"You bet it is! It's one good h—— of a—" he grinned sheepishly, put his hand in his pocket, and dropped a quarter in the box, while a howl of laughter went up from the other fellows.
That one laugh seemed to break the ice, and for the first time we all seemed to have a good understanding of each other. They all pledged themselves to a fine of a dime every time they swore.
"There is one other thing I am going to say at this time," I continued, when that question had been settled, "and that is that every Monday evening I am going to have a general meeting of all men who have done their duty during the week. It will last for three-quarters of an hour only, and I shall look upon it as a kind of directors' meeting.
"You know," I said, "that directors get paid for every meeting they attend. Now, I am going to pay all you fellows half a dollar for attending this directors' meeting every Monday.
"You will be at liberty to say anything you wish. You can roast the store policy, or me, or any one of us here, and whatever takes place at this meeting will be considered merely as an outside affair and nothing to affect our relationship in the business. In other words, you have a free hand to go as far as you like in that meeting and know that there will be no kick from me on it.
"Next Monday we'll all get together and talk things over generally. If any of you have any suggestions to make, shoot them along next Monday. A week from Monday, however, we'll name one definite thing for discussion among ourselves."
I gave the boys a cigar each and the meeting adjourned.
I felt that that night's work was well worth while, for I soon noticed a little different attitude in the men. Eighty cents, however, went the first day into our "swear box." I began to wonder whether their dimes or whether their bad language would hold out the longest.
The idea seemed pretty simple, after it had been tried, and found to be a success, but it wasn't such a simple thing for me to think up. It had started when Betty read in a paper about how the inmates of a prison were given a voice in the running of it, and that had set me thinking about giving the employees a hand in running the business, and the plan grew out of that. I had been convinced from the start that it would work out well.
A customer had come into the store one day and asked for an 8-in. aluminum saucepan. Jones had waited on her, and had replied: