Omaha daily bee., 1897-03-21
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that had known him for years would know
him no more. He had no fear that the COM
pany would discharge him II he lost the
battle-in fact, he knew they would use
every effort to induce him to remain, but
1t was his own stubborn pride, as his wife
called 1t, that he felt he could not over
come even il he had wished to do so. Sart-
well, like certain swords OF fnely-tempered
steel, would break but would not bend. Years
Of unninching determination In what he
thought was right had made him a man
over whom he himself had but slight con-
troll, and he sometimes recognized with
grim humor that while he could persuade all
his confreres to take a devious but safe
course upon any given problem, he could
not induce himself to follow anything but
the straight line. He worked night and day
at the task Of filling the factory with new
men. He secured the country FOR them,
and his telegraph bills alone were enormous,
but men were scarce-good men are always
scarcc-and now even Indifferent workers
were hard to find. Gibbons had once said
that the workingman of modern times suf-
fers from the fact that he is merely a cog
in a big wheel, but this truism tells also
against the employer who Is trying to fill
his shops. II a cog is useless by itself 1t
must not be forgotten that the wheel is
also useless until the cog Is replaced. 1t
is easy for an employer to supply the place
of q single cog, but when the whole wheel
is cogless, ninety-nine cogs are OF no avail
IL the hundredth necessary to complete the
circle cannot be found.
1t vas here that Sartwell had the first
touch of his opponents quality, and his an
ger was lost in admiration for the young
mans ~shrewdness and knowledge of the bus
mess. The fight had been conducted so
quietly that no one in the neighborhood
would have known, from any sign OF dis
turbance, that war was in progress. Mar
stem made no attempt to buy off the new
men, who came and went from the works
unmolested by the pickets. Marsten some
times talked with the strangers, telling them
of the strike, and asking where they came
from; advising them to get work elsewhere,
but never making any attempt either to CO
cree or to bride them. Sartwell wondered
at this, and hoped Marsten would continue
such a mild and m warfare; neverthe'
less, it's very mildness made him anxious,
and he cautioned his new employees to give
no information to the strikers, though he
was well aware of the uselessness OF trying
to inculcate secrecy-for men Will talk. IN
fact, Marsten kept himself well informed OF
what was going on inside the works ana saw
that the manager was quite shrewdly con-
centrating his attention to one branch OF a
department instead Of trying to fill the whole
factory at one time. He was gradually col
lecting his hundred cogs from all points OF
the compass, and by and by would nave one
big wheel and pinion, out OF the many "neels
and pinions, revolving. One day at noon,
when the men came out, Marsten, rapidly
running his eye over them, saw a new man.
and at once he recognized that here at last
was the hundredth cog.
"You're n new comer?" he said, accosting
him.
yes" answered the man; Il came this
morning" o.
Marsten, keeping step with him.
Its no use. / know there's a strike. In
here to work, and l don't give a hang 1or
the union!'
"Weil, it will dc. no harm to talk the matter
over"
"Itll do no good. 1 didn't come out to
talk; l came out for my dinner
o course. I'm on the same lay myseli;
como with me. We can talk and eat.
81 can pay you for my own dinner
Certainly; I'm not Offering to pay Tor
it. / don't suppose l get a tenth part Vi Tue
wages you do; L can see by the look Oh YOU
that you are a good workman. I'm secre-1
tarv of the union and get but a few shil-
lings a week. / would tell you how few, but
YOU probably wouldn't believe me, for l
could get much more at my trade.
THE more fool you, then, for working for
less"
perhaps. I want to raise the wages OF
men all over the kingdom, SO I'm content to
work for little II can do that. Where DO
you come from?'
I'm a Bolton man."
SIS your family here?"
NO"
"Why?"
what's that to you, I'd like to know"
It's a good deal to all of us, because II
shows that you are not sure OF your sltua-
ton"
at shows nothing of the kind. / am guar
anteed my situation"
Guaranteed! What does a masters guar
antee amount to? We're going to win TINS
strike, and then where will you newcomers
be? You know what happens when the men
nn hunlr Mot Hna of VOL Will be LETT In the
shops. Suppose you do get good wages for
a few weeks, what will be the benefit in the
end? A permanent situation at even lower
wages would be better"
''Who says 1t wouldn't? But / haven't the
permanent situation, you see.'
Now you are talking sense. Are you a
of the union?'
II was. | had a row with the foreman,
and he gave me the sack"
SIN whose shop was that?"
"At Smighden's."
81 don't know it. What wages were you
getting there?"
Thirty shillings a week.
DO you know Markham, Sarbury & Co.
of Bolton?'
yes"
Would you be satisfied with thirty shil-
lings a week there?"
'Yes; If l could be sure of getting it."
you can be sure of it. l will telegraph
to the foreman this minute, and well have
an answer DeIOre we HllSH eating ~ mas
to find me places for three men,
and haven't sent him one yet. But don't
say a word to any one here, for | want to
keep the other two places for Bolton men
IL they come"
'Ill not go back to this shop at all II ]
be sure of h place in Bolton"
And so 1t came about that Sartwell lost his
hundredth cog, and the cog never thought 1t
his while to give his late master even
A word of explanation. He left on the first
train for Manchester.
This kind OF thing happened several times
Sartwell fully realized the method in
action. He thought at first that
had been merely lucky in buying off
4 man at the very time when such a purchase
would block all progress. 1t was like pulling
the linchpin from one OF the axles OF a
The manager wrote to his fellow
managers in different parts OF the country
and warned them that their foremen were
giving places to employees from the works
II Monkton & Hope, and he received an
swers saying they would do all they could
% prevent such a transplanting; but, as II
vas difficult to trace where a man went,
when so few OF them were deported, the
warming came TO nothing. II a wholesale
exodus had been attempted, ~Sartwell, with
he aid OF his fellow managero, might have
lone something to prevent its success, but
he very homeopathic nature OF Marsten's
emedy made 1t difficult to cope with. BY
his time the feeling that he was a beaten