habits. Suppose he was proud, overbearing, dishonest, unfair, and
cruel. Do you not believe he would have a bad influence upon his
men? Would not the shop, no matter what kind of work it turned out,
become a nest of evil and a menace to its neighbors?"

"It surely would."

"What, then, would you do with the foreman?"

"I would try to teach him better. If that failed, I would discharge
him."

"In what method and by what means would you endeavor to teach him?"

"By all the means that I could command. By precept and by example,
by warning him of his faults and by showing him better ways, by
wholesome books and good company."

"And if he refused to learn; if he remained obstinate; if he
mocked you and called you a hypocrite; if he claimed that his way
was the best, in fact the only way, divinely inspired, and therefore
beyond all criticism, then you would throw him out?"

"Certainly, and quickly! I should regard him as morally insane,
and try my best to put him where he could do no more harm. But tell
me why this protracted imitation of Socrates? Where are you trying
to lead me? Do you want me to say that the German Kaiser is a very
bad foreman of his shop; that he has got it into a horrible mess
and made it despised and hated by all the other shops; that he ought
to be put out? If that is your point, I am with you in advance."