istle
doesn't blow as early as it used to.

MIFFLIN [_laughing pityingly_]: Whistle! Oh, my dear sir! This only
confirms me in my old idea that the technical owners didn't have
practical minds. You don't suppose we abolished you, and then didn't
abolish the whistle? That whistle hurt self-respect. Really I'm sorry
it's Sunday and I can't take you over there this minute to see the great
changes. Talk about collectivism! That factory is the most interesting
place in the world to-day. When the men were working eight long hours a
day under a master it was all repression, reserve; their individualities
were stifled. Now they expand!

GIBSON: You mean they talk a good deal?

MIFFLIN: I never have been in a place where there was so much talk in my
life. They talk all the time; it shows they are thinking.

GIBSON: Isn't it noisy?

MIFFLIN [_delighted_]: It is! Every man has his own ideas and he
expresses them. It means a freshness and originality in the work that
never got into it before.

GIBSON [_worried_]: Originality? You don't mean to say they've changed
any of the features of The Gibson Upright.

MIFFLIN: Oh, no; it's the same piano--and yet different! I almost feel I
could tell the difference by looking at one. There's no change; yet now
it has character. And those men--those men, Mr. Gibson--it's brought out
_their_ character so! They're thinking all the time.

GIBSON: They're working, too, of course?

MIFFLIN: Working! You never saw men work under the old capitalistic
regime, Mr. Gibson! Don't think that this work is the driven, dogged
thing it was when they had to. This is work with dignity, with
enthusiasm, with spontaneity!

GIBSON [_rising, very thoughtful_]: Well, I ought to hope that it is, of
course!

[_He walks to and fro a moment, then comes and rests his hands
on the back of a chair, looking at_ MIFFLIN.]

Mr. Mifflin, I went into this with open eyes. I was angry at the time,
but I had thought of it often. And when I went out I went out! Now I've
kept away and I don't intend to do any prying--as a matter of fact, I'm
only back here for two or three days--but I have some natural curiosity,
especially about certain particulars.

MIFFLIN: Everything is as open as the sunlight--no capitalistic secret
machinations. Ask anything you like!

GIBSON: Well, then, do you happen to know what are the profits for these
four months?

MIFFLIN: Frankly, that's a detail I don't know. But I do know