THE STILLWATER TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 290, 7 December 1891, Page 3

THE STILLWATER TRAGEDY.

By Thomas Bailey -Aldeich.

Author of " The Queen of Shebu," •'Marjorie Daw," "Prudence

Palfroy," etc

VOL. 11,

CHAPTER XiV.

On the third morning after Torrini's expulsion from the yard, Mr Slocum walked into the studio with a printed slip in his band. A similar slip lay crumpled under a work-bench, where Richard had tossed it. Mr Slocurn's kindly visage was full of trouble and perplexity as he raised his eyes from the paper, which he had been re-read-ing on the way upstairs. ' Look at that !' ' Yes, , remarked Richard, ' I have been honoured with one of those documents.' ' What does it mean ?' * It means business.' The paper in question contained a series of resolutions unanimously adopted at a meeting of the Marble Workers' Association of Stillwater, held in Grimsey's Hall the previous night. Dropping the preamble, these resolutions, which were neatly printed with a typo-writing machine on a half letter sheet, ran as follows :— Resolved, That on and after the First of June proximo, the pay of carvers in Slocum's Marble Yard shall be §2.75 per day, instead of §2.50 as heretofore. Resolved, That on and after the same date, the rubbers and polishers shall have $2.00 per day, instead of 81.75 as heretofore. Resolved, That on and after the same date, the millmen are to have §2.00 per day, instead of §1.75 as heretofore. Resolved, That during the months of June, July, and August the shops shall knock off'work on Saturday,ab five p.m., instead of at six p.m. Resolved, That a printed copy of these resolutions be laid before the Proprietor of Slocum's Marble Yard, and that his immediate attention to them be respectfully requested. Per order of Committee M. W. A. ' Torrini is at the bottom of that,' said Mr Slocum. 'I hardly think co. This arrangement, as I told you the other day before I had the trouble with him, had been in contemplation several weeks. Undoubtedly Torrini used his influence to hasten the movement already planned. The Association had too much shrewdness to espouse the quarrel of an individual. 4 What are we to do ?' ' If you are in the same mind you were when we talked over the possibility of an unreasonable demand like this, there is only one thing to do.' 'Fight it?' 'Fight it.' ' I have been resolute, and all that sorb of thing, in times past, , observed Mr Slocum, glancing out; of the corner of his eye at Richard, ' and have always come off second best. The Association has drawn up most of my rules for me, and had its own way generally.' ' Since my time you have never been in so strong a position to make a stand. Wβ have got all the larger contracts out of the way. Foreseeing , what was likely to come, I have lately fought shy of taking new ones. Here are heavy orders from Rafter & Son, the Builders' Company, and others. Wβ must decline them by to-night's mail.' ' Is ib really necessary ?' asked Mr Slocum, knitting his forehead ■ into what would have been a scowl if his mil-J 'pinkish eyebrows had permitted it. ' I think so. , ' I hate to do thai;.' 'Then we are at the mercy of the Association. , 'If we do not come to their terms, you seriously believe they will strike V ' I cto,' replied Richard,' and we should be in v pretty fax. ' But these demands are ridiculous. , ' The men are not aware of our situation ; they imagine we have a lot of important jobs on hand, as usual at this season. Formerly the foreman ;pi a shop had access to the order-book, but for the last year or two I have kept it in the safe here. The other day Dexter came to me and wanted to see what work was set down ahead in the blotter ; bub'l had an inspiration and didn't. let him post himself.' ' Is not some kind of compromise possible ?'suggested Mr Slocum, looking over the slip again. ' Now this fourth clause,, about closing the yard an hour early on Saturday, I don't strongly object to that, though with eighty hands it means, every week, eighty hours , work which the yard, pays for and doesn't get. , , ' I should advise granting that request. Such concessions are never wasted. But, Mr Slocum, this is not going to satisfy them. They have thrown in the reasonable demand merely to flavour the rest. I happen to know that they are determined to stand by their programme to the last letter.' ' You know that?' ' I have a friend at court. Of course this is iiob to be breathed, bub Denyven, without being at all false to his comrades, talks freely with me. He says they are resolved not to,give in an inch.' ' Then we will close the works. , ' That is what I wanted you to say, sir !' cried Richard. ' With this new scale of prices and plenty of work, we might probably come out a little ahead the next six months; bub it wouldn't pay tor the trouble and-the capital invested. Then when trade slackened, we should be running at a;.losa, and there'd be another wrangle over a reduction. We had better lie idle.' ' Stick to that-, sir, and maybe it will not be necessary.' ' But if they strike ' 'They woir't?all.strike, Ab least, , added Richard, 'I hope not. I have indirectly sounded several of the older hands, and they have half promised to hold on ; only half promised, for every man of them at heart fears the trades union more than Nobread—until No-bread comes. , ' Whom have you spoken with ?' ' Lumley, Giles, Peterson, and some others—your pensioners, I call them. , ' ifes, they were in the yard in my father's time ; they have not been worth their salt these ten years. When the business was turned over to me I didn't discharge any old hand who had given his best days to the yard. Somehow I couldn'b throw away the squeezed lemons. An employer owes a good workman something beyond the wages paid.' ' And a workman owes a good employer something beyond the work done. You stood by these men after they outlived their usefulness, and if they do not stand by you now, they're a shabby set.' "I fancy they will, Richard.' ' I think they had better, and I wish they would. We have enough odds and ends to keep them busy awhile, and I shouldn't like to have the clinking of chisels die out altogether undor the old sheds. , ' Nor I,' returned Mr Slocum, with a touch of sadness in his intonation. ' It has grown to be a kind of music tome, , and he paused, to tho sounds of

