Page:Traveler from Altruria, Howells, 1894.djvu/195

Rh complain of. The employers surely know their own business."

"They claim to know the men's too. That's what they're always saying; they will manage their own affairs in their own way. But no man, or company, that does business on a large scale, has any affairs that are not partly other folks' affairs, too. All the saying in the world won't make it different."

"Very well, then," said Mrs. Makely, with a force of argument which she seemed to think was irresistible, "I think the workmen had better leave things to the employers, and then they won't get black-listed. It's as broad as it's long." I confess, that although I agreed with Mrs. Makely in regard to what the workmen had better do, her position had been arrived at by such extraordinary reasoning that I blushed for her; at the same time, I wanted to laugh. She continued triumphantly, "You see, the employers have ever so much more at stake."

"The men have everything at stake; the work of their hands," said the young fellow.

"Oh, but surely," said Mrs. Makely, "you wouldn't set that against capital? You wouldn't compare the two?"