The Gibson Upright | Page 3

this size.
MIFFLIN [genially; always genial]: Nevertheless, you inherited it. We know that everything grows with the times, naturally. Let us simply state that it was a capitalistic family inheritance.
NORA [under her breath but emphatically]: Yes!
MIFFLIN: Up to the time of your inheriting it, you, I suppose, had led the usual life of pleasure of the wealthy young man?
GIBSON: I'd been through school and college and through every department of the factory. That wasn't hard; it was a pretty run-down factory, Mr. Mifflin.
MIFFLIN: And then at your father's death the lives and fortunes, souls and bodies of all these workmen passed into your hands?
GIBSON: Not quite that; there were only forty-one workmen, and nineteen of them didn't stay when father died. They got other jobs before I could stop them.
MIFFLIN: And how many men have you now?
GIBSON: I believe there are one hundred and seventy-five on the pay roll now.
MIFFLIN: One hundred and seventy-five [with gusto] labourers!
GIBSON: Some of them are; some of them are orators.
MIFFLIN [jovially]: Ah, I'm afraid that's hard on Miss Gorodna.
GIBSON [quietly]: She's both.
MIFFLIN: I understand you are not fighting the labour unions?
GIBSON: No. The workmen themselves declined to unionize the factory.
MIFFLIN: Mr. Gibson, when your father began manufacturing "The Gibson Upright"--
GIBSON: He didn't. He made a very fine piano--and only a few of them. It was "The Gibson Upright" that saved the factory. You see, with this model we began to get on a quantity-production basis. That's why the business has grown and is growing.
MIFFLIN: You mean that "The Gibson Upright" is the reason for the present great prosperity of this plant?
GIBSON: Yes.
MIFFLIN: Now be careful, Mr. Gibson; I'm going to ask a trap question. [Wagging his pencil at him.] What is the reason for "The Gibson Upright?"
GIBSON: Do you mean who designed it?
MIFFLIN: Oh, no, no, no! I mean who makes them? If someone asked you if you're the man that makes "The Gibson Upright" wouldn't you say "Yes?"
GIBSON: Certainly!
MIFFLIN [triumphantly]: Ah, there you fell into the trap!
GIBSON: What's the matter?
NORA [with controlled agitation]: It's the same old matter, Mr. Gibson. It's those men out there that make the piano.
GIBSON [a little sadly]: Do they?
NORA: With their hands, Mr. Gibson!
GIBSON: Is there anything more, Mr. Mifflin?
MIFFLIN: You couldn't possibly imagine how much you've given me, Mr. Gibson, in these few little answers. It is precisely what I want to get at--the point of view! The point of view is all that is separating the classes from the masses to-day. And I think I have yours already. Now I want to go to the masses if you will permit me.
GIBSON: Then you might as well stay here.
MIFFLIN: Ah, but I want to hear the workers talk!
GIBSON: Well, this is the best place for that! Some of them are waiting now just outside the door. I'll let you hear them.
[Goes to the factory door and opens it; two workingmen come in. One is elderly, with gray moustache and beard--CARTER. The other, FRANKEL, is a Hebraic type, eager and nervous; younger.]
GIBSON: What do you and Frankel want, Carter?
CARTER [moving his jaw from side to side, affecting to chew to gain confidence]: Well, Mr. Gibson, to come down to plain words--there ain't no two best ways o' beatin' about the bush.
GIBSON: I know that.
CARTER: The question is just up to where there ain't no two best ways out of it. The men in our department is going to walk out to the last one, and if there was any way o' stoppin' it by argument I'd tell you. We're goin' out at twelve o'clock noon to-day, the whole forty-eight of us.
GIBSON: Why?
FRANKEL: "Why," Mr. Gibson! Did you want to know why?
GIBSON: Yes, I do. You men signed an agreement with me just eleven days ago--
FRANKEL [hotly protesting]: But we never understood it when we signed it. How'd we know what we was signing?
GIBSON: Can't you read, Frankel?
FRANKEL: What's reading got to do with it, when it reads all one way?
GIBSON: Didn't you understand it, Carter?
CARTER: Well--I can't say I did.
GIBSON: Why can't you say it? It was plain black and white.
CARTER: Well, I was kind o' foggy about the overtime.
GIBSON: The agreement was that you were to have time and a half for overtime. What was foggy about that?
CARTER: Well, I don't say you didn't give us what we was askin' right then; but things have changed since then.
GIBSON: What's changed in eleven days?
FRANKEL [hotly]: What's changed? How about them men in the finishin' department that do piecework?
GIBSON: Well, what's changed about them?
FRANKEL: Well, something is goin' to change over there.
GIBSON: We're talking about your department not understanding the agreement. What's the finishing department got to do with that?
FRANKEL: Well, they're kickin', too, you bet!
GIBSON: I'm dealing with your kick now.
CARTER: Well, o' course we got to stand with