Omaha daily bee., 1896-12-20

with the men. He had said the strike would
be over In three weeks, and here Il was
| stlll dragging on, the men as determined as
! ever. II he were wrong about the duration
OF the fight, might he not be wrong also in
his treatment OF the men? was no COM
promise possibe7
This sort OF thing Sartwell had to con-
| tend with, and II weared him more than
| the strike itself He opened the papers in
! daily fear that he would find there some
letter from the Arm, in answer to the
| structures Of the day before, which would
show the public at once how the land lay.
| Gibbons believed that the backbone OF
| hight was money, as In many cases II Is; but
moments reflection might have shown him
that, II the fight was TO be conducted on a
cash basis, the strikers had not ghost OF a
| chance, because the firm OF Monkton Hope
was much richer than the union. lie be-
| lieved in lighting the devil with fire Adages
are supposed to represent the condensed
wisdom OF the ages, whereas they too often
represent condensed fooishness. IL one has
to meet an expert swordsman on the field
OF honor he should select pistol II he has
the choice of weapons. Fight the devil II
| you like, but never with fire. When Marsten
had said to Gibbons, "Mr. Sartwel knows to
a penny how much you have in the bank"
the secretary had answered grandly that
Sartwell might see the books of the union
for all he cared. and much good might 1t do
him. The fact that man like Sartwell
thought 1t worth his while to find out what
the enemy was doing did not suggest to
Gibbons that 1t might not be a bad plan to
have a look over Sartwells shoulders and
discover Just how things were going in the
privacy OF the managers office. When
Marsten ferreted out various things as the
fight progressed, and brought his knowledge
to Gibbons, the latter waved 1t aside as of
no conseque ice, treating Marsten throughout
as an enemy in the camp.
Tinnid litt1n Home pnSsp1 through the
gates each day to his office, scarcely ever
glancing at the crowd that hooted him and
made remarks not pleasant to hear. He
dreaded the moment OF arriving and leaving,
but thought 1t courageous thing to do,
imagining he would be neglecting his duties
as a free-born Briton IL he deserted his post
at this time OF danger.
II Gibbons had been n shrewd man he
would have called upon Mr. Hope at Sur
biton, and ten minutes conversation there
would have ohown him the true state OF
affairs, for the timid little manufacturer
was as transparent as crystal If the secre-
tary had lured one of the partners to the
strikers place of meeting, which might have
been accomplished as easily as with the
"blacklegs" from the country, he would In
all probability have had a public statement
which would have made Sartwells reSigna-
tion inevitable. Thus might Gibbons have
led his army to victory and at the same time
have placed his enemy where his army then
was-outside the gates.
And this was merely one of the methods
by which a clever general would have
trumphed.
If Gibbons had taken the trouble to in
form himself about the effect the few edi-
torials had produced in the minds of the
partners he would have endeavored to
make arrangements for the publication
OF a series of articles on the well known
philanthropy of the firm, with some moral
reflections about charity beginning at home,
This undoubtedly would have caused the
ground to crumble away beneath the feet
of Sartwell, for Monkton and Hope were
proud of the good their benefections were
supposed to do and until this trouble had
arisen they had thought themselves just
employers, who treated their men with fair
ness, as indeed they were, and as indeed
they did.
But now they were in doubt about the |
matter, and had an uneasy feeling that they |
had been, perhaps, rem!ss In their duties |
toward their employees Sartwell dominated |
them when he was in their presence, and |
they knew his value too well to run the risk |
of losing him. They knew. also. IL they |
gave way to the men without his sanction |
they would lose him, and they had rivals in |
London who would be only too glad to take |
him into their employ: yet in spite of this |
knowledge they wavered. and it required !
but a little tact and diplomacy on the part |
of Gibbons to win victory all along the |
line.