'Hamper's men are actually out. Mine are working out their week,
through fear of being prosecuted for breach of contract I'd have
had every one of them up and punished for it, that left his work
before his time was out.' 'The law expenses would have been more than the hands them selves
were worth--a set of ungrateful naughts!' said his mother.
'To be sure. But I'd have shown them how I keep my word, and how
I mean them to keep theirs. They know me by this time. Slickson's
men are off--pretty certain he won't spend money in getting them
punished. We're in for a turn-out, mother.' 'I hope there are not many orders in hand?' 'Of course there are. They know that well enough. But they don't
quite understand all, though they think they do.' 'What do you mean, John?' Candles had been brought, and Fanny had taken up her interminable
piece of worsted-work, over which she was yawning; throwing
herself back in her chair, from time to time, to gaze at vacancy,
and think of nothing at her ease.
'Why,' said he, 'the Americans are getting their yarns so into
the general market, that our only chance is producing them at a
lower rate. If we can't, we may shut up shop at once, and hands
and masters go alike on tramp. Yet these fools go back to the
prices paid three years ago--nay, some of their leaders quote
Dickinson's prices now--though they know as well as we do that,
what with fines pressed out of their wages as no honourable man
would extort them, and other ways which I for one would scorn to
use, the real rate of wage paid at Dickinson's is less than at
ours. Upon my word, mother, I wish the old combination-laws were
in force. It is too bad to find out that fools--ignorant wayward
men like these--just by uniting their weak silly heads, are to
rule over the fortunes of those who bring all the wisdom that
knowledge and experience, and often painful thought and anxiety,
can give. The next thing will be--indeed, we're all but come to
it now--that we shall have to go and ask--stand hat in hand--and
humbly ask the secretary of the Spinner' Union to be so kind as
to furnish us with labour at their own price. That's what they
want--they, who haven't the sense to see that, if we don't get a
fair share of the profits to compensate us for our wear and tear
here in England, we can move off to some other country; and that,
what with home and foreign competition, we are none of us likely
to make above a fair share, and may be thankful enough if we can
get that, in an average number of years.' 'Can't you get hands from Ireland? I wouldn't keep these fellows
a day. I'd teach them that I was master, and could employ what
servants I liked.' 'Yes! to be sure, I can; and I will, too, if they go on long. It
will be trouble and expense, and I fear there will be some
danger; but I will do it, rather than give in.' 'If there is to be all this extra expense, I'm sorry we're giving
a dinner just now.' 'So am I,--not because of the expense, but because I shall have
much to think about, and many unexpected calls on my time. But we
must have had Mr. Horsfall, and he does not stay in Milton long.
And as for the others, we owe them dinners, and it's all one
trouble.' He kept on with his restless walk--not speaking any more, but
drawing a deep breath from time to time, as if endeavouring to
throw off some annoying thought. Fanny asked her mother numerous
small questions, all having nothing to do with the subject, which
a wiser person would have perceived was occupying her attention.
Consequently, she received many short answers. She was not sorry
when, at ten o'clock, the servants filed in to prayers. These her
mother always read,--first reading a chapter. They were now
working steadily through the Old Testament. When prayers were
ended, and his mother had wished him goodnight, with that long
steady look of hers which conveyed no expression of the
tenderness that was in her heart, but yet had the intensity of a
blessing, Mr. Thornton continued his walk. All his business plans
had received a check, a sudden pull-up, from this approaching
turn-out. The forethought of many anxious hours was thrown away,
utterly wasted by their insane folly, which would injure
themselves even more than him, though no one could set any limit
to the mischief they were doing. And these were the men who
thought themselves fitted to direct the masters in the disposal
of their capital! Hamper had said, only this very day, that if he
were ruined by the strike, he would start life again, comforted
by the conviction that those who brought it on were in a worse
predicament than he himself,--for he had head as well as hands,
while they had only hands; and if they drove away their market,
they could not follow it, nor turn to anything else. But this
thought was no consolation to Mr. Thornton. It might be that
revenge gave him no pleasure; it might be that he valued the
position he had earned with the sweat of his brow, so much that
he keenly felt its being endangered by the ignorance or folly of
others,--so keenly that he had no thoughts to spare for what
would be the consequences of their conduct to themselves. He
paced up and down, setting his teeth a little now and then. At
last it struck two. The candles were flickering in their sockets.
He lighted his own, muttering to himself: 'Once for all, they shall know whom they have got to deal with. I
can give them a fortnight,--no more. If they don't see their
madness before the end of that time, I must have hands from
Ireland. I believe it's Slickson's doing,--confound him and his
dodges! He thought he was overstocked; so he seemed to yield at
first, when the deputation came to him,--and of course, he only
confirmed them in their folly, as he meant to do. That's where it
spread from.'