"Yes, for my sins," the manufacturer assented; and he added: "They are
often confoundedly intelligent, though I haven't often found them very
agreeable, either in their tone of mind or their original way of looking
at things."

The banker amiably acknowledged his thrust, and the Altrurian asked: "Ah,
they are opposed to your own?"

"Well, we have the same trouble here that you must have heard of in
England. As you know now that the conditions are the same here, you won't
be surprised at the fact."

"But the conditions," the Altrurian pursued--"do you expect them always to
continue the same?"

"Well, I don't know," said the manufacturer. "We can't expect them to
change of themselves, and I shouldn't know how to change them. It was
expected that the rise of the trusts and the syndicates would break the
unions, but somehow they haven't. The situation remains the same. The
unions are not cutting one another's throats now any more than we are. The
war is on a larger scale--that's all."

"Then let me see," said the Altrurian, "whether I clearly understand the
situation as regards the working-man in America. He is dependent upon the
employer for his chance to earn a living, and he is never sure of this. He
may be thrown out of work by his employer's disfavor or disaster, and his
willingness to work goes for nothing; there is no public provision of work
for him; there is nothing to keep him from want nor the prospect of
anything."