CHAPTER XIII.
THE STRIKE.
"I do not see how we can do differently. It is simply a choice between shutting down the mills altogether or reducing the wages of the help. For the sake of the employés we have chosen the latter alternative. The whole board of directors is agreed in this, so you will please see that proper notice is given. Make the time August first." It was Mr. James Lawton, the president of the Black Forge Mills corporation, who spoke, and then he went slowly from the mill office to his waiting carriage.
"Yes; of course," replied Mr. Bacon, the superintendent of the mills, following the first-named gentleman out on the sidewalk, "I do not see what else can be done, but—" and he dropped his voice so that the driver of the carriage should not hear him—"I fear there will be serious trouble. Ever since there have been rumors of this reduction things here have been in a state of ferment. Hyde, Blake, Willis, and some of the other department overseers have been talking to the help, and many of them have already gotten the notion that they are misused. This reduction of their wages may prove to be the last straw, and the help may go out in a bunch."
"Well, we shall know what to do then," remarked Mr. Lawton, dryly. "If the help cannot see that a half loaf is better than no loaf, they must go without any bread, so far as we are concerned. For myself, were it not for the suffering it must bring to these families, I would prefer to shut down at once." And entering the carriage he was driven rapidly away.
It was early in the month of July. The great business depression which had for some months been carrying havoc all over the land had now reached Afton. Manufacturer after manufacturer had already failed, and for several months the Black Forge Mills had been run at a heavy loss. The directors, all of them kind-hearted, Christian men, had done their best to stem the adverse tide, and, for the sake of their employés, to keep the mills running on full time and at full pay. But the time had at last come when one of two things must be done: the mills must be shut down, or else the cost of running them must be reduced. Thinking only of the help, who could ill afford to be without employment, they had, the night previous to the opening of this chapter, decided upon the reduction of wages which Mr. Lawton had just announced to Mr. Bacon.
The directors knew that their decision would create much dissatisfaction, but they had hoped that a fair and candid statement of the condition of the mills, and a direct appeal to the good sense of the help to accept smaller wages, rather than no wages at all, would prevent any serious trouble. But they overestimated the good judgment of their employés, and forgot how easily a few hot-headed leaders could transform a dissatisfied people into a frenzied mob.
A few days later, following out the instructions he had received, Mr. Bacon caused the following notice to be conspicuously displayed about the mill premises:
IMPORTANT NOTICE.
For six months the Black Forge Mills have been run at a serious loss to the corporation, and at last the directors have been forced to one of two issues: Closing the mills, or reducing the expenses.