a force
and fire of his own, nervous, almost fanatical: when he dwelt on the
misery he had seen, and his voice trembled from the intensity of his
feeling, Janet began to be moved. It was odd, considering the struggle
for existence of her own family, that these foreigners had remained
outside the range of her sympathy.

"I guess you'll find," Ditmar had interrupted peremptorily, "I guess
you'll find, if you look up the savings banks statistics, these people
have got millions tucked away. And they send a lot of it to the other
side, they go back themselves, and though they live like cattle, they
manage to buy land. Ask the real estate men. Why, I could show you
a dozen who worked in the mills a few years ago and are capitalists
to-day."

"I don't doubt it, Mr. Ditmar," Siddons gracefully conceded. "But
what does it prove? Merely the cruelty of an economic system based on
ruthless competition. The great majority who are unable to survive the
test pay the price. And the community also pays the price, the state and
nation pay it. And we have this misery on our consciences. I've no doubt
you could show me some who have grown rich, but if you would let me I
could take you to families in desperate want, living in rooms too dark
to read in at midday in clear weather, where the husband doesn't get
more than seven dollars a week when the mills are running full time,
where the woman has to look out for the children and work for the
lodgers, and even with lodgers they get into debt, and the woman has to
go into the mills to earn money for winter clothing. I've seen enough
instances of this kind to offset the savings bank argument. And even
then, when you have a family where the wife and older children work,
where the babies are put out to board, where there are three and four
lodgers in a room, why do you suppose they live that way? Isn't it in
the hope of freeing themselves ultimately from these very conditions?
And aren't these conditions a disgrace to Hampton and America?"

"Well, what am I to do about it?" Ditmar demanded.

"I see that these operatives have comfortable and healthful surroundings
in the mill, I've spent money to put in the latest appliances. That's
more than a good many mills I could mention attempt."

"You are a person of influence, Mr. Ditmar, you have more influence than
any man in Hampton. You can bring pressure to bear on the city council
to enforce and improve the building ordinances, you can organize