The Gibson Upright | Page 3

MIFFLIN [with jovial reproach]: Now, now! Before we come to that,
Mr. Gibson, suppose we get at the origin of this interesting product.
[He waves to the sample piano.] Let's see! I understand it was never
your own creation, Mr. Gibson; that you inherited this factory from
your father.
GIBSON: Oh, no, I didn't.

NORA [challenging]: What! [She checks herself.] I beg your pardon!
GIBSON: The piano factory I inherited from my father was about one
third 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