Pelle was the undisputed victor. The journeyman-cobbler had laid low the biggest employer in the trade. They did not ask what the victory had cost, but carried his name in triumph. They cheered when they caught sight of him or when his name was mentioned. Formerly this would have turned his head, but now he regarded his success as entirely natural—as the expression of a higher power!
A few days later he summoned a general meeting of the Union, laid before them the draft of a new tariff which was adapted to the times, and proposed that they should at once begin the fight for its adoption. “We could never have a better opportunity,” he said. “Now they have seen what we can do! With the tariff question we struck down Meyer! We must strike the iron while it is hot!”
He reckoned that his comrades were just in the mood for battle, despite all the privations that the struggle had entailed, and he was not mistaken. His proposal was unanimously accepted.
But there was no fight for better wages. Meyer was now making the rounds of the employers’ establishments with the sample-box of one of the leather firms. The sight of this once so mighty man had a stimulating effect. The masters’ Union appointed a few employers with whom the workers’ Union could discuss the question of the tariff.
XXI
It often happened that Pelle would look back with longing on his quiet home-life with Ellen and the child, and he felt dejectedly that they lived in a happier world, and were on the point of accustoming themselves to live without him. “When once you have got this out of hand you can live really comfortably with them again,” he thought.
But one thing inevitably followed on another, and one question arose from the solution of another, and the poor man’s world unfolded itself like the development of a story. The fame of his skill as organizer spread itself abroad; everywhere men were at work with the idea of closing up the ranks, and many began to look toward him with expectant eyes.
Frequently workers came to him begging him to help them to form an organization—no one had such a turn for the work as he. Then they called a meeting together, and Pelle explained the process to them. There was a certain amount of fancifulness and emphasis in his speech, but they understood him very well. “He talks so as to make your ears itch,” they told one another. He was the man they trusted, and he initiated them into the practical side of the matter.
“But you must sacrifice your wages—so that you can start a fund,” he told them continually; “without money nothing can be done. Remember, it’s capital itself we are fighting against!”
“Will it be any use to understand boxing when the fight comes on?” asked a simple-minded workman one day.