sir."

"Well, I was. But even as a boy this new industrial revolution was
cutting the number of employees involved in the category each year
that went by."

"That's happened in every field, sir. Including my original one." Joe
Mauser was thinking, _so what?_

"Of course," Cogswell rapped. "My objection is what happened to the
union. Unions were originally founded as an instinctive gathering
together of employees to achieve as high a pay as they could get from
the employer, with the strike as their weapon. But whatever the
original purpose, and its virtue or lack of it, the union grew into
something entirely different by the early and middle twentieth
century. Such unions as the United Miners grew to such a size that
they, themselves, became some of the largest business organizations in
the country. And eventually they came to be run, like any other
business, for the benefit of those who owned or controlled them. The
professional labor leader evolved, motivated by his own interests and
finally becoming, in his despotic control of the union, backed by goon
squads and gangsters, as powerful a man as was to be found in the
country. Seldom were strikes any longer held to better the condition
of the individual union members. Instead, the issues were contracts
which allowed for fabulous sums to go into the union coffers where
they were at the disposal of the union officials."

The marshal grunted sourly. "Now that the whole industry of mining is
all but completely automated and only a few thousands employed
actively, there are confounded few miners not on the unemployed list,
but the union officials wax as fat as ever, what with the percentages
of each ton mined going into so-called welfare funds, and such."

He looked at Joe, evidently conscious that he had made an inordinary
long speech for the supposedly taciturn Stonewall Cogswell. He cleared
his throat and said, "Not that it's my affair. I switched categories
to Military, in my youth. Let us get to the point. I've been caught
napping, Joe."

That was an unlooked for confession to come from Stonewall Cogswell.
Joe said nothing, waiting for more.

The marshal shook his baton at the younger officer. "By utilizing that
confounded glider of yours as a reconnaissance craft, you
revolutionized present warfare, major. Act of absolute ingenuity, and
I admired it. Unfortunately, I failed to realize the speed with which
every professional in our category would jump upon the