Carnegie, and you haven't got enough money to
make us break it either."
"There spoke the true American workman," I said. "I am proud of you."
"Mr. Johnson" (who was chairman of the rail converters' committee),
"have we a similar agreement with you?"
Mr. Johnson was a small, spare man; he spoke very deliberately:
"Mr. Carnegie, when an agreement is presented to me to sign, I read it
carefully, and if it don't suit me, I don't sign it, and if it does
suit me, I do sign it, and when I sign it I keep it."
"There again speaks the self-respecting American workman," I said.
Turning now to the chairman of the blast-furnaces committee, an
Irishman named Kelly, I addressed the same question to him:
"Mr. Kelly, have we an agreement with you covering the remainder of
this year?"
Mr. Kelly answered that he couldn't say exactly. There was a paper
sent round and he signed it, but didn't read it over carefully, and
didn't understand just what was in it. At this moment our
superintendent, Captain Jones, excellent manager, but impulsive,
exclaimed abruptly:
"Now, Mr. Kelly, you know I read that over twice and discussed it with
you!"
"Order, order, Captain! Mr. Kelly is entitled to give his explanation.
I sign many a paper that I do not read--documents our lawyers and
partners present to me to sign.
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