XXV
INTERLUDE
The fifteen mill superintendents of the Halket Company, the general superintendent, and the president of the company had sat two hours in conference; the meeting was nearly at an end, and Floyd was summing up his final instructions.
"The main thing for us to remember," he concluded, "is to stand firm, but not to be aggressive. Let all your foremen know and through them try to spread the information that we don't contemplate bringing in strike-breakers or outsiders to start the mills. Make them see that we mean to look after all our old men and keep their places for them whenever they get ready to return to work. But let them know, too, that we're prepared to remain idle for a year, if need be, and incur any amount of loss rather than yield one of the points on which we've been insisting. You might intimate also that if any man chooses to return to work, he shall have the special protection of the management, and that any attempt to prevent him will only call out special efforts for his protection. I want to carry this matter through without any violence. No doubt the shut-down will be protracted, and very likely I could hurry matters to a crisis and compel an early surrender by bringing in new men. But that I will not do. There has been enough bitterness of feeling roused already, and there must be no step taken that may endanger a single life."
"We're to give it out, Mr. Halket, that we will take back the mischief-makers—Tustin, Caskey, and so on?" asked one of the superintendents reluctantly.
