Strife | Page 7

out of his brains, and paid him seven hundred--that's the way he goes on, sir.
WILDER. The man's a rank agitator! Look here, I hate the Unions. But now we've got Harness here let's get him to settle the whole thing.
ANTHONY. No! [Again they look at him.]
UNDERWOOD. Roberts won't let the men assent to that.
SCANTLEBURY. Fanatic! Fanatic!
WILDER. [Looking at ANTHONY.] And not the only one! [FROST enters from the hall.]
FROST. [To ANTHONY.] Mr. Harness from the Union, waiting, sir. The men are here too, sir.
[ANTHONY nods. UNDERWOOD goes to the door, returning with HARNESS, a pale, clean-shaven man with hollow cheeks, quick eyes, and lantern jaw--FROST has retired.]
UNDERWOOD. [Pointing to TENCH'S chair.] Sit there next the Chairman, Harness, won't you?
[At HARNESS'S appearance, the Board have drawn together, as it were, and turned a little to him, like cattle at a dog.]
HARNESS. [With a sharp look round, and a bow.] Thanks! [He sits--- his accent is slightly nasal.] Well, gentlemen, we're going to do business at last, I hope.
WILDER. Depends on what you call business, Harness. Why don't you make the men come in?
HARNESS. [Sardonically.] The men are far more in the right than you are. The question with us is whether we shan't begin to support them again.
[He ignores them all, except ANTHONY, to whom he turns in speaking.]
ANTHONY. Support them if you like; we'll put in free labour and have done with it.
HARNESS. That won't do, Mr. Anthony. You can't get free labour, and you know it.
ANTHONY. We shall see that.
HARNESS. I'm quite frank with you. We were forced to withhold our support from your men because some of their demands are in excess of current rates. I expect to make them withdraw those demands to-day: if they do, take it straight from me, gentlemen, we shall back them again at once. Now, I want to see something fixed upon before I go back to-night. Can't we have done with this old-fashioned tug-of-war business? What good's it doing you? Why don't you recognise once for all that these people are men like yourselves, and want what's good for them just as you want what's good for you [Bitterly.] Your motor-cars, and champagne, and eight-course dinners.
ANTHONY. If the men will come in, we'll do something for them.
HARNESS. [Ironically.] Is that your opinion too, sir--and yours-- and yours? [The Directors do not answer.] Well, all I can say is: It's a kind of high and mighty aristocratic tone I thought we'd grown out of--seems I was mistaken.
ANTHONY. It's the tone the men use. Remains to be seen which can hold out longest--they without us, or we without them.
HARNESS. As business men, I wonder you're not ashamed of this waste of force, gentlemen. You know what it'll all end in.
ANTHONY. What?
HARNESS. Compromise--it always does.
SCANTLEBURY. Can't you persuade the men that their interests are the same as ours?
HARNESS. [Turning, ironically.] I could persuade them of that, sir, if they were.
WILDER. Come, Harness, you're a clever man, you don't believe all the Socialistic claptrap that's talked nowadays. There 's no real difference between their interests and ours.
HARNESS. There's just one very simple question I'd like to put to you. Will you pay your men one penny more than they force you to pay them?
[WILDER is silent.]
WANKLIN. [Chiming in.] I humbly thought that not to pay more than was necessary was the A B C of commerce.
HARNESS. [With irony.] Yes, that seems to be the A B C of commerce, sir; and the A B C of commerce is between your interests and the men's.
SCANTLEBURY. [Whispering.] We ought to arrange something.
HARNESS. [Drily.] Am I to understand then, gentlemen, that your Board is going to make no concessions?
[WANKLIN and WILDER bend forward as if to speak, but stop.]
ANTHONY. [Nodding.] None.
[WANKLIN and WILDER again bend forward, and SCANTLEBURY gives an unexpected grunt.]
HARNESS. You were about to say something, I believe?
[But SCANTLEBURY says nothing.]
EDGAR. [Looking up suddenly.] We're sorry for the state of the men.
HARNESS. [Icily.] The men have no use for your pity, sir. What they want is justice.
ANTHONY. Then let them be just.
HARNESS. For that word "just" read "humble," Mr. Anthony. Why should they be humble? Barring the accident of money, are n't they as good men as you?
ANTHONY. Cant!
HARNESS. Well, I've been five years in America. It colours a man's notions.
SCANTLEBURY. [Suddenly, as though avenging his uncompleted grunt.] Let's have the men in and hear what they've got to say!
[ANTHONY nods, and UNDERWOOD goes out by the single door.]
HARNESS. [Drily.] As I'm to have an interview with them this afternoon, gentlemen, I 'll ask you to postpone your final decision till that's over.
[Again ANTHONY nods, and taking up his glass drinks.]
[UNDERWOOD comes in again, followed by ROBERTS, GREEN, BULGIN, THOMAS, ROUS. They file in, hat in hand, and stand silent in a row. ROBERTS is lean,