STRIKE AT GORDON’S MINE 241 
loss to the Company of the coal used, the wear 
and tear of the instruments, and the interest, 
taxes, insurance, and degeneration of the plant. 
Is the Company under obligation to lose this 
money for you? . Not at all! The Company 
does this as an accommodation and a gratuity 
to you, but not as a duty. Just as much coal 
would be taken from the Gordon mine if your 
tools were never sharpened, only it would require 
more men, and you would earn less money apiece. 
You could not get this sharpening done at pri- 
vate shops so cheaply, and you cannot do it 
yourselves. You have no more right to ask the 
Company to do this work for nothing than you 
have to ask it to buy your tools for you. It 
would be just as sensible for you to strike be- 
cause the Company did not send each of you ten 
cents’ worth of ice-cream every Sunday morning, 
as it is for you to go out on this matter of sharp- 
ening tools. 
«But, suppose the Company were in duty 
bound to do this thing for you, and suppose it 
should refuse; would that be a good reason for 
quitting work? Not by any means! You are 
earning an average of $2 a day, — nearly $16,000 
a month. You’ve ‘been out’ six weeks. If you 
gain your point, it will take you fifteen years to 
make up what you’ve already lost. If you have 
the sense which God gives geese, you will see 
that you can’t afford this sort of thing. 
“But the end is not yet. You are likely to 
