"Huh!" grunted Lightener, glancing at Bonbright. "I heard about THAT. … What I came to say principally was: This thing can be headed off now if you go at it with common sense. Make concessions. Get to this Dulac. You can get your men back to work—and break up this union thing."
"Mr. Lightener, our course is decided on. We shall make no concessions. My son has retained O'Hagan, the strike breaker. To-morrow morning the mills start up as usual, with new men. We have them camped in the yards now. There shall be no compromising. When we have the strikers whipped into their places we'll talk to them—not before."
"What's the idea of putting up the boy as stalking horse? What do you expect to get by hiding behind him?"
"My son was indiscreet. He created a misapprehension among the men as to his attitude toward labor. I am merely setting them right."
"And sewing a fine crop of hatred for the boy to reap."
Mr. Foote shrugged his shoulders "The position of my family has not been doubtful since the inception of our business. I do not propose that my son shall make it so. Our traditions must be maintained."
"If you'd junk a few traditions," said Lightener, "and import a little modern efficiency—and human understanding of human beings—you might get somewhere. You quit developing with that first ancestor of yours. If the last hundred years or so haven't been wasted, there's been some progress. You're wabbling along in a stage coach when other folks use express trains…. When I met the boy here last night, I thought he was whittled off a different stick from the rest of you…. I guess he was, too. But you're tying a string of ancestors around his neck and squeezing him into their likeness."
"My son knows his duty to his family," said Mr. Foote.
"I didn't have a family to owe duty to, thank God," said Lightener, "but I spent quite some time figuring out my duty to myself…. You won't listen to reason, eh? You're going to bull this thing through?"
"My son will act as my son should act," said Mr. Foote.