In the days that followed, Cicily was almost riotously happy. The
schemes that had been formulating themselves dimly in her mind following
the altruistic suggestion made to her by Mrs. Delancy now took on
definite shape and became substantial. In view of the fact that her
husband had explicitly brought her into a business partnership with
himself, it occurred to her that she might well combine the idea of
making other people happy with practical uses in behalf of business. To
this end, then, she devoted her intelligence diligently, with the result
that she soon had concrete plans of betterment for the many, and these
of a sort to redound directly to her husband's advantage in a business
way. In brief, she conceived certain philanthropic operations to be
carried out for the enjoyment of her husband's employes; the effect of
such changes would inevitably be a better understanding between them and
their employer, and an increased loyalty and efficiency on the part of
the workers. With this laudable purpose, Cicily, after broaching the
subject in detail to Hamilton, who made no objection, since her
helpfulness was to be operated out of her private fortune, at once
busied herself with the execution of the project. The factory downtown
was soon a-chatter with excitement over the startling innovations that
were under way. The employes cursed or cheered according to their
natures, as they learned of the gifts bestowed by the wife of their
employer. They regarded the new bath-tubs with wonder, albeit somewhat
doubtfully. They discussed the library with appreciation, or lack of
appreciation, according to their degrees of illiteracy or learning: the
socialistic element condemned the inanity of the volumes selected; there
were only histories, biographies, books of travel, foolish novels and
the like--nothing to teach the manner by which the brotherhood of man
must be worked out.
In addition to her activities for good in this direction, Cicily added
something actual to her ideas in reference to the up-lift of woman. She
made herself known to the wives of some of the men who worked in the
factory, and called on them in their homes. She invited them to visit
her in return, and she matured a project to make the Civitas Society
her ally in this noble work of up-lift and equalization in the social
order. With such eager works, her days were filled full, and she was
glad in the realization that it was, indeed, become her splendid
privilege to share in her husband's broader life.... She was
his--partner!
It may be doubted if Hamilton had more than the shadow of knowledge as
to his wife's happiness in the changed order. The episode, as he deemed
it, in which she had been given a partnership with him, hardly remained
in his memory. When he thought of it at all, he smiled over it as over
the vagary of one among a woman's innumerable varying moods. But he
thought of it very rarely, for his time was absorbed in the desperate
struggle to find a way out from the destruction that loomed very close
at hand. In the end, he decided not to reject the offer made by Morton
in behalf of the trust. Otherwise, he would be confronted by
Carrington's competition in selling to the independent trade at a dead
loss. But he was determined ultimately to combat this competition to the
limit of his ability and capital. It was apparent to him that success
would be impossible from the outset unless he should reduce his
operating expenses to the minimum. For this reason, he planned to make
the cut in wage-scale that had been suggested by Morton, although in
reality it was to overcome the machinations of the trust, not to further
them. He solaced his conscience by reiteration of the truth: that, in
the event of winning, the reduction would have been but a temporary
thing; whereas, without it, he must close down the factory immediately.
For the sake of his workers, as well as for his own, he was resolved to
pursue the one course that offered a hope of victory.
Naturally enough, the employes did not understand or approve. When news
of the proposed cut in the scale was made known, there came clamor and
wrath and sorrow. Meetings of the workers were held, and in due time a
committee of three waited on Hamilton by appointment in the study of his
house uptown. Schmidt, the most garrulous of the three, was a man in the
prime of life, heavily built, bald, with a white mustache that gave him
a certain grotesque resemblance to Bismarck. The other two members of
the committee were Ferguson, a thin, alert-mannered Yankee of forty, who
spoke with a pronounced drawl; and McMahon, a short, red-headed, shrewd
Irishman, with a face on which shone a volatile good-humor. The three,
on entering the library and being greeted by Hamilton, found that their
employer had fortified himself for the conference by the presence of Mr.
Delancy, in whose business judgment the younger man had great
confidence. The men received the pleasant salutation of Hamilton with
awkwardness, but without any trace of shamefacedness, for they had the
consciousness of their righteous cause to give them confidence in a
strange environment. Hardly were they seated at their host's request in
chairs facing him and Mr. Delancy, when Schmidt bounced up, and, after
squaring himself resolutely in a position of advantage before the empty
fireplace, proceeded to declaim vigorously as to the rights between
labor and capital, speaking sonorously, with a pronounced German accent.
After some five minutes of this, Mr. Delancy, who was both nervous and
irritable, as the orator paused for breath at a period, ventured to
protest.
"Yes, yes, man," he exclaimed, testily. "But I don't care a damn about
Schopenhauer and socialism, and I'm sure Mr. Hamilton doesn't. Let's get
to the wages paid in the Hamilton factory."
Ferguson came to the support of Delancy, as did McMahon, who said
amiably:
"Give the boss a chance, Smitty."
Schmidt, however, was inclined to be recalcitrant.
"There was no arrangement yet to give the boss a chance," he argued.
"Just give him a chance then because he's a friend of mine," urged the
Irishman with a grin of such exceeding friendliness toward the German
himself that it was not to be resisted. Schmidt nodded in token that the
employer should be allowed to speak, but he retained his position as a
presiding officer before the fireplace.
