Harry Egerton.
In these six years for one cause or another
There've been three strikes that have cost the Company thousands
In money, to say nothing of those things
That all the money in the world can't buy.
Now let me ask, my father, if this loss,
Instead of springing from these strikes, had come
Through breakdowns of the machinery, or in the camps
Through failure to get the timber out in time,
Wouldn't you have dismissed the man in charge?
Then why do you let Jergens run the mill?
Hasn't he failed, and miserably, with the men?
George Egerton.
What have you to do with it?
Egerton.
I'll attend to this.
(George Egerton walks away and stands by the pine trees, picking off and biting the needles)
Harry Egerton.
Is it because the earnings have increased?
Think what it's cost you, father. In every mill
Jergens has touched he's left a cursing there
That's all come back on us. Why, my father,
Our name's become a by-word through the State,
'As hard as Egerton.' And when I think
Of what might be, the good-will and the peace,
The happiness! There's not the least excuse
For this cut in wages, father, and you know it.
Egerton.