ho gives orders and directs work, and, generally speaking, he
must remain with a directorate in any business. There may be exceptions.
You must acknowledge that, McNish."

"I'll acknowledge nothing of the sort," replied McNish, and entered into
a long argument which convinced no one.

"Now we come to the next, number five: 'a voice in the management,' it
means. Come now, McNish, this is rather much. Do you want Mr. Maitland's
job here, or is there anyone in your shop who would be anything but an
embarrassment trying running the Maitland Mills, and you know quite well
that the men want nothing of the sort. It may be as Mrs. McNish said, 'a
good negotiating point,' but it has no place in practical politics here
in Blackwater. How would you like, for instance, to take orders from
Simmons?"

The old lady chuckled delightedly. "He has you there, laddie, he has you
there!"

But this McNish would not acknowledge, and proceeded to argue at great
length on purely theoretical grounds for joint control of industries,
till his mother quite lost patience with him.

"Hoots, laddie, haud yer hoofs on mither earth. Would ye want yon
radical bodies to take chairge o' ony business in which ye had a baubee?
Ye're talkin' havers."

"Now, let us look at the last," said Mr. Matheson. "It is practically a
demand for the closed shop. Now, McNish, I ask you, man to man, what is
the use of putting that in there? It is not even a negotiating point."

At that McNish fired up. "It is no negotiating point," he declared. "I
stand for that. It is vital to the very existence of unionised labour.
Everyone knows that. Unionism cannot maintain itself in existence
without the closed shop. It is the ideal toward which all unionised
labour works."

"Now, McNish, tell me honestly," said the minister, "do you expect or
hope for an absolutely closed shop in the factories here in Blackwater,
or in the Building Industries? Have you the faintest shadow of a hope?"

"We may not get it," said McNish, "but that is no reason why we should
not fight for it. Men have died fighting for the impossible because they
knew it was right, and, by dying for it, they have brought it to pass."

"Far be it from me, McNish, to deny that. But I am asking you now, again
as man to man, do you know of any industry, even in the Old Land, where
the closed shop absolutely prevails, and do you think that conditions in
Blackwater give you the faintest hope of a closed shop here?"