Upton Sinclair

“ Either you will sign a paper admitting that you took the twenty-five dollars from Alec Stone, in which case we will fire you and call it square; or else we will prove that you took it, in which case we will send you to the pen for five or ten years. Do you get that? ”

“ The camp-marshal took his cigar from his mouth, and flicked off the ashes. His face became serious, and there was a silence, while he studied Hal. "You a union organiser?" he asked, at last.
"No," said Hal.
"You're an educated man; you're no labourer, that I know. Who's paying you?"
"There you are! You don't believe in altruism."
The other blew a ring of smoke across the room. "Just want to put the company in the hole, hey? Some kind of agitator?"
"I am a miner who wants to be a check-weighman."
"Socialist?" ”