“You went personally to the governor for deputy police.  Why didn’t you come to me?”

“The governor is a personal friend of mine.”

“I don’t believe that I have been found lacking in justice,” said Donnelly thoughtfully.

“I can’t say that you have.  But I was in a hurry, and could not wait for the local machinery to move.”

“You have placed armed men in your shops without a justifiable cause.”

“The men are mechanics, sworn in for their own self-protection.”

Donnelly saw that he was making no impression.

“These men, then, are to tear down your shops?” not without admiration.

“Well, they are there to dismantle it.”

“That building must not go down, Mr. Bennington.”

“‘Must not’?  Do I understand you to say ’must not’?”

“Those words exactly.”

“It is private property, Mr. Donnelly; it was not organized under corporation laws.”

“You can not destroy even private property, in a city, without a legal permit.”

“I have that.”

“And I shall call a special meeting of the Common Council to rescind your permit.”

“Do so.  I shall tear it down, nevertheless.  I shall do what I please with what is my own.”  Bennington balanced on his heels.

“The law is there.”

“I shall break it, if need says must,” urbanely.

Donnelly surveyed the end of his dead cigar.

“The men will become violent.”

“Their violence will in no wise hinder me, so long as they confine it to the shops.  Even then I shall call upon you for police protection.”

“And if I should not give it?”

“Just now I am sure you will.  For the mayor of Herculaneum to refuse me my rights would be a nice morsel for the Republican party.”

Donnelly passed over this.

“I wish to protect the rights of the workman, just as you wish to protect yours.”

“What are the workman’s rights?”

Donnelly did not reply.

“Well, I’ll reply for you, then.  His right is to sell his labor to the highest bidder; his right is to work where he pleases; for what hours he desires; his right is to reject abusive employers and to find those congenial; his right is to produce as little or as much as he thinks best; his right is to think for himself, to act for himself, to live for himself.”

“You admit all this, then?” asked Donnelly in astonishment.

“I have never so much as denied a single right that belongs to the workman.”

“Then what the devil is all this row about?”

“If the workman has his rights, shall not the employer have his?”

Donnelly mused.  He would not be able to do anything with this plain-spoken man.

“But the workman steps beyond.  He has no right to dictate to his employer as to what his rights shall be.  Where there is no amity between capital and labor there is never any justice; one or the other becomes a despot.  The workman has his rights, but these end where the other man’s rights begin.  He shall not say that another man shall not seek work, shall not sell his labor for what he can get; he has no right to forbid another man’s choosing freedom; he has no right to say that a manufacturer shall produce only so much.”