"THE WALKING DELEGATE."

Otago Witness, Issue 2685, 30 August 1905, Page 70

"THE WALKING DELEGATE."

A significant contribution to the literature of the industrial conflict in America is "The Walking Delegate," by Leroy Scott (Doubleday, Page, and Co.). Not only is it a human document that is significant, opportune, and real, but it is the first fairminded labour novel to make its appearance in the midst of a- flood of labour novels ■which are anything and everything but fair-minded. The writer shows close familiarity with his subject — with the lives of the people with whom he deals, with their home life and work life and business life.

On the surface, "The Walking Deleg ite" is the story of a. struggle between a labour union and a group of employers of labour. Also, if one may hazard a shrewd guess, it is a study of Sam Patks, the notorious labour leader, wiose coirupt dealings threw much of odium upon the trade union movement, and' at the same time gladdened the hearts of all capitalists, with the exception of those capitalists who were compelled to share with Sam Parks their profits tind to share with him likewise in his corruption. But there is more than surface to "'' he Walking Delegate." It has its line of narrative, but it has also its line of^ depth. In fact, sc graphic is the description of condition and oction that it is to be feared that more than one reader, held by the vivid interest of the story, will itce through its pages and miss the lesson — nay, not the lesson, but the under-vmg premises, the ethical and economic facts of American life of to-day. — Transcript from Century Life. — The book is a transcript from life, from twentieth-century life, from twentieth-cen-tury life in New York City, wihiere the steel skyscrapers are reared into the sky to constitute themselves upstanding peaks, outjutting spurs, and mountain ranges in the jungle of commercial empire. It is but fitting that the characters in the book should be the structural ironworkers who rear the skyscrapers and the contractors who direct the work along the lines laid down by the architects and engineers, i-.nd which is eventually paid for by the capital of ths legal owners of the building.

As is true of any jungle, in this commercial jungle there is a conflict of interests. The owners of capital want the skyscrapers erected as cheaply as possible. The contractors and the workers- between them do the work. The work of the completed skyscraper is their joint product (represented in, dollars), and for the division of the dollars which constitute this joint product contractors and labourers fight. The structural ironworkers want all they can get of the joint product, and attempt to get it through the medium of shorter hours and higher wages. The contractors are opposed to shorter hours and higher wages, for shorter hours and higher wages will diminish their earnings on th.oir contracts. To pay the workers higher wages for shorter hours means that the contractors' share of the joint product must be correspondingly reduced.

The contractors refuse the demands of the structural ironworkers ; the structural ironworkers' strike ; the contractors try to break the strike ; then comes conflict — twentieth-century conflict. Primitive man ought over the division of the meat of some slaughtered animal. Modern man fights over the division of an abstraction (dollars and cents), which, in turn, represents meat which may be bought, and ab tlia same time represents the brains and brawn expended in assembling some steel and stone into that form of building known as the skyscraper. Such the difference between man in the primitive jungle and man in the modern jungle. He still fights for the meat that will give easement to the hunger pangs of his stomach.

Of comse, in any human jungle there must be codes of etJiics and violations of codes of ethics — ideal virtues and sinful acts. And in any particular jungle, sinful acts will be of a peculiar and particular kind. The twentieth-century commercial jungle Las its peculiar and particular kind of sin, and this sin has been caught and fixed by Mr Scott in his book, "The Walking Delegate." Perhaps Mr Scott ■wrought more cunningly than he knew. Perhaps he merely painted life as he observed it, and painted the salient sin of commercial life without having generalised thjt it was the salient sin. He may have achieved truth blindly, through, faithful realism. He may have achieved 'truth deliberately through generalisation. But one way or the other, the point is the same — he has a -Aieved truth. — Sin of the Commercial Jungle. — And now to this particular and peculiar sin of the commercial jungle, as portrayed by Mr Scott. It- is betrayal. Betrayal, or treachery, is the sin most commonly committed in business life of to-day. It is secret, hidden, a snake-in-the-grass sort of act directed against one's fellows to the hurt of one's fellows, and it does not even rise to the dignity of the old-time ambuscade. In the commercial jungle men cunningly adulterate food (for profit), and kill annually thousands of babies. It is dona secretly and treacherously. Herod, sinning in more primitive fashion, killed thousands of babies, but he did it openly and without treachery. In the commercial jungle the man robs another man ; he does it secretly and treacherously, by means of an agreement with a railroad and of a rebate. Captain Kidd, on the other hand, was open and above board. He hoisted skull and crossbones to the masthead, and took openly and without treachery the property of others. A corporation wants to rob the people. Secretly and treacherously it buys legislation ; secretly and treacherously a Legislature betrays the people by selling the . necessary 'legislation^ the thing is done, ,

