GERALD.  As far as you know?  Why, is there something you don’t know? —­something you’re not sure about?

JOB ARTHUR.  No—­I don’t think so.  I think they’ll be quite satisfied this time.

GERALD.  Why this time?  Is there going to be a next time—­every-day-has-its-to-morrow kind of thing?

JOB ARTHUR.  I don’t know about that.  It’s a funny world, Mr. Barlow.

GERALD.  Yes, I quite believe it.  How do you see it so funny?

JOB ARTHUR.  Oh, I don’t know.  Everything’s in a funny state.

GERALD.  What do you mean by everything?

JOB ARTHUR.  Well—­I mean things in general—­Labour, for example.

GERALD.  You think Labour’s in a funny state, do you?  What do you think it wants?  What do you think, personally?

JOB ARTHUR.  Well, in my own mind, I think it wants a bit of its own back.

GERALD.  And how does it mean to get it?

JOB ARTHUR.  Ha! that’s not so easy to say.  But it means to have it, in the long run.

GERALD.  You mean by increasing demands for higher wages?

JOB ARTHUR.  Yes, perhaps that’s one road.

GERALD.  Do you see any other?

JOB ARTHUR.  Not just for the present.

GERALD.  But later on?

JOB ARTHUR.  I can’t say about that.  The men will be quiet enough for a bit, if it’s all right about the office men, you know.

GERALD.  Probably.  But have Barlow & Walsall’s men any special grievance apart from the rest of the miners?

JOB ARTHUR.  I don’t know.  They’ve no liking for you, you know, sir.

GERALD.  Why?

JOB ARTHUR.  They think you’ve got a down on them.

GERALD.  Why should they?

JOB ARTHUR.  I don’t know, sir; but they do.

GERALD.  So they have a personal feeling against me?  You don’t think all the colliers are the same, all over the country?

JOB ARTHUR.  I think there’s a good deal of feeling—–­

GERALD.  Of wanting their own back?

JOB ARTHUR.  That’s it.

GERALD.  But what can they do?  I don’t see what they can do.  They can go out on strike—­but they’ve done that before, and the owners, at a pinch, can stand it better than they can.  As for the ruin of the industry, if they do ruin it, it falls heaviest on them.  In fact, it leaves them destitute.  There’s nothing they can do, you know, that doesn’t hit them worse than it hits us.

JOB ARTHUR.  I know there’s something in that.  But if they had a strong man to lead them, you see—–­

GERALD.  Yes, I’ve heard a lot about that strong man—­but I’ve never come across any signs of him, you know.  I don’t believe in one strong man appearing out of so many little men.  All men are pretty big in an age, or in a movement, which produces a really big man.  And Labour is a great swarm of hopelessly little men.  That’s how I see it.