vous, almost fanatical: when he dwelt on the misery he had
seen, and his voice trembled from the intensity of his feeling, Janet
began to be moved. It was odd, considering the struggle for existence of
her own family, that these foreigners had remained outside the range of
her sympathy.

"I guess you'll find," Ditmar had interrupted peremptorily, "I guess
you'll find, if you look up the savings banks statistics, these people
have got millions tucked away. And they send a lot of it to the other
side, they go back themselves, and though they live like cattle, they
manage to buy land. Ask the real estate men. Why, I could show you a
dozen who worked in the mills a few years ago and are capitalists
to-day."

"I don't doubt it, Mr. Ditmar," Siddons gracefully conceded. "But what
does it prove? Merely the cruelty of an economic system based on ruthless
competition. The great majority who are unable to survive the test pay
the price. And the community also pays the price, the state and nation
pay it. And we have this misery on our consciences. I've no doubt you
could show me some who have grown rich, but if you would let me I could
take you to families in desperate want, living in rooms too dark to read
in at midday in clear weather, where the husband doesn't get more than
seven dollars a week when the mills are running full time, where the
woman has to look out for the children and work for the lodgers, and even
with lodgers they get into debt, and the woman has to go into the mills
to earn money for winter clothing. I've seen enough instances of this
kind to offset the savings bank argument. And even then, when you have a
family where the wife and older children work, where the babies are put
out to board, where there are three and four lodgers in a room, why do
you suppose they live that way? Isn't it in the hope of freeing
themselves ultimately from these very conditions? And aren't these
conditions a disgrace to Hampton and America?"

"Well, what am I to do about it?" Ditmar demanded.

"I see that these operatives have comfortable and healthful surroundings
in the mill, I've spent money to put in the latest appliances. That's
more than a good many mills I could mention attempt."

"You are a person of influence, Mr. Ditmar, you have more influence than
any man in Hampton. You can bring pressure to bear on the city council to
enforce and improve the building ordinances, you can organize a campaign
of public opinion aga