the people are robbed. In olden time it was done differently. A lot of Norsemen said, "Let us go and rob somebody." Then they launched their lean warboals and descended upon some foreign coast, hammering at castle gales, battling over castle walls, and robbing openly and unabashed in plain sight of C4od. It is true, the homely virtues of bluffness, frankness, and open deeds and misdeeds have passed away. As Mr Edward Alsworth Ross has said, ''Tbs liitle finger of Chicane has come to be thicker than the loins of Violence." The game of life in th© twentieth-century commercial jungle is a game of treachery. The law furnishes the rules for the game and punishes th© bunglers. The law is the umpire that decides upon the dexterity and skill of the players of treachery. Of course, all this is because commercial society ib based upon production fo» profit. If society were based upon production for service, betrayal and! treachery would cease to be. But that is another story.

— Story of Treachery and Betrayal. —

The story before us is Mr Scott's story of "The Walking Delegate.'' It is with that, and with tho treachery and betrayal of it, that vre are concerned. Buck IFoley is the walking delegate of tho Structural Ironworkers' Union. A man of power, bold and unscrupulous, he has made o£ the union a machine similar in kind to that political machine known as Tammany. By means of the machine ho has constructed, Buck I'oley can call a strike or call off a strike, whenever he wishes. And here enters Buck Foley's treachery. While apparently fighting against the contractors for the- union, secretly and continually he is soiling out the union to the contractors. This act of treachery and betrayal is called "graft" — a household word these days in the United States.

Tom Keating, an honest man and: member of the union (aleo the hero of the story), disgusted with the graft of its walking delegate, tries to overthrow Buck Foley and the graft machine he has na-le. Tom Keating, naive and honest, goes to see Mr Baxter. Mr Baxtei is one oi the largest contractors. Tom Keating wants Mr Baxter's co-operation, and in return offers Mr Baxter the co-operation of an boniest union wherein there shall be no graft. Mr Baxter talks it over with th-e honest workmen ; and while so doing Mr Baxter himself simulates honesty. At the end of the conversation he reserves his decision, and tells Keating to call later for it.

Promptly 'enters Mr Baxter's treachery. He at onca sends for Buck Foley, and to him betrays the honest workman who is . trying to make an honest union. But, perforce, this treachery of Mr Baxter is based upon previous treachery. He has long been treacherous to his fellow con- j tractors. The following conversation be- i tween him and Buck Foley explains this treacher}' : — Conflict Between Foley and j Keating. — " Youse're doin' twice the business youse were three years ago," said Buck Foley to Mr Baxter. "Why did youse get the contracts for the Atwell building and the Sewanee Hotel — the two jobs - that put youse at tha head of things in New York? Becaiise Driscoll, Bobbs, an' some o' the others had failed to geb the jobs they were workin* on done in contract time. An' why didn't they get done on time? Because youse didn't want 'em to get done on time. I saw that they got bum men, who made mistakes, — an' I give 'em their bellyful of strikes."' " You didn't do these things out of love for me," Mr Baxter put in meaningly. " Sure I didn't, — not any more'n you^e told me about Keating tfor love o' me." Foley went on : "The men who want buildings put up have found youse get through on time, an' tha others don't — so youse get the business. Why do youse get through on time? Because I see youse get the fastest men in the union. An' because I see youse don't have any labour trouble." Buck Foley {proceeds to do battle with Tom Keating, the honest workman. But Buck !Foley does not do battle in the open. He goes to Mr Driscoll, who employs Tom .Keating as a foreman. The result of this visit is that Tom Keating is discharged. Then Tom Keating and Mr Driscoll have it out in plain words: '• Hasn't my work been satisfactory?" Tom Keating asks. " It isn't a question of work," Mr Dris- | coll answered. "If it's any satisfaction to you, I'll say that I never had a foreman that got as. much or as good work j out of th© men." "Then you're filing me because Foley orders you to?" [ " If you want it right out, that's it. But what can I do? I am held up." "Why, fight him." [ "I've tried that,"' answered Mr Driscoll, sarcastically; "thanks." "That's what's the matter with you I bosses!" cried Keating. "You think more of dollars than self-iespect ! You're too cowardly to stand up for what's j right." "Mr Driscoll glared'; hi« eyes clicked. Ther he gave a great swallow. "I guess you're about light." Tom Keating, the lionest ■workman, can find no work to do. As often as ha finds a job at his trade (no longer as a- foreman, but as a workman), Buck Foley interviews his employer, and! he is discharged*. In his seai'ch fov work, Keating stumbles upon more treachery and betrayal. For an employer to pay under the wage seal© was t treachery to the employers' association ; yet an employer offers Keating 3dol a day j instead of the union wage of 3.75d01.

