Explore "The Black Forge Mills" by William P. Chipman on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"I do not see how we can do differently. It is simply a choice between shutting down the mills altogether or reducing the wages of the help. For the sake of the employés we have chosen the latter alternative. The whole board of directors is agreed in this, so you will please see that proper notice is given. Make the time August first. " It was Mr. James Lawton, the president of the Black Forge Mills corporation, who spoke, and then he went slowly from the mill office to his waiting carriage.
"Yes; of course," replied Mr. Bacon, the superintendent of the mills, following the first-named gentleman out on the sidewalk, "I do not see what else can be done, but -- " and he dropped his voice so that the driver of the carriage should not hear him -- "I fear there will be serious trouble. Ever since there have been rumors of this reduction things here have been in a state of ferment. Hyde, Blake, Willis, and some of the other department overseers have been talking to the help, and many of them have already gotten the notion that they are misused. This reduction of their wages may prove to be the last straw, and the help may go out in a bunch."