He looked at the two labour leaders, and recalled the picture of such a person which he had brought with him to North Valley—a hot headed and fiery agitator, luring honest workingmen from their jobs. But here was the situation exactly reversed! Here was he in a blaze of excitement—and two labour leaders turning the fire-hose on him! They sat quiet and business-like, pronouncing a doom upon the slaves of North Valley. Back to their black dungeons with them!
“What can we tell the men?” he asked, making an effort to repress his chagrin.
“We can only tell them what I'm telling you—that we're helpless, till we've got the whole district organised. Meantime, they have to stand the gaff; they must do what they can to keep an organisation.”
“But all the active men will be fired!”
“No, not quite all—they seldom get them all.”
Here the stolid old German put in. In the last year the company had turned out more than six thousand men because of union activity or suspicion of it.
“Six thousand!” echoed Hal. “You mean from this one district?”
“That's what I mean.”
“But there aren't more than twelve or fifteen thousand men in the district!”
“I know that.”