“Desert you? It is my job. These people are my people. We cannot desert them.”
“Right you are,” said Maitland. “Cheerio. We'll carry on. He shook hands warmly with the minister and went off, whistling cheerily.
“That is a man to follow,” said the minister to himself. “He goes whistling into a fight.”
CHAPTER XIII
THE STRIKE
The negotiations between the men and their employers, in which the chief exponents of the principles of justice and fair play were Mr. McGinnis on the one hand and Brother Simmons on the other, broke down at the second meeting, which ended in a vigorous personal encounter between these gentlemen, without, however, serious injury to either.
The following day a general strike was declared. All work ceased in the factories affected and building operations which had begun in a moderate way were arrested. Grant Maitland was heartily disgusted with the course of events and more especially with the humiliating and disgraceful manner in which the negotiations had been conducted.
“You were quite right, Jack,” he said to his son the morning after which the strike had been declared. “That man McGinnis is quite impossible.”
“It really made little difference, Dad. The negotiations were hopeless from the beginning. There was no chance of peace.”