Booth Tarkington

“ Gibson. Don't you understand, these men are not hirelings now; they're comrades, a brotherhood! You should see them as they come from the factory in the warm afternoon sunshine. They stop in groups and continue discussions of matters of interest that have come up during the day. You hear the most eager discussion, such spirited repartee; and in the factory itself these groups gather at any time. When there may be some tiny bit of friction it is disposed of amicably, comrade to comrade. And some of the wives of the workmen have taken the greatest interest! ”

“ I thank that power which destined all men to be equal both in service and reward that I should have chanced to be present to see such a splendid band of forward-looking fellows—of brothers, of comrades—come into their own! Let us hope that this great moment but marks the beginning of an epoch when every capitalist and manufacturer shall see the light as Mr. Gibson has just done. ”

“ Gibson. You may not know our phrase: "The workman shall own his tools." It means not only the carpenter's bench, the plane and the saw, the adze and the auger, but the shop itself. It means that the workmen shall own the factory. It means the elimination of everything and everyone who stands between him and the purchaser, to take toll and unearned profit from the worker, who is really the sole producer of wealth. ”

“ CARTER: Serves you right, Frankel!
[At the filter FRANKEL pours water from the glass upon a dirty handkerchief and passes the handkerchief over his forehead.]
FRANKEL: I got to git some peace! I got to collect myself.
CARTER: That shows you ain't got no rights like you claimed. You can't control your labour element.
FRANKEL [bitterly] : I'll control 'em all right! I'll show 'em who's their master!
[A man's head with shaggy hair and ragged whiskers is thrust in at the factory door. This is POLENSKI.]
POLENSKI [ferociously] : Are you goin' to come out here like a man? ”

“ FIRST WOP: Parasites!
SECOND WOP: Bloodsuckers!
POLENSKI: Capitalists, parasites, bloodsuckers, bourgeoisie! Do you think we expect any justice out of you? Do you think I come in this room ever dreaming you'd grant our demands? No! We knew you! And if we do assert our rights, what do you do? You set your hellhounds of police on us! Haven't we been agitatin' for our rights among you for days? We've got our answer from you, but you look out for ours, because as sure as there is a hell waitin' for all parasites, we'll send you there, and your factory, too! ”

“ NORA [smiling] : It resulted in economy.
GIBSON: Have you made many economies?
NORA: Oh, a great many!
CARTER: Oh, my! Yes!
NORA: Economies! [Her manner now is indulgent, amused, friendly, almost pitying.] Mr. Gibson, have you any realization of what you threw away at that place? Don't be afraid, I'll never bring you the figures. I wouldn't do such a thing to anybody!
GIBSON: Do you think I was too lavish?
NORA: We couldn't believe it at first. Just what was being thrown away on advertising, for instance. The bill you paid for the last month you were there was five thousand dollars! ”

“ He is about to strike a chord on the piano, seems alarmed by the idea, moves away from it, dusts the lapel of his coat, adjusts his collar, studies the posters, shakes his head over them as if they were not to his taste, goes to the desk, and after studying it smiles at the rose and gives it a kittenish peck with his forefinger. ”

“ He opens the door that leads to the street and goes out decisively. There are exclamations from everyone, loud but awed. "Say, look here, look here, look here!"
"Give it to us!" "Equal shares! Did you hear what he said?"
"Gosh! Is this the end of the world?" "My wife won't believe
it!"_]
MIFFLIN: Gentlemen, this factory comes into the possession of every workman in it on equal terms; each has a like share in the profits. At last the workman owns his tools.
FRANKEL [suddenly, as if light had just come] : Gibson's crazy! ”

“ It's so magnificent that now it's inevitable for every factory of every kind all over this country.
GIBSON: All over the country?
MIFFLIN: Not only all over this country! The world must do it. Ah, they've done it in a country larger than this already! And these comrades right here are showing our country what it means. I don't begrudge you some credit for having begun it, Mr. Gibson. But you only anticipated what all owners everywhere are going to have to do before the workmen simply take the factories. They're going to take them because they have the inherent right ”

“ CARTER: There ain't only three men in my department out there that ain't soldiering on their job. I do twice as much skilled work as any man at this table, and I do it better. [Shouts of "Yes, you do!" "Rats!" "Shut up!"] I'll leave it to Mr. Gibson; he knows good work if he don't know nothing else.
[Shouts of "Leave it to nothing!" "How'd he get in this?" "You're crazy!"]
CARTER [bawling] : Get back to business! We're running a meeting here!
FRANKEL: For goodness' sake, we ain't getting nowhere! ”

“ Imagine under the capitalistic régime a wife coming and sitting at her husband's side and taking up little matters of importance with him, as a wife should, while he worked! Oh, the wives have caught the idea, too! ”

