“What would you tell him if you could?” Margaret asked with sincere interest.
A thin man behind Higgins hollered his answer, his face contorted with fierce anger. “I’d tell ’im to increase our wages! A man can’t feed his family on sixteen pence a week!”
“Boucher has eight children,” Bessy explained.
“And none of ’em old enough to work yet,” the young father answered. “How am I supposed to feed them? I work all day, and my wife must be caring for the children.”
“I’ve told yo’ that we’ll keep yo’r family fed, even if I have to share my own bread,” Higgins told the man. “You can’t keep working at the mill if the Union decides to strike. We all mustmake sacrifices to make our demands heard. The only way to communicate with them is to strike!”
“I don’t understand,” Margaret said. “Why must you strike? What is that you are demanding?”
Higgins studied her for a moment, assessing whether to bother explaining himself. “We’ve not been given an increase in wages in six years! And now there’s rumors that the masters plan to cut our wages instead of increasing them. How would you react to that? We work week after week to make them their profits, and this is how we are rewarded!”
Margaret sympathized with their outrage, but she wanted to believe there was a reason for the masters’ stance. “Perhaps the master cannot pay more. There may be reasons—“
“Blast their reasons! We’ll understand their reasons better when we’re assured of food in our bellies. They don’t have a worry about their own children going without a meal,” Higgins answered, his fist punching the air in his vehemence.
“Perhaps if you talked to Mr. Thornton—“Margaret suggested.
“Thornton?” Higgins exclaimed, his voice rising. “Talking to Thornton is like talking to that wall. He won’t budge an inch once he’s made his decision.”
Margaret was shaken at his assessment. “Is he truly so stubborn?” she dared to ask. “I had hoped better of him.”
Higgins observed her downcast expression before saying grudgingly, “He’s not the worst of them, I’ll give him that. He says what he means, and he won’t play his cards to trick us into thinking he’ll change his mind, as Henderson and Slickson have done. No, Thornton lays down his position as clear as day.”
Margaret nodded, although this further knowledge did little to alleviate the sinking feeling in her stomach at the enmity between these men.
Margaret walked home from Bessy’s house much disturbed. It was preposterous to her that the workers and master—those whose lives were so dependent one on the other!—should be in such a state of perpetual opposition. There must be some way to ameliorate the deep distrust. Why could they not communicate civilly with one another?
These questions consumed her thoughts as she passed the section of town where Marlborough Mills stood behind a row of houses. She regarded all the factory chimneys cluttering the skyline. Perhaps it was her purpose to be a connection to both workers and their employers, to find some way to bridge the gulf between them. She halted her steps, pondered her impulse, and strode towards the mill.
Marlborough Mills shut down half an hour before sunset. The massive clacking looms now lay still and silent in the weaving shed that comprised the bulk of the factory. The Master’s office, and those of his clerks, were in a separate section, away from the daily commotion of industry.
The growing heat of summer made every enclosed space less comfortable, and the Master sat at his desk with his cotton shirtsleeves rolled up past his elbows. He rubbed his eyes and closed his ledger for the day, tired of looking at figures, doubly tired of drawing up contingency plans for if—or more than likely—when there would be a strike.
He let out an exasperated sigh. When would the workers ever learn to trust his judgment? It irritated him they could believe him to be withholding pay merely for cruel sport or for his own ungodly gain. They did not know the dangers involved in managing such an enterprise when the market was unstable inAmerica. In their minds, it was all so simple, and the masters were ogres for keeping wages steady for years.
Well, they would learn that he could not and would not meet their demands for a five percent increase in wages. It would put the entire enterprise at risk of closure. If they would strike, then he would look for other hands to fill their places. It was his right.
His thoughts were caught up in such furious justification when there was a knock on his door. “Yes,” he clipped without turning in his chair. He did not wish to answer any more questions.
“A Miss Hale for you,” one of his clerks announced.
Mr. Thornton turned and stood immediately, his face softened with hope. “Miss Hale,” he repeated, his heart thudding with pleasure that she had sought him out. “What can I do for you? Is it your mother?” he asked, his voice at once full of concern.
“No. No, thank you. I have come to speak about something else that troubles me,” she began, her courage waning now that she was standing in front of him.
“Will you sit—“
“No, I won’t stay long. I came only to speak to you for a moment. I know you must have much to attend to,” she babbled, lowering her gaze to the floor, away from the sight of his strong, sinewy forearms. Heat flooded through her veins to be alone with him when he was so casually appareled.
He waited curiously as she gathered herself.
“I beg you to forgive me for my ignorance in such things, but I have heard talk of a strike today, which I know you must wish to avoid. I cannot stand by and watch such a drastic measure be taken if there is no need for it. I thought perhaps if you could meet with Nicholas Higgins, you could explain to him your position,” she pleaded. “He is a Union leader—“
“I know who he is,” he snapped, his face hardening as he realized she had come on another man’s behalf. He felt a fool to feel a twinge of jealousy at her utterance of this man’s Christianname, when she had never spoken his own or advocated for his cause.
“You are sorely mistaken if you think a mere conversation will appease these men,” he continued. “If they want to usurp my authority and make the decisions, then I invite them to become master for a time to see what presses me to refuse their ignorant demands!” he practically shouted.
