human
But you look as if you could do more and better work in an hour than that young bob-squirt could in a month,
gpt
Very likely,
human
You don't seem to care much about it,
gpt
If they want young men, they do, I suppose,
human
Been trying long?
gpt
Quite a time.
human
Well, the employers are a set of G. D. fools!
gpt
I don't see what you are going to do about it if they are, Carroll replied, still with that odd patience. It seemed to him as if he was getting a sort of fellow-feeling and intense personal knowledge of his fellow-beings, which united him to them with ties stronger than those of love. He felt as if he more than loved this rebellious wretch beside him, as if he were one with him, only possessed of that patience which gave him a certain power to aid him.
human
I suppose men have the right to employ whom they choose, said Carroll.
gpt
If they prefer young men who don't know how to do the work, to old men who do, I suppose they have a right to engage them. And they may have some show of reason for it. I don't see what can be done, anyway.
human
I'll tell you what has got to be done, sir, and how we can help ourselves, returned the other, with a ranting voice which made people turn and stare at him.
gpt
I'll tell you. We've got to form a union. There are unions for everything else. We have got to have a union of older men qualified to work, who are shouldered out of it by boys. Once that is done, we are all right. To-day in this country a man can't hire whom he pleases in most things. The unions have put it out of his power. The people have risen. We belong to a part of the people who haven't risen. Now we must rise. Let us form a union, I say. If they engage young men before us, there are ways of making them smart for it, the employers as well as the employes. I tell you that has got to be done.