That scale will last three years and
it will not be submitted by the men. They have submitted many scales
to us. It is our turn now, and we are going to submit a scale to them.
"Now," I said to my partners, "I am going back to New York in the
afternoon. Nothing more is to be done."
A short time after my message was received by the men they asked if
they could come in and see me that afternoon before I left.
I answered: "Certainly!"
They came in and I said to them:
"Gentlemen, your chairman here, Mr. Bennett, assured you that I would
make my appearance and settle with you in some way or other, as I
always have settled. That is true. And he told you that I would not
fight, which is also true. He is a true prophet. But he told you
something else in which he was slightly mistaken. He said I _could_
not fight. Gentlemen," looking Mr. Bennett straight in the eye and
closing and raising my fist, "he forgot that I was Scotch. But I will
tell you something; I will never fight you. I know better than to
fight labor. I will not fight, but I can beat any committee that was
ever made at sitting down, and I have sat down. These works will never
start until the men vote by a two-thirds majority to start them, and
then, as I told you this morning, they will start on our sliding
scale.
Pages:
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327