"I wish to protect the rights of the workman, just as you wish to protect yours."
"What are the workman's rights?"
Donnelly did not reply.
"Well, I'll reply for you, then. His right is to sell his labor to the highest bidder; his right is to work where he pleases; for what hours he desires; his right is to reject abusive employers and to find those congenial; his right is to produce as little or as much as he thinks best; his right is to think for himself, to act for himself, to live for himself."
"You admit all this, then?" asked Donnelly in astonishment.
"I have never so much as denied a single right that belongs to the workman."
"Then what the devil is all this row about?"
"If the workman has his rights, shall not the employer have his?"
Donnelly mused. He would not be able to do anything with this plain-spoken man.
"But the workman steps beyond. He has no right to dictate to his employer as to what HIS rights shall be. Where there is no amity between capital and labor there is never any justice; one or the other becomes a despot. The workman has his rights, but these end where the other man's rights begin. He shall not say that another man shall not seek work, shall not sell his labor for what he can get; he has no right to forbid another man's choosing freedom; he has no right to say that a manufacturer shall produce only so much."