“You don’t have to get rid of me, Mr. Barriscale,” he replied. “When the bank wishes me to leave I will go. In the meantime I reserve to myself the right to choose my friends and associates.”
Mr. Barriscale turned again toward the president with a shrug of his shoulders and a significant wave of his hand, as if to say “I told you so,” but he said nothing. Mr. Winton was the next to speak.
“I am sorry you assume this attitude, McCormack,” he said. “We like you here. Your work is excellent. We want to keep you. But I am afraid we can do so only on the condition laid down by Mr. Barriscale. You must either give up your associates or your position.”
Hal looked from one to the other of the men and was silent. Across his mind flashed the oft-repeated declaration of Donatello that under the present social system not only business and trade, but the welfare, the happiness, the very lives of the vast majority of men were absolutely under the control of the money power centered in the few. Here was Mr. Barriscale, the heaviest stockholder of the bank, the most influential director, at the head of a corporation the daily balance of which at the bank was five times that of any other depositor, able, by reason of his money interest alone, to dictate the policy of the institution, even to the matter of the employment and discharge of its clerks; the very president himself being obliged to follow humbly in his wake. Hal’s indignation rose with his resentment. He knew that Mr. Barriscale had decided to force him out, and that it would be useless now for him to argue or protest. He even doubted whether an unconditional surrender on his part would result in more than a temporary truce. He felt that he might as well meet the issue squarely.
“Very well, Mr. Winton,” he said quietly, “since Mr. Barriscale’s voice here is the controlling one, and since it is his wish that I shall go, there is nothing for me to do but comply with it. I am not ashamed of my beliefs or associations and I must decline to give up any of them.”
Mr. Barriscale rose to his feet.
“That settles it!” he exclaimed. “I presume the young man will go at once, Mr. Winton.”