employ four hundred and sixty-two workmen ... let me repeat it,
four hundred and sixty-two workmen. Their livelihood and welfare
lies in the palm of my hand; don't you think that requires brains?

HAUSER. But ...

BOLLAND [interrupting]. Do you realize what the amount of detail
and the management of the whole factory means?

HAUSER. But friend Beermann never even worked in a soap factory.
How can that apply to him?

BEERMANN. Oh, what's the use of discussing things if you're
joking.

HAUSER. Really, I can't see the connection.

BEERMANN. At any rate, I'm a better candidate than the book-binder
whom the Socialists have put up against me.

BOLLAND. Beermann has had greater experience and has a broader
point of view.

FRAU LUND. Then there's something else I heard about Herr
Beermann, that I don't like at all.

BEERMANN. About me?

FRAU LUND. Yes, I bear that you are the President of the new
Society for the Suppression of Vice. What makes you do such