“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 a campaign of public opinion against certain property owners.”

“Yes,” retorted Ditmar, “and what then?  You raise the rents, and you won’t get anybody to live in the houses.  They’ll move out to settlements like Glendale full of dirt and vermin and disease and live as they’re accustomed to.  What you reformers are actually driving at is that we should raise wages—­isn’t it?  If we raised wages they’d live like rats anyway.  I give you credit for sincerity, Mr. Siddons, but I don’t want you to think I’m not as much interested in the welfare of these people as you and the men behind you.  The trouble is, you only see one side of this question.  When you’re in my position, you’re up against hard facts.  We can’t pay a dubber or a drawing tender any more than he’s worth, whether he has a wife or children in the mills or whether he hasn’t.  We’re in competition with other mills, we’re in competition with the South.  We can’t regulate the cost of living.  We do our best to make things right in the mills, and that’s all we can do.  We can’t afford to be sentimental about life.  Competition’s got to be the rule, the world’s made that way.  Some are efficient and some aren’t.  Good God, any man who’s had anything to do with hiring