Page:Stanwood Pier--The ancient grudge.djvu/315

304 Here again Colonel Halket hesitated a moment, and was visibly nonplussed when so magnanimous an admission failed to evoke the anticipated applause.

"No, I do not wonder at it. And I am glad to be here to-night to explain to you all that in my judgment the arrangement by which the Halket Mills are to form the nucleus of a vast new corporation, so far from being detrimental to your interests, is the most beneficent and progressive step that an employer has ever taken on behalf of his employees. I will tell you why I believe this. What we aim at in this new organization is nothing less than the control of the whole iron and steel manufacture in the United States. This once accomplished, what follows? There will be no fluctuation of prices, no inequality of demand and supply, no periods of pressure followed by periods of idleness, but with this greater stability a high, steady level of remuneration for all, which can be depended on as certainly as the rising and the setting of the sun. The spectre of hard times will never stalk upon your streets.

"Now let me tell you something about the nature of this organization." He proceeded with some care to sketch the important features; he recited the various companies that had "come in," and showed that their coöperation insured the success of the plan; then he explained the method of financing the undertaking, and announced with a good deal of impressiveness and enthusiasm a detail which had hitherto not been given out, and which provided that employees of any of the constituent companies should have the privilege of subscribing for a certain amount of stock at a less price than that at which it was afterwards to be offered to the public. "In this manner you may not only make a profitable investment, but you are given an opportunity to become yourselves employers of labor and to share in the profits of the great enterprise which you have helped to build up. It will be an incentive to thrift and a permanent source of satisfaction.