Cavalier County farmers press. (Langdon, N.D.) 1920-1921, 1921-06-23

work THAT'S been donew ne rasped.
He does-just that. He's putting
us in the nine-hole, Hornack, and up
to the present moment I haven't found
the way to climb out Of it."
But the ground leasesy Hornack
began. why can't we pull them on
him?"
"We might, If we hadn't been shot
dead in our tracks by the very men
who ought to be backing us to win"
said the boss soberly. And then he
went on to tell about the new grip
Hatch had on us.
OF course, Hornack blew up at that,
and what he said wasn't for publica-
ton. For a minute or so the air of
the Office was blue. When he got
down to common, ordinary English
again he vas saying, between cusses:
"But you can't let it stand at that,
Norcross; you simply can't!" ,
II don't intend to-" was the even
toned rejoinder. "But anything we
can do will always lack the element
of fnality, Hornack, while Wall Street
owns US. I've said it a hundred times
and I'll say it again: the only hope
for the public service corporation to-
day lies in a distribution Of its securi-
ties among the people it actually
serves"
Hornack's teeth me in the middle
of the chewed cigar.
THAT'S excellent ~logic-bully good
logic, if anybody should ask you! But
we're fighting a condition, not a theory.
Nobody wants P. S. L. Common even
at thirty-two. You wouldn't advise
your worst enemy to buy 1t at that
figure"
II don't know said the boss, kind
of musingly. you're forgetting the
water that's been put into it from time
to time by the SPECTATORS and reor-
ganizers; there has been a good deal
of that, first and last. Nevertheless,
value for value, you know, and / know,
that the property is worth more than
thirty-two, including the bonds. What
l mean is that If anybody would buy
the control at that fgure.-the con-
troll. mind you. and not merely a minor
ity-and handle the road purely as a
.. notwithstanding business proposition,
: he wouldn't lose money; he'd make
money-a lot Of it."
"All of which doesn't get us any
where in the present PINCH" returned
the traffic manager. II suppose we'll
have to wait until Hatch makes his
first move, and I've still got fight
enough left in me to hope that he'll
make it suddenly. Punch the button
for me if anything new develops. I'm
going back to swing on to my tele-
phone.''
Following this talk with Hornack
there was a try-out with Billoughby
and Juneman, but as this three-cor-
nered conference was held in the pri-
vate room Of the suite, I don't know
what was said. A little farther along,
when the boss was once more whiting
at the dictation. Mr.. Van Britt strolled
in. Mr.. Norcross told me to take my
bunch of notes to May and then he
gave Mr.. Van Britt his inning, start
ing off with: "Well, how is the gen
eral superintendent this fine morn
ing?'
Mr.. Van Britt wrinkled his nose.
"The general superintendent is
wondering. one more time. why under
the starry heavens he is out here in
/, scrapptng for a living ,on this one.
horse railroad Of yours when he might
be in good little old New York. liv.
ing easy and clipping coupons in the
safety-deposit room of a Broad street
bank"
The boss laughed at that, and I'm
telling you right now that I was glad
to know that he was still able to laugh.
you've never seen the day when
you wanted to renege, Upton, and you
know it, he hit back. Think Of the
perfectly good technical education you
We're wasting When / took hold of you
n jerked you out here
Huh !" said our millionaire; 1--WE
just had two %enginemen 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
the spublic-be-pleased' policy, they'd
got to help it,.
The boss chuckled. II 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 & Warehouse is
due to have a strike on its hands. The
management--which seems to have
got itself consolidated In somes way
shot out a lot of new bosses all along
the line IN the through train last
night. and this morning the entire
works, elevators. packeries, coal ynrds,
lumber mills, and everything, are
posted with notices of n blanket cut
In wages; twenty per eent hat, for
everybody. The news has heen tricbling
g euar ing wires all morning; aIiil The
last word Is that d general strike Of
all g, y. a w. employees win 40 on ~
noon tomorrow"
Il a. a. ~