“ Good morning, Miss Gorodna.
[MIFFLIN is a beaming man of forty, with gold-rimmed eyeglasses and a somewhat grizzled beard which has been, a week or so ago, a neatly trimmed Vandyke. He wears a "cutaway suit," not much pressed, not new; a derby hat, a standing collar, and a "four-in-hand" dark tie; hard, round cuffs, not link cuffs. He carries a folded umbrella, not a fashionable one; wears no gloves; and has two or three old magazines and a newspaper under his arm.] ”

“ Don't think for a minute we deal with this little vampire here. You're all in the same boat, and the toiling masses will hold every single one of you just as responsible as it does him, you—you capitalists! ”

“ Building up The Gibson Upright was really the pride of my life. To do that I knew I had to have a loyal staff of workmen, and for that reason if no other I have given you shorter hours and more pay than the men get in any other factory of this kind that I know of. I've done everything that can be done to make the shops healthy and light and clean. I certainly haven't been unfriendly to you personally. Any man in the factory was free to come in that door to talk to me any time he wanted to. I've done my best and we've been called the model factory. ”

“ Are we always goin' to be wage slaves? We demand simple justice. We been workin' here two dollars and a half a day, now we want the wage scale abolished and double profits for each of us for every day we worked here before we found out what was goin' on, with you sittin' up here like kings in your robes, tellin' the poor man he should have only two dollars and a half a day—sittin' up here in your pomp with your feet on the neck of labour! ”

“ FRANKEL: Who's the man responsible for us bein' $17,162.48 bankrupt?
RILEY [hammering the table] : Who run us into debt over seventeen thousand dollars?
SIMPSON: Well, give him a chance to answer.
CARTER: What do I know about it? That's what the report says. That's all I know.
SHOMBERG: Well, somebody's got us into debt. And who is it?
NORA: It's all of us! Haven't we all done this thing together?
FRANKEL: Well, who's got to pay it?
NORA: We've all got to!
SHOMBERG, SALVATORE, FRANKEL, AND MRS. SIMPSON: You expect to git blood out of a stone? What do you take us for? You're crazy! ”

“ As the curtain rises_ NORA GORODNA is seen at work on the sample "Gibson Upright." The front is not removed; but through the top of the piano she is adjusting something with a small wrench. NORA is a fine-looking young woman, not over twenty-six; she wears a plain smock over a dark dress. As she is a piano tester in the factory she is dressed neither so roughly as a working woman nor perhaps so fashionably as a stenographer. She is serious and somewhat preoccupied. ”

“ GIBSON: You're not neighbours, are you?
CARTER: No! She spends all her days at the factory; you might think she was running the whole place! What's worse'n that, you know they elected me chairman o' the governing committee, and she's all the time trying to 'lectioneer me out. What she wants is to git Simpson in for chairman; that'd be jest same's her bein' chairman herself, the way she runs Simpson! That's the only thing that worries me. Everything else is just splendid, splendid! ”

“ It belongs to every workman in the factory on equal shares. [Throws keys on table.] There are the keys of the safe, and the combination's in the top drawer of that desk. It's all yours as it stands, down to the very correspondence on that table, without any let, hindrance, or interference from me.
FRANKEL [hoarsely] : Say! He means it!
SALVATORE: All the money ours?
GIBSON: The money for every piano you make and sell is yours—every cent of it.
MIFFLIN [rising transfigured] : Gentlemen, a glorious time has come! This is an example to every employer of labour in our land. ”

“ And the men in my department say it's got to be settled right now. That wage scale says we get time and a half for overtime, and the men in the finishing department, they ain't gettin' no time and a half on piecework and we never understood that agreement you claim we signed with you anyhow. So what we says, if we don't get double time instead of time and a half for overtime—why, Mr. Gibson, it looks like them men couldn't hardly be held back. ”

“ CARTER [looking after them, laughing] : Well, she's an awful interfering woman! And she ain't the only one. If they'd all stay home like my wife things would be smoother, I guess. Still, they're smooth enough. [Going] : If you want to see that, Mr. Gibson, we'll be glad to have you look in at the meeting. You're always welcome at the factory and it'd be a treat to you to see how things work out. It's at eleven o'clock if you'd like to come.
GIBSON: Thanks, Carter.
CARTER: Well, good afternoon, Mr. Gibson and Miss Gorodna. ”

“ How much raise do you want?
RILEY: I can't jest say right this minute. We jest heard what was goin' on in the other departments, and we ain't had no meetin' to settle just what raise we are goin' to git. Now, Mr. Gibson, if I was runnin' this factory—
GIBSON: Well, what would you do?
RILEY: The first thing I'd do, I'd see that the truck drivers didn't have no more discontent than nobody else. What becomes of your freight if you can't run no trucks? You got to look out, Mr. Gibson! It's us got the upper hand.
GIBSON: Go call your meeting and find out what raise you're going to strike for. ”