"But yoit signed an agreement to pay the full rate !" Tom ciicd.

"Oh, a man signs lots of things." lorn was about to turn iwajj when

his curiosity got ilia better of lus disgusl "Weil, suppose Igo to for 3dul, 1:.-jw do Aye keep from being discorded?"' I innlce thL agveemciit with all ray men: "You got the full amouni in your cnvclo^i SalurJiiy. iVo^ody that sees you open your cnvelop-3 that you're getting full sci>io. Then you hand me back four-fifty later."

— Bdrnys Employers' Association. — -

In tins instance the employer betrays the pjnployeis' association; the m?n at ho works fcr him betrays Lis union. Needless lo state, Toiii Keating does not take the job. Treachery is ihe game, Piarl the mon whotrusts any other man is a fool and a bungler. Mr Baxter end Buck Foley fester together in mutual rottenness of betrayal, yet dare not irusc cvh other. Mr Baxter maliitainc J.j?iji^cn. a mon-ber of tl.e union, as n spy upon in 9 union a:ud Foloy, thus making "Johnson betray not only his walking delegate but all his fellow -workmen. Keating tries to bs elected walking delegate, receives lbs majority of votes, but is bcatsn by the foulness and lottenncss of Buck Foley. Keating then strives to bring en a strike, knowing that Buck Fsloy has sold himself to tho contractors to prevent, a strike. If Keating can bring about a successful strike against the dictates of Foley hs will break Foley's influence in the' union. So successfully doss he agitate among the men that Foley sees Iha striKG is inevitable! At once he violates his secret, agreement with the contract.ois and himself champions the strike, stealing Keat ing's thunder. MiBaxter, through his spy, Johnson, leains immediately of Foley's treacheiy, and in the con-sequent interview with Foley brutal truths arc? enunciated. "You seem to have failed utterly to ke n p your' promise that there would be no strike,"' Mr Baxter said. "Mr Baxter,"' Foley replied, "even tho best, of us make oxir mistakes. I beteven youse ain't cheated eveiy mail youse've counted on cheating.''

Compelled by Keating to betray the contractors, whose tool he had been, Foley decides to betray to the utmost, and in his closing words fays : "I'm going to fight youse, Baxter, an' fight you&e like hell! For two years I've been s'andin' your d d manicured mourners. Youse've acted like I wofij'i- fit to touch. Why d youse s'pose I've stood it? Because it was money to roe. Now that there's no money in ■ it, d'youse s'pose I'm godn' to stand it any longer? Not much, by God! My chance's come, an' I'm go in' to fight

yonso like hell!" At the last Foley's clenched fist was under Mr Baxters nose. The contractor did rot stir the breadth of a hair. "Mr Foley," 'he said, in his cold, even.' voice, "I think you know the shortest way out of this office."' "I do," said Foley ; "an' it's a d d. sight tco long!"' He gave Mr Baxter a long look, full of dffiant hate, contemptuously filliped hio half-smoked cigar on Mr Baxter's spoil ess desk, and strode out.

— Baxter Had An. Expensive Wife. —

But Mi- Baxter had a wife. She was a good woman, according to her lights. She wjs en tho board of patronesses of one or two vorking women's chiibs, and was a contributor to several fashionable* charities. Also her household expenseswere 125,Q00r!ol a year. And because of her household expenses, Mr Baxter needs must swallow Foley's insults, and, as tho strike rpproaeiicd a successful culmination, send for Foley and buy his betrayal of his union. Foicy secretly meats the- committee, of contractors.. He demands 50,000d01. Murphy, who iras an alderman as well as a contractor, objected. '"Half that's enough,"' declared

Murphy. Foley sneered In Murphy's face. "As I happen to know, twenty-fivo thousand is ]a*t what yoi^o got for workm' in the Board of Aldermen for the Lincoln Avenue Trpi-tioa Franchise. Good goods always comes higher."'

