"He'll go back to the machine he couldn't learn
to tend properly in the six months he was there, and he'll stick to it
till he DOES learn it! Do you suppose that lummix ever asked himself
WHY I want him to learn it? No! And I ain't a-goin' to tell him,
either! When he went there I had 'em set him on the simplest machine
we got--and he stuck there! How much prospect would there be of his
learnin' to run the whole business if he can't run the easiest machine
in it? I sent him there to make him THOROUGH. And what happened? He
didn't LIKE it! That boy's whole life, there's been a settin' up o'
something mulish that's against everything I want him to do. I don't
know what it is, but it's got to be worked out of him. Now, labor
ain't any more a simple question than what it was when we were young.
My idea is that, outside o' union troubles, the man that can manage
workin'-men is the man that's been one himself. Well, I set Bibbs
to learn the men and to learn the business, and HE set himself to balk
on the first job! That's what he did, and the balk's lasted close on
to three years. If he balks again I'm just done with him! Sometimes
I feel like I was pretty near done with everything, anyhow!"
"I knew there was something else," said Mrs.
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