Hamilton forthwith set out to present his side of the case to the men
before him.
"As you know," he said briskly, "I'm the owner of the Hamilton factory.
I pay the wages. Now, the Hamilton factory has been kept running through
good times and through bad times for more than thirty years. Sometimes,
too, it has been run at a loss, without any cut in the wage-scale to
help the owner in that period of loss. Well, it seems to me under the
circumstances that I have a right to run my own business."
"Oh, certainly!" Ferguson agreed, languidly.
But Schmidt added a correction to the general concession.
"As long as you run it in our way, and don't cut wages."
"I'm sorry, men," Hamilton retorted, without any avoidance of the issue;
"but that cut must go."
The members of the committee looked from one to another, and shook their
heads dolefully. They knew too well the hardships that would be wrought
among their fellows by a ten per cent. cut the length of the scale. It
was McMahon who spoke first, with his usual air of good-nature in the
sarcasm, but a note of grimness underlying the surface pleasantry.
"Well, now, you see," he said in his rich brogue, addressing Ferguson
and Schmidt, "the boss has to save a mite to pay for the new bath-tubs
and that natty bit of a gymnasium and the library they've been putting
in lately."
"_Ach, Himmel!_" Schmidt snorted, disgustedly. "We will have manicures
soon already!" He stared at his pudgy fingers with the work-begrimed
nails, and grinned sardonically.
Hamilton flushed under the taunts.
"I have nothing to do with those improvements," he declared, in
self-justification. "They are all being put in by Mrs. Hamilton at her
own expense. She is doing it to make you men and women there more
contented with your lot--to make you happy."
"To make us happy!" Schmidt grunted. "Bathtubs!"
McMahon's sense of humor led him to indulge in another flight of
pleasantry, which shadowed forth the grim reality of these lives.
"Sure, but the gymnasium is great," he said, blandly. His tone was so
deceptive that Hamilton smiled in appreciation of the compliment to his
wife's undertaking, and even Mr. Delancy relaxed the harsh set of his
features. "The longer you work in it," the Irishman continued
innocently, "outside of hours of course, the stronger you get, and the
more you can do in hours for the boss.... Sure, it's great!"
Hamilton hastily changed the subject. He explained that, the cut would
not be applied to the wages of the women in the packing-department,
where a hundred were employed. He declared frankly that their pay was
insufficient to stand such a reduction.
"And do you think we make enough to stand it?" Ferguson exclaimed,
indignantly.
"Somebody has to stand it," was Hamilton's moody retort. "You have
threatened to strike, if I make this cut. Well, I am forced to threaten
you in turn. If you won't accept the cut, I shall strike--I must
strike!"
Schmidt, from his position before the fireplace, rose on his toes in
high indignation.
"You strike!" he clamored, huffily. "Who has given you that permission
to strike? You are no union. Bah!"
Hamilton shrugged his shoulders, wearily.
"Listen, men," he requested. "I'll put the facts before you plainly, for
I place my whole confidence in your loyalty. You think, perhaps, that
you're being strung in this deal. Well, we'll all be strung, and hung
over the side of the boat, too, unless we work together. You men are
dissatisfied, because, although you are working full time, you are asked
to take a ten per cent. cut. The truth of the matter is that the factory
is not making a cent of profit. I have to make the boxes for sale at a
loss now, on account of the competition of the trust factory, which is
trying to put me out of business. I must work at cost, or even at a
loss, for a time. With the ten per cent. cut, I can keep going. Without
it, I must close down. As soon as this crisis is over, if I win out, the
old wage-scale will be restored. I hope that time will not be long away.
I may venture to tell you something in confidence: I'm planning to take
on some side lines--some things in which I hope to make big money. As
soon as they're started, I'll give you back the present scale."
"Why don't your wife help pay the wages?" Schmidt questioned, shrewdly.
"She has plenty of money for foolishness."
"Faith, and that isn't a bad idea at all, at all, Mr. Hamilton," McMahon
agreed. "It's a better use for her money. Since she's been coming around
to the house these last few weeks, it's cost me a week's pay to get a
hat for my old woman in imitation of hers.... Women have no place in
business, I'm thinking."
Ferguson added his testimony to the like effect:
"That's right," he declared. He looked about for a place in which to
spit by way of emphasis, but, seeing none, forbore. "My girl, Sadie, she
put two dollars in false hair this very week. Your wife is sure making
it mighty hard for us, Mr. Hamilton. How can I buy false hair with a ten
per cent. cut? Durned if I can see!"
Again, Hamilton was afflicted with embarrassment over the infelicitous
results of his wife's benevolent activity, and again he changed the
subject.
"Well, boys," he said frankly, "I've put the matter to you straight. I'm
sorry. But, unless you take the cut, I don't see any future for any of
us.... It's up to you."
"The men decide for themselves," Ferguson replied, glumly. "We only
report back to them."
"But you three really decide," Hamilton persisted. "Come, give me your
decision now."
Ferguson and McMahon regarded each other doubtfully, in silence, as if
uncertain how to proceed. But Schmidt was not given to hesitation in
expressing himself on any occasion. He spoke now with an air of
phlegmatic determination, brandishing his right arm at the start:
"Well, speaking for myself only, I want to say--How do you do, Mrs.
Hamilton."