Chapter XIII. The Strike

The negotiations between the men and their employers, in which the chief exponents of the principles of justice and fair play were Mr. McGinnis on the one hand and Brother Simmons on the other, broke down at the second meeting, which ended in a vigorous personal encounter between these gentlemen, without, however, serious injury to either.

The following day a general strike was declared. All work ceased in the factories affected and building operations which had begun in a moderate way were arrested. Grant Maitland was heartily disgusted with the course of events and more especially with the humiliating and disgraceful manner in which the negotiations had been conducted.

"You were quite right, Jack," he said to his son the morning after which the strike had been declared. "That man McGinnis is quite impossible."

"It really made little difference, Dad. The negotiations were hopeless from the beginning. There was no chance of peace."

"Why not?"

"Because McNish wants war." He proceeded to give an account of the evening spent at the McNish home. "When McNish wants peace, we can easily end the strike," concluded Jack.

"There is something in what you say, doubtless," replied his father, "but meantime there is a lot to be done."

"What do you mean exactly, Father?"

"We have a lot of stock made up on hand. The market is dead at present prices. There is no hope of sales. The market will fall lower still. I propose that we take our loss and unload at the best rate we can get."

"That is your job, Dad. I know little about that, but I believe you are right. I have been doing a lot of reading in trade journals and that sort of thing, and I believe that a big slump is surely coming. But there is a lot to do in my department at the Mills, also. I am not satisfied with the inside arrangement of our planing mill. There is a lot of time wasted and there is an almost complete lack of co-ordination. Here is a plan I want to show you. The idea is to improve the routing of our work."

Maitland glanced at the plan perfunctorily, more to please his son than anything else. But, after a second glance, he became deeply interested and began to ask questions. After half an hour's study he said:

"Jack, this is really a vast improvement. Strange, I never thought of a great many of these things."

"I have been reading up a bit, and when I was on my trip two weeks ago I looked in upon two or three of the plants of our competitors. I believe this will be more up-to-date and will save time and labour."

"I am sure it will, boy. And we will put this in hand at once. But what about men?"

"Oh, we can pick up labourers, and that is all we want at the present time."

"All