The spectator., 1921-06-17

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 The boss laughed at that. and I'm telling you right now that was glad to know that he was still able to laus.,.
 1ou've never seen the day when you wanted to renege Upton, anu you know it." he hit back. Think os the perfectly good technical educat!on you were wasting wuen took hold of you and jerked you out here
 Huh :" said our millionaire i've just had two enyinemen on the carpet for running over an old ranchman's pet COW. They said they couldn't help it; but I told them that under 'he 'public-be-pleaseG policy they'd got 10 help it."
 The boss chuckled. "I believe you'd joke at your own funeral Upton. You didn't come here to tell me about the ranchman's pet cow"
 Not exactly. I came to tell you that Citizens Storage X Warehouse is due to have Il strike on it's hands. The anagement--which seems to have got itself consolidated in some way shot out a lot of new bosses all along the line on the through train last night. and this morning the entire works, elevators, packeries, coal yards, lumber mills. and everything. are posted with notices of blanket cut in wages; twenty per cent, flat, for everybody. The news has been trickling in over the wires all morning; and the last word is that a general strike of all C. $. X w. employees will go on at noon tomorrow
 That is move number one" said tie boss. And then: You have heard that the Hatch people have reached out and taken in the C. S. X W."
 "Hornack was telling me something about it; yes
 Tt is true and the fight is on. You see what Hatch is doing At one stroke he gets rid of all the local em- ployees of C. $. & w., who have been drawing good pay and who might make trouble for him a little later on, and fills their places with strike-hrcakers who have no local sympathizers."
 But there will be another result Ntli'At 'iV titiF HUI nave CbulIltu uDoH, Mir Van Britt put in. "rhe blanket cut serves notice upon everybody that once more the old strong-arm monopoly Is in the saddle The newspapers will tell Us about 1t tomorrow morning. Also. good many of them will be asking us what we are going to do about it; whether we are going to feh .lg ,l the old. or stand in with the graft, as our predecessors did"
 We needn't go over that ground again-you and I. Upton," said Mir. Norcross "You know where I stand. But the conditions have changed. We have been knifed in the back" And with that he gave the stocky little operating chief crisp outline of the new situation precipitated by the Dunton-C ollingwood political bribery.
 Mir Van Britt took it quietly, as he did most things. sitting with his hands in his pockets and smiling blandly where Hornack had exploded in wrath ful profanity. At the wind-up he said:
 "Old Uncle Breckenridge is one too many for you. Graham. You can't stand the gafr--this new gaff of Hatchs; and neither can you go be- fore the people as the accuser of your president-and hope to hold your job The one thing for you to do is to lock up your office and walk out"
 Upton, if I thought you meant that-but l never know when to take you seriously"
 "'fhe two engnemen who ran over the ranchman's pet COW had no such difficulty, I assure you. And isn't it good advice? You know. as well as I do. that Chadwick is holding you here by main strength; that you can never accomplish anything permanent while DuntOn and his cronies are at the steer ingwheei Ii might be different if you had the local hacking of your con stltuency-thc people served by the Short Line. Put you haven't that; up to date, the people are merely inter- ested Spectators.'
 "Go on," said the boss drowning again.
 "They have a stake in the game the biggest of the stakes. as d matter of fact-but |, isn't sufficiently ap- parent to make them climb in and fight for you. They are saying, with good bit Of reason, that, after all is said and done. Big Money-Wall Street-still has the call. and any twenty-four hours may see the whole thing slump back into graft and crooked politics"
 Tt is so true that you might be reading il out of book" was the boss comment. And then: Whats the an- swer?"
 Mir. Van Britt shook his head. "I don't know. If you had money enough to buy the voting control in F. $. l.. you might get somewhere; but as 1t is, you're like cat in Hades without