hotly_]: What's changed? How about them men in the finishin'
department that do piecework?

GIBSON: Well, what's changed about them?

FRANKEL: Well, something _is_ goin' to change over there.

GIBSON: We're talking about your department not understanding the
agreement. What's the finishing department got to do with that?

FRANKEL: Well, they're kickin', too, you bet!

GIBSON: I'm dealing with your kick now.

CARTER: Well, o' course we got to stand with them; if they do piecework
overtime they don't get no more for it.

GIBSON: I'll deal with them separately.

FRANKEL: My goodness, Mr. Gibson, you got to deal with us, too! Not a
one of us understood what our last agreement with you was. It's just
agreements and agreements and agreements--you might think we was living
just on agreements! By rights we ought to have double time instead of
time and a half!

GIBSON: Time and a half eleven days ago; now you strike for double time!
Where does this thing stop? You want double time for overtime; your
working day has been reduced; it won't be long till you want that cut
down again.

FRANKEL: Sure! We want it cut down right now!

CARTER: Yes, Mr. Gibson; that was another point they told us to bring up
before we walk out.

GIBSON [_with growing exasperation_]: I suppose you want a six-hour day
so you'll have more overtime to double on me! Then you'll want a
four-hour day, won't you?

MIFFLIN [_beaming and nodding_]: Well, why not, Mr. Gibson?

GIBSON: What?

NORA: Why shouldn't they?

GIBSON: Why shouldn't they? But what's their limit?

NORA [_oratorically_]: When the workman shall own his tools!

MIFFLIN: Of course that means _all_ the tools, Mr. Gibson. You may not
know our phrase: "The workman shall own his tools." It means not only
the carpenter's bench, the plane and the saw, the adze and the auger,
but the shop itself. It means that the workmen shall own the factory. It
means the elimination of everything and everyone who stands between him
and the purchaser, to take toll and unearned profit from the worker, who
is really the sole producer of wealth.

NORA: It means the elimination of capital and the capitalist!

MIFFLIN: It means that not only should the worker own tools and factory
but should sit here in the persons of his chosen and elected fellow
workers, as arbiter of his own destiny.

GIBSON: That is to say, it means the elimination of me.

MIFFLIN [_jovially_]: Precisely! Precisely!

GIBSON