The Gibson Upright Part 16

MIFFLIN: Right comrade! I'm always for the under dog.

s...o...b..RG: Call _him_ an under dog! He's a loafer and don't know a trade!

RILEY: He was gettin' three and a half a day, and now he draws what I do!

MRS. SIMPSON [_attacking_ RILEY _fiercely_]: Yes, and you're gettin' as much as my husband is, and your wife left you seven years ago and you livin' on the fat of the land; Steinwitz's pool parlour every night till all hours!

s...o...b..RG [_attacking her_]: Yes, and you and your husband ain't got no children; we got four. I'd like to know what right you got to draw down what we do--you with your limousine!

CARTER: What business you got to talk, s...o...b..rg? When here's me with my seven and the three of my married daughter--eleven in all, I got on my shoulders. Do you think you're goin' to draw down what _I'd_ ought to?

ALL [_shouting_]: "Here! We got rights, ain't we?" "Where's the justice of it?" "I stand by my rights." "n.o.body's goin' to git 'em away from me." "I bet I git _my_ share." "Oh, dry up!" "You make me laugh!" And so on.

RILEY [_standing up and pounding the table, roaring till they are forced to listen_]: You ain't any of you got the rights of it! The rights of it is--Who does the most work gets the most money. Look at me on that truck!

CARTER [_pounding on the table with a ruler_]: You set down, Riley! The rights of it ain't who does the most work; but I'm willin' to leave it to who does the _hardest_ work.

SIMPSON: No, sir! It's who does the _best_ work.

CARTER: There ain't only three men in my department out there that ain't soldiering on their job. I do twice as much skilled work as any man at this table, and I do it better. [_Shouts of "Yes, you do!" "Rats!" "Shut up!"_] I'll leave it to Mr. Gibson; he knows good work if he don't know nothing else.

[_Shouts of "Leave it to nothing!" "How'd he get in this?"

"You're crazy!"_]

CARTER [_bawling_]: Get back to business! We're running a meeting here!

FRANKEL: For goodness' sake, we ain't getting nowhere!

SALVATORE: No, and you ain't never goin' to git nowhere long as you try to work big business and privilege on me! We got to keep it like Mr.

Mifflin says; it's a sacred brotherhood, everything divided equal. Let's get to business and count that money.

FRANKEL: Well, for goodness' sake, let's get some system into this meeting!

RILEY: How you goin' to get any system into it before you settle what's going to be done about Frankel's twenty-four shares?

CARTER: Twenty-four? He's got twenty-six; he got two more yesterday!

MRS. SIMPSON: He's got thirty-five; he got nine more this morning!

FRANKEL [_hotly_]: You bet I got thirty-five!

ALL: What! Thirty-five shares!

FRANKEL: Well, ain't I got thirty-five men workin' out there?

SIMPSON: How in thunder we goin' to settle about him holdin' all them shares?

SALVATORE: Are we goin' to let him take all that money? Thirty-five--

FRANKEL [_leaping up, electrified_]: How d'you expect I'm goin' to pay my men if I don't get it? Are you goin' to _let_ me take them thirty-five shares' profits? No, I guess you ain't! You ain't got no say about it! The money's mine right now! I get it!

SIMPSON: I object!

RILEY [_pounding the table_]: Look at the ornery little devil! He took advantage of the poor workingmen's trustfulness, got 'em in debt to him, then went and begun buying over their shares, so they had to leave the shop because he wouldn't hire 'em to do their own work, but went and hired cheaper men. Listen to the trouble _they_ make among us!

SIMPSON: It's an undesirable element.

RILEY: He had no right to buy them workmen out in the first place.

SIMPSON: And on top of that we can't git no work turned out because the fourteen skilled men he's got in there have gone and started striking just like the unskilled and they tie up everything.

RILEY: I claim he hadn't no right to buy them shares.

FRANKEL: I didn't?

ALL [_except_ s...o...b..RG]: No, you didn't!

FRANKEL [_hotly at_ RILEY]: You look here. S'pose you needed money bad?

Ain't you got a right to sell your share?

RILEY: Sure I have!

FRANKEL: What you talkin' about, then? Ain't I got a right to buy anything you got a right to sell?

RILEY: No, you ain't, because I object to the whole system.

FRANKEL: You do! [_Points to_ s...o...b..RG.] Look there! Ask him what _he_ says. He's got four.

RILEY: I don't care who's got what! All I say is I object to the system, and this factory'll git burned up if them wop workmen stay here jest because he holds them shares!

SIMPSON: You're right about that, Riley!

SALVATORE: Why, you can't hear yourself think out in the shops when you might be havin' a quiet talk with a friend.

RILEY: When them wops gits to talkin' strike it sounds more like a revolution to me!

SIMPSON: Why, they're all inflamed up. They know what's what, all right.

FRANKEL: What do they know?

SALVATORE: They know you're drawing down on them shares about five or six times the wages you pay 'em. What I claim is that extra money he makes ought to be divided amongst _us_.

[_Emphatic approval from_ CARTER, SIMPSON, _and_ RILEY. _"Yes sir! You bet! That's what!"_]

FRANKEL: Just try it once!

SIMPSON: Them men ain't workin' for you, they're workin' for us. Ain't we the original owners?

FRANKEL: Y-a-a-a-h!