"Fairness," said Lightener, almost with gentleness, "is expected only when we are young."
"But I didn't…. I tried to stop them."
"Don't try to tell anybody so—you won't be believed."
"I'm going to tell somebody," said Bonbright, his mind flashing to Ruth
Frazer, "and I'm going to be believed. I've got to be believed."
After a while he said: "I wasn't taking sides. I just went there to see. If I've got to hire men all my life I want to understand them."
"You've got to take sides, son. There's no straddling the fence in this world…. And as soon as you've taken sides your own side is all you'll understand. Nobody ever understood the other side."
"But can't there ever be an understanding? Won't capital ever understand labor, or labor capital?"
"I suppose a philosopher would say there is no difference upon which agreement can't be reached; that there must somewhere be a common meeting ground…. The Bible says the lion shall lie down with the lamb, but I don't expect to live to see him do it without worrying some about the lion's teeth."
"It's one man holding power over other men," said Bonbright.
As the car stopped at Malcolm Lightener's door, sudden panic seized
Bonbright.