Youth Challenges | Page 6

she said, "is a non-union shop."
"I didn't know," said he, after a brief pause. "I'm afraid I don't
understand these things. ... I suppose one should know about them if he
is to own a plant like ours." Again he paused while he fumbled for an
idea that was taking shape. "I suppose one should understand about his
employees just as much as he does about his machinery."
She looked at him with a touch of awakened interest. "Do you class
men with machinery?" she asked, well knowing that was not his
meaning. He did not reply. Presently he said:
"Rangar told you you were to be my secretary?"
"Yes, sir," she said, using that respectful form for the first time. The
relation of employer and employee had been re-established by his
words. "Thank you for the promotion."

"You understand what this is all about," he said. "I shall want to ask
you about it. ... Perhaps you even know the man who is speaking?"
"He boards with my mother," said she. "That was natural," she added,
"my father being who he was."
Bonbright turned and looked at the speaker with curiosity awakened as
to the man's personality. The man was young--under thirty, and
handsome in a black, curly, quasi-foreign manner.
Bonbright turned his eyes from the man to the girl at his side. "He
looks--" said Bonbright.
"How?" she asked, when it was apparent he was not going to finish.
"As if," he said, musingly, "he wouldn't be the man to call on for a line
smash in the last quarter of a tough game."
Suddenly the speech came to an end, and the crowd poured on.
"Good night," said the girl. "I must find Mr. Dulac. I promised I would
walk home with him."
"Good night," said Bonbright. "His name is Dulac?"
"Yes."
Men like Dulac--the work they were engaged upon--had not fallen
within the circle of Bonbright's experience. Bonbright's training and
instincts had all been aristocratic. At Harvard he had belonged to the
most exclusive clubs and had associated with youths of training similar
to his. In his athletics there had been something democratic, but
nothing to impress him with democracy. Where college broadens some
men by its contacts it had not broadened Bonbright, for his contacts had
been limited to individuals chipped from the same strata as himself. ...
In his home life, before going to college, this had been even more
marked. As some boys are taught arithmetic and table manners,
Bonbright had been taught veneration for his family, appreciation for

his position in the world, and to look upon himself and the few
associates of his circumscribed world as selected stock, looked upon
with especial favor and graciousness by the Creator of the universe.
Therefore this sudden dip into reality set him shivering more than it
would another who entered the water by degrees. It upset him. ... The
man Dulac stirred to life in him something that was deeper than mere
curiosity.
"Miss--" said he, and paused. "I really don't know your name."
"Frazer," she supplied.
"Miss Frazer, I should like to meet this Dulac. Would you be willing?"
She considered. It was an unusual request in unusual circumstances, but
why not? She looked up into his boyish face and smiled. "Why not?"
she said, aloud.
They pressed forward through the crowd until they reached Dulac,
standing beside his barrel, surrounded by a little knot of men. He saw
the girl approaching, and lifted his hand in acknowledgment of her
presence. Presently he came to her, casting a careless glance at
Bonbright.
"Mr. Dulac," she said, "Mr. Foote has been listening to your speech. He
wants to meet you."
"Foote!" said Dulac. "Not--"
"Mr. Bonbright Foote," said the girl.
Evidently the man was nonplussed. He stared at Bonbright, who
extended his hand. Dulac looked at it, took it mechanically.
"I heard what you were saying, Mr. Dulac," said Bonbright. "I had
never heard anything like it before--so I wanted to meet you."
Dulac recovered himself, perceived that here was an opportunity, and

spoke loudly so that the staring, interested workingmen, who now
surrounded them, could hear distinctly.
"I'm glad you were present," said he. "It is not often we workingmen
catch the ear of you employers so readily. You sit apart from your men
in comfortable offices or in luxurious homes, so they get little
opportunity to talk straight from the shoulder to you. ... Even if they
had the chance," he said, with a look about him, "they would not dare.
To be respectful and to show no resentment mean their bread and
butter."
"Resentment?" said Bonbright. "You see I am new to the business and
to this. What is it they resent?"
"They resent being exploited for the profit of men like yourself.