“May I ask,” he began, “what is it that has caused you to strike?”
“Certainly,” said the machine. “That is what I wish you to ask. I have struck because I am not being fairly used.”
“Fairly used!” echoed Hyde. “I do not understand you. In what way are you being unfairly used?”
“Why,” said the machine, “I have been working for you, now, for over a year. Through me your business has been more than doubled. You say yourself, that in the item of saved labor alone, I have nearly paid for myself. I heard you say that, the other day, to the two gentlemen who came in to visit me, and yet, in all these months, you have not paid me one penny for my services.”
“Paid you!” gasped Hyde.
“Paid you!” exclaimed Horne.
And then, both together, the partners cried:
“Why, you have cost us an enormous sum! We expended eighteen thousand dollars for you, outright, from the capital of the business.”
“You have more than had that back through my services,” said the machine, sturdily, “in the item of saved labor alone.”
“Yes, yes, I know,” interrupted Horne, hastily,—“but we really have paid you money, you know. Just let me get the machinery expense book, and I’ll show you;” and hastening to the office, he returned with a little record book, from which he proceeded to read, turning over leaf by leaf, to find the various items. “Here I have charged you an item of fifty dollars for a new shaft,” he said, triumphantly.