登陆注册
5152700000029

第29章 THE DREAM OF DEBS(3)

"I assure you I'm not worrying," Bertie smiled languidly. "But it seems to me it's what you fellows are doing. Look in the glass, Garfield."Garfield did not look, but had he looked he would have seen a very excited gentleman with rumpled, iron-grey hair, a flushed face, mouth sullen and vindictive, and eyes wildly gleaming.

"It's not right, I tell you," little Hanover said; and from his tone I was sure that he had already said it a number of times.

"Now that's going too far, Hanover," Bertie replied. "You fellows make me tired. You're all open-shop men. You've eroded my eardrums with your endless gabble for the open shop and the right of a man to work.

You've harangued along those lines for years. Labour is doing nothing wrong in going out on this general strike. It is violating no law of God nor man. Don't you talk, Hanover. You've been ringing the changes too long on the God-given right to work . . . or not to work; you can't escape the corollary. It's a dirty little sordid scrap, that's all the whole thing is. You've got labour down and gouged it, and now labour's got you down and is gouging you, that's all, and you're squealing."Every man in the group broke out in indignant denials that labour had ever been gouged.

"No, sir!" Garfield was shouting. "We've done the best for labour. Instead of gouging it, we've given it a chance to live. We've made work for it. Where would labour be if it hadn't been for us?""A whole lot better off," Bertie sneered. "You've got labour down and gouged it every time you got a chance, and you went out of your way to make chances.""No!No!" were the cries.

"There was the teamsters' strike, right here in San Francisco," Bertie went on imperturbably. "The Employers' Association precipitated that strike. You know that. And you know I know it, too, for I've sat in these very rooms and heard the inside talk and news of the fight. First you precipitated the strike, then you bought the Mayor and the Chief of Police and broke the strike. A pretty spectacle, you philanthropists getting the teamsters down and gouging them.

"Hold on, I'm not through with you. It's only last year that the labour ticket of Colorado elected a governor. He was never seated. You know why. You know how your brother philanthropists and capitalists of Colorado worked it. It was a case of getting labour down and gouging it. You kept the president of the South-western Amalgamated Association of Miners in jail for three years on trumped-up murder charges, and with him out of the way you broke up the association. That was gouging labour, you'll admit. The third time the graduated income tax was declared unconstitutional was a gouge. So was the eight-hour Bill you killed in the last Congress.

"And of all unmitigated immoral gouges, your destruction of theclosed-shop principle was the limit. You know how it was done. You bought out Farburg, the last president of the old American Federation of Labour. He was your creature - or the creature of all the trusts and employers' associations, which is the same thing. You precipitated the big closed-shop strike. Farburg betrayed that strike. You won, and the old American Federation of Labour crumbled to pieces. You follows destroyed it, and by so doing undid yourselves; for right on top of it began the organization of the I.L.W. - the biggest and solidest organization of labour the United States has ever seen, and you are responsible for its existence and for the present general strike. You smashed all the old federations and drove labour into the I.L.W., and the I.L.W. called the general strike - still fighting for the closed shop. And then you have the effrontery to stand here face to face and tell me that you never got labour down and gouged it. Bah!" This time there were no denials. Garfield broke out in self- defence -"We've done nothing we were not compelled to do, if we were to win." "I'm not saying anything about that," Bertie answered."What I am complaining about is your squealing now that you're getting a taste of your own medicine.How many strikes have you won by starving labour into submission?Well, labour's worked out a scheme whereby to starve you into submission.It wants the closed shop, and, if it can get it by starvingyou, why, starve you shall."

"I notice that you have profited in the past by those very labour gouges you mention," insinuated Brentwood, one of the wiliest and most astute of our corporation lawyers. "The receiver is as bad as the thief," he sneered. "You had no hand in the gouging, but you took your whack out of the gouge.""That is quite beside the question, Brentwood," Bertie drawled. "You're as bad as Hanover, intruding the moral element. I haven't said that anything is right or wrong. It's all a rotten game, I know; and my sole kick is that you fellows are squealing now that you're down and labour's taking a gouge out of you. Of course I've taken the profits from the gouging and, thanks to you, gentlemen, without having personally to do the dirty work. You did that for me - oh, believe me, not because I ammore virtuous than you, but because my good father and his various brothers left me a lot of money with which to pay for the dirty work.""If you mean to insinuate - " Brentwood began hotly.

