FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   693   694   695   696   697   698   699   700   701   702   703   704   705   706   707   708   709   710   711   712   713   714   715   716   717  
718   719   720   721   722   723   724   725   726   727   728   729   730   731   732   733   734   735   736   737   738   739   740   741   742   >>   >|  
st in tears, she did not notice his puzzled yet sympathetic glance. "The operatives, the workers create all the wealth, and the capitalists take it from them, from their wives and children." "Now I know what you've been doing," he said accusingly. "You've been studying economics." Her brow puckered. "Studying what?" "Economics--the distribution of wealth. It's enough to upset anybody." "But I'm not upset," she insisted, smiling in spite of herself at his comical concern. "It's very exciting. I remember reading a book once on economics and such things, and I couldn't sleep for a week. It was called `The Organization of Happiness,' I believe, and it described just how the world ought to be arranged--and isn't. I thought seriously of going to Washington and telling the President and Congress about it." "It wouldn't have done any good," said Janet. "No, I realized that." "The only thing that will do any good is to strike and keep on striking until the workers own the mills--take everything away from the capitalists." "It's very simple," he agreed, "much simpler than the book I read. That's what they call syndicalism, isn't it?" "Yes." She was conscious of his friendliness, of the fact that his skepticism was not cynical, yet she felt a strong desire to convince him, to vindicate her new creed. "There's a man named Rolfe, an educated man who's lived in Italy and England, who explains it wonderfully. He's one of the I.W.W. leaders--you ought to hear him." "Rolfe converted you? I'll go to hear him." "Yes--but you have to feel it, you have to know what it is to be kept down and crushed. If you'd only stay here awhile." "Oh, I intend to," he replied. She could not have said why, but she felt a certain relief on hearing this. "Then you'll see for yourself!" she cried. "I guess that's what you've come for, isn't it?" "Well, partly. To tell the truth, I've come to open a restaurant." "To open a restaurant!" Somehow she was unable to imagine him as the proprietor of a restaurant. "But isn't it rather a bad time?" she gasped. "I don't look as if I had an eye for business--do I? But I have. No, it's a good time--so many people will be hungry, especially children. I'm going to open a restaurant for children. Oh, it will be very modest, of course--I suppose I ought to call it a soup kitchen." "Oh!" she exclaimed, staring at him. "Then you really--" the sentence remained unfinished. "I'm so
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   693   694   695   696   697   698   699   700   701   702   703   704   705   706   707   708   709   710   711   712   713   714   715   716   717  
718   719   720   721   722   723   724   725   726   727   728   729   730   731   732   733   734   735   736   737   738   739   740   741   742   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
restaurant
 
children
 

economics

 

capitalists

 

workers

 
wealth
 

leaders

 

imagine

 

explains

 

wonderfully


converted

 

suppose

 
modest
 

proprietor

 
vindicate
 

England

 

remained

 

sentence

 

unfinished

 

staring


kitchen

 
educated
 

Somehow

 

exclaimed

 
hungry
 

hearing

 
relief
 

gasped

 
partly
 
crushed

unable

 
people
 
intend
 

replied

 

business

 
awhile
 
strike
 

smiling

 

comical

 

insisted


Economics
 

distribution

 

concern

 
exciting
 

couldn

 

called

 

things

 

remember

 

reading

 

Studying