do without assistance. Many of them spared the treasury altogether,
helping themselves as well as they could, seeking a little private
employment, or going out into the country to work on the land. The
young unmarried men went abroad.
The employers did what they could to cope with all these shifts. They
forbade the merchants and contractors to supply those who worked at
home on their own account with materials for their work; and secret
agents were despatched all over the country to the small employers and
the farmers, in order to prejudice them against the locked-out workers;
and the frontier of the country was covered with placards.
Their intention was obvious enough—an iron ring was to be drawn round
the workers, and once imprisoned therein they could do nothing but keep
starvation at bay until they had had enough, and surrendered. This
knowledge increased their resistance. They were lean with wandering
through the wilderness, but they were just in the mood for a fight.
Many of them had not until now understood the entire bearings of the
campaign; the new ideas had been stirring within them, but in a
fragmentary and isolated condition—as an expression of a dumb feeling
that the promised land was at hand at last. Often it was just one
single word that had fixed itself in their minds, and had to serve to
express the whole position. Any one might approach them with plausible
arguments and strike it from under them, and shatter the theory to
which they had clung; but faith itself remained, and the far-reaching
concord; deep in their hearts was the dim, immovable knowledge that
they were chosen to enter into the time of promise.
And now everything was gradually becoming plain to them. The battle
shed light both backward and forward. It illumined their existence in
all its harshness. Life was the same as it had always been, but now it
was revealed so plainly that all could see it. All the many whips and
scorns of life had been bound together in one vast scourge—the scourge
of famine—which was to drive them back into the midst of poverty! Want
was to be set upon them in its compactest form! This was the last, most
extreme weapon; it confirmed them in the certainty that they were now
on the right track, and near the goal. The night was always darkest
before the break of day!
There were all sorts of things that they could understand now. People
used to go about saying that the Germans were the hereditary enemy, and
that the Fatherland was taking the lead of all other countries. But now
the employers were sending to Germany for troops of hirelings, and were
employing them to drive their own countrymen into a state of poverty.
All that talk about patriotic feeling had been only fine words! There
were only two nations—the oppressors and the oppressed!
That was how things appeared on closer inspection! One could never be
very sure of what those above one told one—and yet all teaching came
from them! A brave lot the clergy were—they knew very well which master
they had to serve! No, the people ought to have had their own schools,
where the children would learn the new ideas instead of religion and
patriotism! Then there would long ago have been an end of the curse of
poverty! So they profited by the campaign and their compulsory idleness
in order to think things over, and to endeavor to solve all manner of
problems.
The specter of hunger presently began to go from house to house, but
the result was not what was expected; it awakened only hatred and
defiance. It was precisely in this direction that they were invincible!
In the course of time they had learned to suffer—they had learned
nothing more thoroughly; and this came to their help now. They had an
inexhaustible fund to draw upon, from which they could derive their
strength to resist; they were not to be defeated. Weren’t they nearly
ready to surrender? Very well—another thousand workers on the streets!
But the distress, to all appearance, became no greater than before;
they had learned to endure their privations in decency—that was their
share in the increasing culture. One saw no obtrusive signs of want;
they compromised with it in secret, and appeared full of courage. This
weakened the faith of their opponents in the infallible nature of their
means.
They even adopted hunger as their own weapon, boycotting the employers
and their dependents, striking the enemy a blow they were familiar
with! Many a great employer’s door was marked with a cross, and all
behind it were doomed to ruin.
It was as though the courage of the people increased in proportion as
famine threatened them more closely. No one could tell how long this
would last; but they would make hay as long as the sun shone! Their
clothes were still tidy, and in the early spring there were many
excursions; the people went forth singing, with banners at their head,
and singing they came home.
This was the first time they had ever enjoyed their freedom, although
there was work enough to be done—it was their first holiday! As they
held the whip hand through their purchasing capacity, they boycotted
all the business concerns of their own quarter which did not array
themselves on the side of the workers. Their hatred was aroused; it was
“for us or against us”; all must declare themselves by taking sides.
The small shopkeepers concealed their convictions—if they had any—and
rivalled one another in friendliness toward the workers. On their
counters lay books of coupons for those who would contribute to the
funds, and some of them gave a percentage of their own takings. There
was plenty of time to keep a strict eye on such; the people’s hatred
was aroused at last, and it grew more and more bitter.
The leaders held back and counselled prudence. But there was something
intoxicating in this battle for bare life—and for happiness! Something
that went to the head and tempted them to hazard all on the cast of the
dice. The leaders had given great attention to the problem of
restricting the number of idle hands—it was difficult for them to
procure sufficient funds. But those workers who still had work to do
forsook it, in order to join themselves, in blind solidarity, to their
locked-out comrades. They thought it was required of them!
One day the masons made an unexpected demand that an hour should be
struck off the day’s work. They received a refusal. But that evening
they knocked off at six instead of seven. The men were unreasonable: to
demand shorter hours in the slack season following on a hard winter!
This move took the leaders by surprise. They feared that it might
diminish the general sympathy for the workers. It surprised them
particularly that the prudent and experienced Stolpe had not opposed
this demand. As president of the organization for many years, he had
great influence over the men; he must try to persuade them to go to
work again. Pelle opened negotiations with him.
“That is not my business,” Stolpe replied. “I did not propose the
cessation of work, but at the general meeting the majority was in favor
of it—and with that there’s no more to be said. I don’t oppose my
comrades.”
“But that’s perverse of you,” said Pelle. “You are the responsible
person, and your trade has the most favorable conditions of labor—and
you ought to remember the conflict in which we are engaged.”
“Yes, the conflict! Of course we thought of it. And you are right, I
have a good and comfortable home, because my craft is in a good
position; and we masons have obtained good conditions, and we earn good
money. But are we to enjoy ourselves and look on while the others are
fighting for dry bread? No, we are with them when it comes to a fight!”
“But the support you were giving—it was ten thousand kroner a week, and
now we shall have to do without it! Your action may have incalculable
consequences for us. You must put an end to this, father-in-law! You
must see that the majority doesn’t have its way.”
“That would be diplomatic, wouldn’t it? But you seem anxious to side
with our opponents! We hold the suffrage in honor, and it is the
suffrage that is to reform society. If once one begins to meddle with
the voting-papers!—”
“But that isn’t necessary in the least! The people aren’t really clear
as to what they are doing—you can’t expect any quickness of perception
from them! You could demand a fresh vote—if I could first have a talk
with them about the campaign!”
“So you think we couldn’t see what we were doing!” replied Stolpe, much
offended. “But we can accept the consequences—we can do that! And you
want to get up on the platform and talk them silly, and then they are
to vote the other way round! No, no nonsense here! They voted according
to their convictions—and with that the matter’s settled, whether it’s
right or wrong! It won’t be altered!”
Pelle had to give in; the old man was not to be moved from his point of
view. The masons increased the unemployed by a few thousand men.
The employers profited by this aggression, which represented them to
the public in a favorable aspect, in order to strike a decisive blow.
The universal lock-out was declared.