同类推荐
  • The Light Princess

    The Light Princess

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 三洞道士居山修炼科

    三洞道士居山修炼科

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 无垢净光大陀罗尼经

    无垢净光大陀罗尼经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 汉武故事

    汉武故事

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 新竹县志初稿

    新竹县志初稿

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 迷迭天下

    迷迭天下

    江湖一朝风云起,斩不尽几许仇怨。迷迭暗香残,世事血雨风。圣物一出西域改,利益牵连朝堂争。硝烟弥漫天涯路,红颜化作枯骨冢,更那堪情爱一夕断,生死怎由她。
  • 重生女配的悠闲生活

    重生女配的悠闲生活

    沐灵月前世做了一辈子最卑微无能的庶女,对谁都是和和气气的,然而到死不瞑目的那一刻,才明白她本不该如此,可还是做了一辈子的女配,活着别人的阴影之下。重生一世,原来是想好好给那些人一个教训,然而回头发现,那些人太弱了,感觉没意思,事实与想象严重不符,她可是个爱好和平的小仙女,嗯,她还是好好的过自己的小日子吧【找点事情做吧】
  • 霸爱之心机嫡女

    霸爱之心机嫡女

    【本文架空,非重生文,一对一】正常的情况,这将军府嫡女朱颜惜,上有皇后姨娘撑腰,下有忠仆随从,内有父亲珍视,外有显赫家族,按道理,应该是万千宠爱于一身,如鱼得水,生活乐无边。但是,事实却是,高高在上的嫡女大小姐,饱受妾室欺凌,同窗羞辱,目睹母亲出家,胞弟惨死!那天起,她收起了天真良善,步步为营。然而,当一切,似乎都已经尘埃落定,朱颜惜却发现,原本看到的,不过是冰山一角,自己以为的大仇得报,不过是障眼法!一步步寻求真相,却发现越来越多的成年往事,家国情仇。【内心旁白】妾室凌辱?我要你们狗咬狗,付出代价!继母恶毒?我要你猝不及防,有名无实!世子妃卑劣?我要你自食其果,以牙还牙!知音王爷虚伪?我要你得偿所愿,丑妇为妃!只是,这天天嚷嚷着,威逼利诱自己做交易的王爷,又是怎么回事!不是说,这战神王爷孤傲冷情,不喜旁人近身吗?那现在,这动不动对自己搂搂抱抱的,是闹哪出?【精彩抢先看】片段一:当某人自认为自己是情敌,不惜下要毁自己清白,以牙还牙呗~“颜惜,你听我解释。”“朱颜惜,是你,一定是你搞的鬼!”不同的声音,脱口而出。随着话语而下,一脸的凄然的朱颜惜,令两名男子对出口不逊的女子的厌恶,更加的深。“于无垠,你恬不知耻地抢了人家的未婚夫,此刻,倒很能倒打一耙啊,本王,还真是长了见识了。”某王爷的话,令痴恋的女子,黯然神伤,恨恨地看着一脸无辜的朱颜惜。片段二:当邻国王爷目睹了自己的本性,死皮赖脸地杠上了自己,怎么办?某王爷说:“江山多娇,美人如画,这贵竹国的京郊,江山多娇是不容易见识了,这是,这如画的美人嘛,也是令本王觉得,不过尔尔。”万分配合的朱颜惜,自告奋勇地,带着某王爷,好好见识见识这美人如画。随着朱颜惜的手掌拍起,这涌进来的如花美眷,可是应接不暇,朱颜惜回头关门的刹那,果然看到了,某位王爷恼羞成怒的表情。片段三:当情敌恶毒得,想谋害自己,某王爷出手的狠厉,果然非同小可~女子一脸无辜地“怎么会这样!我还以为踢到了什么,郡主的脚,怎么好端端地,出现在我前面?”就这样,几个人袖手旁观地,看着郡主滚得老远,而某位王爷,对于自己心爱的女子的话语,可是斤斤计较得很。于是,迅雷不及掩耳之势,某郡主就这样,直直撞上了旁边的栏杆,嘎吱一声,脆脆的骨折声,伴随着云绮的哀嚎,下一秒,又噗通地,淹没在池里。简介无能,还请看文~
  • 夜月若梦