“ CARTER: Nothing else in the world, Mr. Gibson. Except there might be some of 'em don't take their responsibilities the way I could wish. Fact is, there's so much talkin' gits to goin' over there sometimes you can't hear yourself work. Me? I'm an honest worker, if I work for you or work for myself. But I can't claim they're all that way. Some that used to loaf, you can't claim they don't loaf more than they did; yes, sir!
GIBSON: They get just the same as you do, though, don't they?
CARTER: Oh, yes! That's the sinee que none; it's the brotherhood between comrades. ”

“ MRS. SIMPSON: You ain't got the rights you claim you got.
FRANKEL: She comes down there and tries to run the whole factory. Ask any of 'em if she don't. Ask Carter!
MRS. SIMPSON: I own that factory just as much as anybody does.
SIMPSON: Now, Frankel, you be careful what you say to Mamie!
FRANKEL: I got shares in that factory and by rights ought to have as many votes at the meetin' as I got shares—let alone your talking about trying to root me out of my profits!
GIBSON: What's this about Frankel having shares?
FRANKEL [violently] : You bet your life I got shares! ”

“ GIBSON: Other men in the business think so. [Shows her a letter.] Here's an offer from the Coles-Hibbard people, out in Cleveland, of that much salary to do for them what I did here.
NORA: It isn't right; you pay labour only what you have to pay.
GIBSON: The Coles-Hibbard people offer to pay me what they'd have to, and they're pretty hard-headed men. The whole world pays only what it has to. ”

“ Carter's, our committee chairman, besides our regular work.
GIBSON: Mr. Mifflin tells me that you had a sort of general manager for a while at first.
CARTER: Oh, that was Hill, the head bookkeeper. He left. He was a traitor to the comrades.
GIBSON: Hill? He knew quite a little about the business. Why did he leave?
CARTER: Why, that Coles-Hibbard factory went and offered him a big salary to come over there; more than he thought he could get coöperatin' with us.
NORA: Hill was always a capitalist at heart. We certainly haven't needed him! ”

“ And the next month we cut down the commissions, and the profits were five thousand more!
GIBSON: But those were returns under the old commissions.
NORA: But last month, with new economies, we showed a larger profit than you had!
GIBSON: And this month?
NORA: We shan't know that until the report's read at the meeting to-morrow. I think it will be the largest profit of all.
CARTER: That bookkeeper's workin' on it to-day. Talked like he was going to cut us down two or three thousand, mebbe. [Laughing.] That's the way he always talks.
NORA: He isn't a good influence. ”

“ Steinwitz's pool parlour every night till all hours!
SHOMBERG [attacking her] : Yes, and you and your husband ain't got no children; we got four. I'd like to know what right you got to draw down what we do—you with your limousine!
CARTER: What business you got to talk, Shomberg? When here's me with my seven and the three of my married daughter—eleven in all, I got on my shoulders. Do you think you're goin' to draw down what I'd ought to?
ALL [shouting] : "Here! We got rights, ain't we?" "Where's the justice of it?" "I stand by my rights." "Nobody's goin' to git 'em away from me." ”

“ There's a man worth four shares right now! He had three and he bought Mitchell's out last night at Steinwitz's pool room. Ask him whether he thinks I got a right to my twenty-six profits or not!
SHOMBERG: You bet your life!
MRS. SIMPSON: I guess that Dutchman hasn't got the say-so, has he?
FRANKEL: No. You run the factory now, Mrs. Simpson!
CARTER: Now look here; this ain't very much like comrades, is it, all this arguin'? Sunday, too!
FRANKEL: Oh, I'm tryin' to be friendly! ”

“ You think you're on this committee?
MRS. SIMPSON [taking a chair triumphantly] : My husband is. I was here last time, and I'm goin' to keep on.
CARTER [referring to the speech in the factory] : My goodness! We can't do no work.
RILEY: Frankel, that's your business to shut 'em up.
FRANKEL: Talkin' ain't doin' no harm. Let 'em talk.
RILEY: Yes, I will! [Goes to the door, and roars] : Cut that out! I mean business! [Shuts the door and returns angrily to his seat.]
CARTER [rapping on the table with a ruler] : The meeting will now come to order! ”

“ Every one of you is in his class. [Points at FRANKEL.] You sit up here and call yourself a committee, dividin' up the money and runnin' this factory that belongs just as much to us men he hired as it does to you! It belongs to us more—because we're the real workin'men! ”

“ Piles of mail are on the desk and upon the table. The safe is open, showing papers in disorder and hanging from the compartments. Hanging upon the walls, variously, are suits of old overalls and men's coats and, hats. The chairs stand irregularly about the large table; a couple of old soft hats are on the water filter. The former posters have been replaced by two new ones. One shows a brawny workman with whiskers, paper cap, and large sledge hammer leaning upon an upright piano. Rubrics: "The Freedom and Fraternity Coöperative Upright." "The Piano You Ought to Support." ”