The aMei man's face turns red: he, too, swallows the irJsul't. For 50,000d0l Buck Foley sells his union and agrees* to call off the strike Mr Driscoll is a member of t:i3 contractors' committee which arranges tho bribery. He doesn't like it. "By God !"' hs cries, "I'm sick of this whole- dirty underhand way of doing business '" So he resigns from the committee. But his partner takes his place>, and does the diity work for him. This does not prevent Mr Briscoll leaping the profit of the dirty "work.

Miss Arnold i«s a high minded stenographer in a contractor's office. She i&i in love with the honest workman, Tom Keating. She learns of Buck Faley'.s- treacheiy aii-d promptly betrays her employers by telling Keating.

And so it goes. Betrayal and treachery, treachery and betrayal ! None can escape the smirch and stain of the game of treachery that is played in the commercial jungle, and is called '"business " Through Miss Arnold's treachery Tom Keating is forewarned. He collects the evidence against Foley and the bribing 1 c-onti actors. In the evening the Structural Iroivtt orkers' Union: meets to vote upon •whether tlia stiikd shall continue or whether the union shall surrender. By manipulation ot the machine, Fulcy hasprepared the union to surrender. That the strike is lost is a foregone conclusion. But before tho que&tion- is put to the: vote Keating springs his evidence againsO Foley. Foley is overthrown and) manhandled Th« union votes to continue the strike, aaid Tom Keating is not only tha l.ero, but he i« I'-ecognised as leader and spokesman for the union, and as its nexti ■n diking delegate.

— Johnson a. Traitor to the Union. —

But in the meantime Johnson, the traitor to the union, has discovered that* Keating has knowledge of the treachery, and is prejnring to u'ie it. While Foley,

•is being mauled by the men he has foe•trayed and the union is voting to continue the strike, Johnson is tailing the news to Mr Baxter. It is a critical 'moment for that gentleman. He se^as his name and his own corrupt dealings in next morning's newspapers. He thinks quickly, and then betrays Foley. Calling upon the District Attorney, Mt Baxter charges Foley with the bribsry, and demands his arrest. Mr Baxter explains, of course, that the bribery plan was devised by him and his associates for the purpose of bringing Fole*y to justice. A warrant is hn-jined-iateJy issued • for Foley's arrest. Mr Baxter has bean guilty, in thieves' par lance, of the double cross. Nor can Mr Baxter stop at this. Having- now performed an act thd£ would make 3)im appear the champion of the public versus Bnck Foley, Mr Baxter promptly .gives the public the double cross by warn--ing Fo'ey of his impending arrest. Ifc •"would never, never do for Buck Foley to be arrested" and tell what he knew about Mr Baxter. ■ And now falls the one faithful man in the bot>k, Tom Keating, the honsst workman, the battler for t>he truth and the 'right. He has an interview with Mr 'Baxter. In Keating's possession is the «videnoo that would blacken the names of Mr Baxter and tlie members af the contractors' committee. But this evidence Tom Keating never makes public. Instead •he be^unes a blackmailer. He uses the evidence to blackmail the contractors into ending tlie strike by granting -the union's demands. For the. sake of himself and his union Tom Kct'ting betrays the right md tho truth. And here ends the stcry of "The Walking Delggate.*' The b:ok is true. It is real life — a story fof to-day — of events that have occurred in New York City, and that are still occurring 121 New York City. It is a stcry of aecret sinning, of treachery and betrayal, disloyalty and treason. Jl\. is an opportune book. All over the Uuited States are tfc unions and employers' associations struggling with each other. Graft is everywhere, and pi aft is in kind to tkn machirs constructed by Buck Foisr, walking delegate. Ard when «-, city or State is so dominated, that city or St-ate is betrayed. There is no longer ev«n discuss-on of the betrayal of produoers and_ consumers by Standard Oil: magazine* cj->d newspapers are filled .with th-a confessions of thieves. Lawson .receives the doublo cross from his associates, r,nd gives his aosociatcs the double .■cross by relating their knavery to the -public. In short, "Ths We.'klng "Delegate" -could not have been published n-.,cce oppor "timely than at the present moment, when th-a United States is hanging out to dry ! the co!c«sa! washing of ~it,3 linen, made dirty by r r-,ft. And "graft " is the modern sJanc for v- -was once ths n^-t t->-r?Ae •ot SiO'-'jam ..-, trace ':crv aj.d betrajal.— _ i