ringing steel that floated up from shops. ' VVhatever happens, that music shall nob cease in the yard except on Sundays, if % have to take mallet and chisel and go afe.ty slab all* alone.' '.j ' Slocum's Yard with a single workman in it would be a pleasing spectacle,' said!!!* Slocuro, smiling ruefully. i 'Vα wouldn't be a bad timo for Ihalvrotk' man to strike,' returned Richard, with a laugh. 'He could dictate his own terms, , ra- , turned Mr Slocum, soberly. 'Well, ";I, suppose you canuob help thinking about) Margaret; but don't thinfs of her now; Tell me what answer you propose to givo to& Association—how you mean to put te* fgjr I leave the matter wholly to you. I ebaft have no hand in it, further than to eo4t®fffy your action. , 'To-morrow, then,' said Richard, 'for it is no use to hurry up a crisis, I shall go to the workshops and inform them that! sheir request for short hours on Saturdays is granted, bub that the other changed they suggest are nob to be There will never be a better Mr Slocum, to settle another question which has been.allowed to run too long.' . •What's'that f 'The apprentice question. , ' Would it be wise to touch on thabafi present V . • 'While we are straightening out matters and .putting things on. a- solid basis, Ib seems to me essential to settle that.. There was never a greater imposition, or one more short-sighted, than this rule whion prevents the training of sufficient workmen. The trades-union will discover-their error some day when , they have succeeded in forcing manufacturers to import skilled labour by the wholesale. I would like to bell the Marble Workers , Association* Slocum's Yard has resolved to employ, many apprentices each year as there ii& room for.' ..■ J ' I wouldn't dare risk, ib !' ; 'It will have to be done, sooner or latety Ib would be a capital flank movement now, They have laid themselves open bo anattacfc on that quarter.' <#. ' I might as well close the gates focigopct and all.' ' '"■:....• ''■'{> 'So you will, if ib comes, to that. You can afford to close the gates, and they can' 6 afford to have you. In a week they'd be back, asking you to open them. Then yoa ! could have your pick of the live hands, and drop the dead wood. If Giles or Peterson or Lumley or any of those desert us,,,they are nob to be leb on. again. I hope you will promise me bhat, sir.' 'If the occasion offers, you shall reorgao? ise the shops in your own way. I haven't the nerve for this kind of businese, thought I have scon a great deal of it in the first and lasb. Strikes are terrible mistakes. Even when they succeed, what pays for the lost time and the money squaadered over the tavern-bar? What makes up for the days or weeks when the fire waa out on the hearth.and the children lias no bread ? That is what, happens, yoit know.' ' There is no remedy for such calamities, Richard answered. Yeb I can imaging occasions when ib would be \ better to let the fire go out and the children want for bread.' 'You are nob advocating strikes J' ex* claimed Mr Slocum. 'Why not? 'I thoughb you were for fighting them.'";" 'So lam, in this instance ; bub the quee-' tion has two sides. -'Every man has the right!' to seb a price on his own labour, andAo refuse to work for less ; the wisdom of itlfe another matter. He puts himself in tbfef wrong only when he menaces the person or the property of the man who has an equal rightnob to employ him. That isthe blunder strikers usually make in the end, and one by which they lose public sympathy event when they are fighting an injustice. Now;, sometimes ib is an injusbice that is being foughb, and then it is right bo fight ib with the only weapon a poor man has to wield, against a power which possesses a hundred weapons,—and that's a strike. For ex« ample, the smelters and casters in the Mianbowona Ironworks are meanly under." paid.' ' Whafc, have bhey struck V ' There's a general strike threabened .ip bhe village : foundry-men, spinners, and all. , 'So much the worse for everybody V-% did nob suppose ib was .°.s bad as that. What) has become of Torrini V ' The day after he left us he was taken oU as forgeman at Dana's.' ' I am glad Dana has gob him !' ' Ab the meeting last night, Torrini gave in his resignation as secretary of the Association ; being no longer a marble-worker, he was nob qualified bo serve.' ' We unhorsed him, then ?' ' Rather. lam half sorry, too.' 'Richard, , said Mr Slocum, halting in one of bis nervous walks up and down the room, ' you are the oddest composition of hardness and softness I ever saw.' 'Ami?' 'One moment you stand braced like a, liontofighb the whole yard,"and bhe next) moment you are pitying a miscreant who would have laid your head open without the slightesb compunction. , 'Oh, I forgive him,' said Richard. 'X was a trifle hasty myself. Margaret; thinks so too. , ' Much Margaret knows about it!' 'I was inconsiderate, to say the- leasb. When a man picks up a tool by the wrong* end he must expect to get cut.' ' You didn't have a choice.' 'Ishouldn'b have touched Torrini. After discharging him and finding him disposed to resist my order to leave tbe yard, I ought to have called in a constable. Ueu> ally it is very hard to anger me; bub three or tour times in my life 1 have been carried away by a devil of a temper which ,£ couldnt control, ib seized me so unawares. Thab waa one of the times.' J-J c mallets and chiselß were executing a blitfie staccato movement in the yard below, and making the sparks dance. No one walking among bhe diligent gangs, and observing the placid faces of the men as they bent over their tasks, would have susr pected that they were awaiting the word that meant bread and meat and 1 -home to them. : (2b be Continued.)