FELIAT. Good-morning. What can I do for you?

DELEGATE. I am a delegate from the Central Committee in Paris.

FELIAT. I am Monsieur Feliat, the owner of these works. I'm at your
service.

DELEGATE. It's not to you I wish to speak. This is a question which
doesn't concern you.

FELIAT. Which doesn't concern _me_!

DELEGATE. Not at present, at any rate. Will you kindly tell me where I
can find the person I have come to see?

FELIAT [_furious_] I--[_controlling himself_] She is here. [_He
indicates Therese_]

_Monsieur Feliat goes out to the right._

DELEGATE. Mademoiselle, I'm here as the representative of the Central
Committee in Paris to request you to break up your Women's Union.

THERESE. So that's it.

DELEGATE. That's it.

THERESE. What harm does it do you?

DELEGATE. It strengthens you too much against us.

THERESE. If I asked you to break up yours for the same reason, what
would you say to me?

DELEGATE. Our union is to fight the masters; yours is to fight us.

THERESE. It does you no harm whatever.

DELEGATE. Your union supports a movement we've decided to fight.

THERESE. What movement?

DELEGATE. The movement of the competition of women, the invasion of the
labor market by female labor.

THERESE. Not a very dangerous invasion.

DELEGATE. You think not. Listen. I've just come down from Paris. Who
gave me my railway ticket? A woman. Who did I find behind the counter at
the Post Office? A woman. Who was at the end of the telephone wire? A
woman. I had to get some money; it was a woman who gave it to me at the
bank. I don't even speak of the women doctors and lawyers. And in
industry, like everywhere else, women want to supplant us. There are
women now even in the metal-working shops. Everyone has the right to
defend himself against competition. The workmen are going to defend
themselves.

THERESE. Without troubling about the consequences. To take away a
woman's right to work is to condemn her to starvation or prostitution.
You're not competitors, you're enemies.

DELEGATE. You're mistaken. We're so little the enemies of the women
that in asking you to do away with your Union we're speaking in your own
interest.

THERESE. Bah!

DELEGATE. We don't want women to take lower wages than ours.

THERESE. I know the phrase. "Equal wages for equal work."

DELEGATE. That's absolutely just.

THERESE. The masters won't give those equal wages.

DELEGATE. The women have a means of fo