"Well, it's not among labor agitators, let me tell you that. A greedy, selfish lot, out for what they can get. They won't take a job and stick to it themselves and so they try to stir up others to quit."
"But they couldn't stir the others up all the time, if the others didn't really want to be stirred. Something is wrong and people feel it."
When James Mitchell delivered an opinion he did not expect to be answered, much less argued with. He turned swiftly upon Anne.
"What's that? Who feels things are wrong?"
"A lot of people feel things are unjust and wrong and that something has to be done. They may not be clear as to exactly what it is or how they're going to do it, but they know there's trouble somewhere." The icy veneer deepened, but Anne held her ground.
"Who? A lot of Jews and foreigners who never had enough to eat in their own country. The trouble with this country is that the natives are too good-natured. They won't realize the harm these fools are doing until it's done. They ought to be deported now, every last one of them."
Anne nibbled at her lip and did not trust herself to speak. But she saw Roger, his eyes deep and sad, watching some weary soul in a city park.
"I think papa's right, Anne. It is mostly foreigners that do the kicking. Not the blonde kind. Danes and Swedes are hard workers, but Jews and Dagos are always fussing. Don't you remember that Greek, Kapoulos, who lived over Martini's after The Fire, always haranguing about justice and fair play, and the first chance he got he ran off with the firm's funds and went to Greece?"
James shrugged Hilda's efforts aside and leaned across to Anne.
"Let me tell you one thing, Annie; these theories won't hold water, socialism and I. W. W.-ism and all the other fire-eating babble. And they'll never be put into practice, because, at bottom, the working man is too smart and he knows he'd lose his job if he tried them, and then where'd he be?"