“The brotherhood is bound to protect the interests of all its members.”
“Even those who don’t deserve it?”
“The brotherhood must decide who’s worthy and who’s not. It can’t let outsiders do it.”
“Well, all right,” said Mr. Schofield. “It’s up to you. I guess we can get some more engineers.”
“Oh, you’ll need more than engineers,” said Nixon, easily. “You’ll need firemen and brakemen and conductors and switchmen—the whole force, in fact.”
The superintendent sat staring at his visitor, his brows knitted.
“You mean they’ll strike in sympathy?” he asked, at last.
“Exactly,” and Nixon smiled blandly.
“What kind of fools are railroad men anyhow?”
“I’ll tell you how it is,” said Nixon. “Railroad men realize that they’ve got to stand together. You remember those spell-binders who used to go around hollering ‘My country, right or wrong!’ Well, that’s our principle. Besides, the time’s ripe for a strike.”