CHAPTER XVI

A

I

FTER Treadway left her, Lola went over to where her father was sitting. Pulling up

a stool she seated herself at his feet, and leaned against his knees.

"Daddy," she asked, as he laid down his book and stroked her hair affectionately, "you're going to help Dick, aren't you?"

"Yes, dear;" he replied. "I'm convinced that the boy is on the right track. I've told him so, and have urged him not to lose heart. I shall do my best to make the exact situation clear to the Directors when the Board meets tomorrow."

"But you don't think there is much chance of their giving Dick's plan a trial?"

"Absolutely none. We all have let Norton run us so long that we haven't the moral strength to oppose him now."

"Even when you know he's wrong?"

Stewart sensed the quiet criticism in her question, and it was as uncomfortable as it was unusual.

"I have told you that I shall do my best to present the matter effectively," he defended himself; "but I

have only one vote, and Norton's accumulated influence is far greater than mine. What I have said already has caused a break in my long friendship with James Norton, but I promised Dick I would support him, and I shall carry it through."

"Good for you, daddy!" Lola exclaimed. "But it will make a lot of difference how you present it. Are you going to be firm and unyielding, eloquent and magnificent ?"

"Of course I am going to be firm.”

Stewart's back straightened, and he held his head with the air of an emperor.

Lola clapped her hands. "You are splendid when you look like that!" she cried. "Oh, I wish I could hear you when you talk to the Directors! I was afraid that you would be courteous and agreeable, as you usually are; but that would be a mistake in dealing with a man like James Norton, wouldn't it, daddy?"

"Of course... of course," he agreed with her. "Perhaps it would be a good idea for me to run over those papers of Dick's again, and sketch out what I'm going to say."

"Splendid, daddy! I do wish I might hear you talk to those Directors tomorrow! Even if they haven't enough self-respect to vote for what is right after you make it clear to them that it is right, your conscience will be clear."

"Yes

... yes, dear. I think I'll go to the library now," he added.

Lola quickly rose and assisted him to extricate himself from the recesses of the great chair.

"Perhaps you would care to look over my notes since you can't hear me speak tomorrow?" he added. "May I, daddy ?" she cried. "I'd love to!"

II

Thus the unexpected came to pass at the meeting of the Board the following day. William Stewart astounded his fellow-directors and James Norton by the energy and earnestness with which he argued for a thorough investigation into the merits of the case as presented by Richard for the workmen. Because of his sponsorship, the matter was discussed at length and finally voted upon; but from the first it was at best a formality, as Stewart had predicted. Norton bullied his Directors as he bullied his men, the only difference being in the way he did it. They had been docile for so many years that Stewart's action in venturing to take a viewpoint opposed to that of the General Manager could be regarded only as a temporary lapse in his loyalty to the Company.

"You don't understand, Stewart," one of the others said to him. "Norton has already passed on this, and turned it down."

"That is why I am fighting for it," he retorted with unexpected zeal. "I have acquiesced all these years in Norton's policies because I believed them to be right. Now I believe he's wrong. No one is infallible. Our responsibility to the Company is to prevent any representative of this concern from making a mistake. I'm trying to live up to that responsibility."

"I know . . . I know," was the placating reply, “but

Norton understands this situation better than we do. He's handled men all his life. If we don't back him up he'll resign, and who could be put in his place? That would be a very serious problem . . ."

"It is one we are likely to have to face at any moment," Stewart insisted. "The fact that we are not prepared for this emergency is evidence enough that we are not properly protecting the stockholders."

"But Norton wouldn't stand for an understudy. . ." "And I won't stand for being a puppet," Stewart retorted sharply, again assuming imperial dignity. "Except for Norton I have more invested in this business than any other single stockholder, and for the first time in my life I realize how easily my interests may be jeopardized by the stubbornness of one man. We are facing a crisis now, but as soon as it can be done with safety I propose to show the stockholders the dangerous position we are in, and take steps to remedy the situation. I appreciate what Norton has done for the business during these years, but no man holds a monopoly on all the knowledge in the world. This Company has become too large for any one to swing without the constructive advice of other men competent to give it. That is what we are here for. If Norton has reached a point where he won't take advice, it is time to replace him with a man who will."

Stewart's attitude created a profound sensation, but it failed to influence the result. He might force a change in the future, but the Directors were dealing with the present, and the present was dominated by Norton. The General Manager of the Norton Manu

facturing Company was formally authorized by his Board of Directors to make such reply to the demands of the men as his judgment might dictate, and the meeting adjourned.

Norton lost no time in sending to the committee a flat refusal to negotiate further, and gave orders to have the strike-breakers from outside ready to replace with the utmost promptness the workers who left their jobs.

He went about his preparations with a zeal even beyond his usual dynamic, driving force. He had a triple purpose now: he would show the men that he was still their master; he must beat them if he was to hold together his Board of Directors and prevent Stewart from undermining his position with the stockholders; he would demonstrate to his son that the experience of forty years in solving business problems and in meeting rebellious workmen out-balanced the conceit of youth and the new-fangled ideas of meddling theorists. If battle it was to be, Norton was determined to prove that the old methods were still the best; that capital still demanded subservience from labor; that the Norton Manufacturing Company was going to be run just as it always had been even if the war had turned everything else upside down.

III

Richard believed himself prepared for the complete failure of his efforts to have the management meet the men half way, but in reality he absolutely refused to accept the inevitable. It was a case where the desires