GIBSON: By force?
MIFFLIN [deprecatingly but affably]: Oh, we hope the theoretical owners won't reduce them to such extremes. There might be a few cases that law-abiding citizens would regret; but that isn't the big thing. Our work here is so far perhaps on the small scale, but it shows—it shows—that everything must be on a coöperative basis!
GIBSON: Everything? My house, too?
MIFFLIN [beaming]: Your house, too.
GIBSON [amiably]: How about your gold eyeglasses?
MIFFLIN [laughing]: Those will be given me by the state. But seriously, aren't you coming to pay us a visit at the factory?
GIBSON: Since you ask me—what's the best time? I suppose the whistle doesn't blow as early as it used to.
MIFFLIN [laughing pityingly]: Whistle! Oh, my dear sir! This only confirms me in my old idea that the technical owners didn't have practical minds. You don't suppose we abolished you, and then didn't abolish the whistle? That whistle hurt self-respect. Really I'm sorry it's Sunday and I can't take you over there this minute to see the great changes. Talk about collectivism! That factory is the most interesting place in the world to-day. When the men were working eight long hours a day under a master it was all repression, reserve; their individualities were stifled. Now they expand!
GIBSON: You mean they talk a good deal?
MIFFLIN: I never have been in a place where there was so much talk in my life. They talk all the time; it shows they are thinking.