The Iron Heel

out. I found him in a crazy, ramshackle* house down near the bay on the edge of the marsh. Pools of stagnant water stood around

riptive of ruined a

ers of the working

invariably paid re

ouses, enormous ren

ttan-work, and he toiled on stolidly while I talked with him. But in spite of his meekness

en me a job as wa

thievery was inc

perty from everybod

lly or else legali

asses stole illegal

ormous numbers of

property. The hous

of safe deposit vau

e personal belongin

-day is looked upo

eft-characteristic

was un

the deftness with which he worked with his one hand see

get your arm caught i

ndering way, and shook his head.

ness?" I

e took notice that most of the accidents happens just before whistle-blow.* I'm willin' to bet that more accidents happens in the hour before whistle-blow

called to work and

rve-racking s

them?"

hundreds, an'

ccident was the same as that I had already heard. When I asked him i

left. I didn't stop to see if the belt was off. I thought my right hand had done it-only it

n painful," I sai

he bones wasn't nic

any damages. He had a feeling that the testimony of the foremen and the superintendent had brought about the adverse

was unable to earn, by his rattan-work and peddling, sufficient food for the family. He wa

t watchman's job," were hi

he two foremen and the superintendent at the mills who had testified, I

he next moment two of Ernest's statements came flashing into my consciousness: "The company employs very efficient lawyers" and "Colonel Ingram is a shrewd lawyer." I did some rapid thinking. It dawned upon me tha

lose the ca

birth. He whined about the testimony. The witnesses had given only the evidence that helped the other side. Not one word could he get out of them that would have helped Jackson. They knew which side t

damaging if he had the rig

on the walls of his tiny office. "All my reading and studying of them has taught me that law is one thing and right is an

e and yet was beaten?" I queried tentatively. "Do you mean to

e a moment, and then the bell

and Syndicate, of the Berkeley Consolidated, of the Oakland, San Leandro, and Pleasanton Electric? He's a corporation lawyer, and corporation lawyers are not paid for being fools.* What do you think the Sierra Mills alone give him twenty thousand dollar

he corporation lawy

he money-grabbing

on record that The

of the United States

arvard Commencement

are, many of the

ated members of the

their special task

which their wealthy

evade the laws w

terests of the publ

al

d him, most proba

cried angrily. "I've g

ration of the inte

ety. Men preyed up

e big wolves ate th

Jackson was one o

le w

e and childre

"And there's not a soul in this world except

watch and showed me a small photograph of a wo

I had hoped to send them away to the country if I'd won Jackson's c

leave, he dropped

ndship would have decided the case. And yet I must say that Judge Caldwell did a whole lot to prevent my getting that very testimony. Why, Judge Caldwell and Colonel Ingram belong to the same lodge and

he right of it?" I asked, pausin

d some show, too. But I didn't tell my wife. I didn't want to disappoint

trying to save the machinery from being injured?" I asked Pet

e replying. Then he cast an a

hree of the sweetest children y

understand

use it wouldn't a-ben

ean-"

errupted p

mills that'd put out a hand to drag me from drownin'. I used to belong to the union. But I've stayed by the company through two strikes. They called me 'scab.' There's not a man among 'em to-day to take a drink with me if I asked him. D'ye see the scars

on to blam

ges. He was a good worker

rty to tell the whole trut

ok his

uth, and nothing but the

ssioned, and he lifted it,

in everlastin' hell for them ch

t sank as I encountered him. He, too, gave me the impression that he was not a free agent, as we talked I began to see that he was mentally superior to the average of his kind. He agreed with Peter Donnelly that Jackson should have got damages, and he went farther and calle

hat had been paid my father, and the pretty gown for me and the books for him that had been bought out of that dividen

t out that Jackson received his accident through

ified to the effect that Jackson injured himself by neglect and care

relessness

o call it. The fact is, a man gets ti

d in the man. He certain

ucated than most w

through doing janitor-work. I wanted to go through the univ

ss. "I love animals. But I came to work in the mills. When I was promoted to foreman

mean by tha

ied at the trial the way I did

instruc

outlined the evide

Jackson's c

blood began to rise

wife and two childr

ietly, though his fa

er from what you were, say in high school, to the man

ightened me. He ripped* out a savage oath, and

to note the virili

in that day, as ind

ng,' that was then

e, not to the oath

used by Av

anted out of me. But let me tell you this before you go. It won't do you any good to repeat anything I've said. I'll deny

was quite unexpected, but he met me with his bold eyes and firm hand-clasp, and with that curious blend of his awkward

g up Jackson's case

me to go on, though I could see in his eyes th

I confessed. "I-I-think some of his b

d all his fellows were treated mercifull

o take pleasure in prett

st was a sort of father confessor. Then, as ever after, his strength a

the same thing goes on there. It goes on everywhere. Our boasted civilization is based upon blood, soaked in b

ll that had

s. Their children-always the young life that it is their instinct to protect. This instinct is stronger than any ethic they possess. My father! He lied, he stole, he did all sorts of di

jected. "You are s

I am often thankful that I have no children, and I dearly l

is bad doctri

is expedient doctrine. I am a revolut

d incred

se at night to steal his dividends fro

stand by the bed," I answered. "

half of men* into the houses of all the well-to-do, t

to the socialist vot

rise of this vote

he party of revol

ited States in 188

35,040; in 1908, 1,

88,

re not doing th

perilous. There will be more shooting, I am afraid, than even I dream of. But as I was saying, no one to-day is a free agent. We are all caught up in the wheels and cogs of the industrial machine. You found that you were, and that

little question about the liability of workingmen to a

y that accidents rarely occur in the first hours of the morning work, but that they increase rapidly i

orking-man? He has. The insurance* companies know. They will charge him four dollars and twenty cents a yea

olf-struggle of tho

e, no matter how mu

welfare of their f

rance. To us, in t

aughably absurd an

was a very serious

he funds of the insu

d and wasted by the

with the mana

of asking I was aware of a solicitud

he answered carelessly. "The insurance companies charge the highly trained chemists that handle explosi

my face. It was not that he had caught me in my solici

epart with me. Ernest returned some books he had borrowed, and

rs. Wickson and Mrs. Pertonwaithe. Their husbands, you know, are the two principal stockholders in the Mills. Like