CARPENTERS QUIT WORK 75 
to the ground if you would continue on until all 
these jobs are finished. We can give you a lot 
of work for the best part of the year. You are 
sure of work and sure of pay if you stay with 
us. That is all I have to say until you have 
decided for yourselves what you will do if the 
strike is ordered.” 
I left the men for a short time, while they 
talked things over. It did not take them long 
to decide. 
«We must stand by the union,” said the 
spokesman, “but we’ll be damned sorry to quit 
this job. You see, sir, we can’t do any other 
way. We have to be in the union to get work, 
and we have to do as the union says or we will 
be kicked out. It is hard, sir, not to do a hit of 
a hammer for weeks or months with a family on 
one’s hands and winter coming; but what can a 
man do? We don’t see our way clear in this 
matter, but we must do as the union says.” 
«JT see how you are fixed,” said I, “and I am 
mighty sorry for you. I am not going to rail 
against unions, for they may have done some 
good; but they work a serious wrong to the man 
with a family, for he cannot follow them without 
bringing hardships upon his dependent ones. It 
is not fair to yoke him up with a single man 
who has no natural claims to satisfy, no mouth to 
feed except his own; but I will talk business. 
“You will be ordered out to-morrow or next 
day, and you say you will obey the order. You 