    夜月若梦

    这是一个建立在未来科技世界与其定义的玄幻星球碰遇大背景下发生的故事。按轻小说的行文模式看大概会好理解那么一点。另外请无视书名。
  • 老婆一直在重生

    老婆一直在重生

    前男友的订婚宴上,喝得酩酊大醉的她却闯进了他的浴室,上下其手不说,临到走了还拽住一东西非说是她的!他瞅着她,仔细想了一下,同意了……于是从那天起,她莫名其妙就被前男友的哥哥给盯上了。“总裁,四小姐又去泡吧了。”“抓回来,关屋里罚做十张试卷!”“总裁,四小姐说她想谈恋爱了,还带了她们学校的男神回家见老爷。”“。。。。。”什么也没说了,这男人蹭的一下就从办公椅里站了起来。助理不解:“总裁,你干什么去?”“去履行做她男人的义务!”!!!
  • 宫斗之谋妃无情

    宫斗之谋妃无情

    尘世之中她因一根白玉菊花簪跨世而来,命运多踹却从未言弃,当他们历经磨难后终携手并肩,却不想抵不过的却是命运的捉弄。“博尔济吉特.叶洛,朕从未想过你如此狠毒!”他的目光里闪现出一抹不易察觉的痛心疾首。“皇上没有听过最毒妇人心吗。”她一脸的决绝,冷冷的开口。他眸中是深深一痛,为什么?为什么到如今她都不肯低头,难道她不知,只要她愿意低头解释,不管真相如何,他都愿意冒天下大不护她一生吗?“你走,朕再也不想见到你。”一切繁华逝去,而她终究没能等到那年最美的菊花开。叶洛曾说:悲剧于她而言是另一种完美。
  • 子夜

    子夜

    《子夜》中描写了以吴荪甫为代表的各个民族资本家,他们在各自的环境挣扎和奋斗,但最后都没有逃出悲剧下场。在这些众多人物中,吴荪甫是悲剧色彩最浓重的一个。在与其他民族资本家的关系中,他表现出刚强自信。挤垮朱吟秋、吞并八个日用品工厂,显示了他的魄力和野心;在与帝国主义卵翼下的买办势力的代表赵伯韬的关系上,他又表现为倔强好胜、冒险大胆;在与工人和农民的矛盾关系上,他又以种种手段镇压和分化他们的反抗,表现出极度的凶残与阴险。就是这样,也没有逃脱赵伯韬等对他大规模的经济封锁,以致走投无路,几近自杀。
  • 梦境归来做才子

    梦境归来做才子

    曾梦见格莱美放声高歌,曾梦见嘎纳手捧金棕榈,曾梦见诺贝尔颁奖现场发表演讲,曾梦见建国初期全民一心,曾梦见武侠世界江湖逍遥,曾梦见末世来临丧尸横行,曾梦见仙佛争锋踏剑遨游......梦想照进现实,梦境归来,传奇人生从此刻开始!天籁之音,如椽巨笔,演技非凡,才高八斗,点石成金,这都不是梦想。歌坛天王,畅销作家,国际影帝,著名导演,商界巨擘,莫正阳集于一身!国民才子,霸道来袭!
  • 救命的松果

    救命的松果

    这是一个阳光明媚的深秋,一群小松鼠坐在树枝上,每人捧着一个松果吃得正香。“啪”,松鼠爷爷的松果掉在了地上,那松果“咕噜噜”地滚到了很远的地方。小松鼠罗罗看到了,飞快地跳下树向松果跑去,他要帮爷爷把松果捡上来。谁知他刚跳到松果旁边,就看到一片枯叶下面钻出一个毛茸茸的小脑袋。
  • 弃士

    弃士

    在纷乱的年代,有那么一群人,他们放弃了自己的一切,默默无闻的为自己的信仰奉献着,甘愿不让自己的名字载入史册,他们只有一个名字——弃士。QQ书友群:612053401,欢迎大家加入