(Patten and Maury rise and walk aside and whisper together)
And they all know
Whatever be the outcome of this strike
The effect of it will reach them all at last.
If you men win, mill-workers everywhere
Will take new heart and stand for better things.
But if the Company wins, others will say—
And with no little weight—'We cannot pay
The present scale of wages and compete
With Egerton and Company.' So it will go
Until the farthest mill in all this land
Puts in its hand and takes a ten per cent
Out of the wages of its workingmen.
And there's no power on earth that can prevent it.
(Willie Maury rises and joins his father and Patten)
But even were this not true, were places open,
The same conditions would confront you there
As now confront you here. At any time
Those who employ you have you in their power
And can reduce your wages when they choose,
Lay on you what conditions they see fit,
And you must either yield or be turned forth
To wander on again. I do not know
Whether you men have families or not,
But others have, and their cause is your own.
You cannot wander on for evermore,
Picking up here and there a chance day's work
And hoping that to-morrow things will change,
For changes do not come except through men.
(The men return to the fire)
And so I do not see just what it is
You hope to gain by leaving Foreston.
You cannot spend your lives on highways, friends.
Where will you go? Have you some place in mind?
Bill Patten.
It's none of your damn business where we go.
We don't wear no man's collar.
Silas Maury.
Bill is right.