'Not so sure of that; it is but a few who can make two dollars a day,
and I am not one of them. Nine dollars is about a fair rate for what I
can do.'

'That's no reason why you shouldn't try to better yourself by standing
out. The bosses must give in, if all hands will only strike; and if it
weren't for you European slaves and convicts, we'd soon carry our
point.'

The term convict is a taunt frequently applied to Englishmen by
working-people in the United States, and its introduction into the
argument did not at all surprise me.

'I have little inclination,' I answered, 'to throw myself out of work
just to enable you, and a dozen or two more, to get your twelve dollars
a week. My first duty is, to take care of myself and my family. Our boss
is a good fellow in the main, and I don't want to leave him; and,
besides, there's another reason why I won't strike.'

'And what's that?'

'Because it won't succeed. You might as well try to stop the stream of
the Hudson, as to keep up wages, while fifty or a hundred cabinet-makers
are coming in every week from Germany, ready to work for twelve dollars
a month.'

'That shews how much you know about it. In our great and free country,
there's work for all Europe; so it's no use saying wages can't be kept
up.'