Pelle the Conqueror Part 112

Meyer had been in the habit of letting his workers run about to no purpose; if the work was not quite ready for them they could call again.

And when the work was given out to them they had, as a rule, to finish it with a rush; there was intention in this; it made the people humble and submissive.

But now the boot was on the other leg. The workers did not call; they did not deliver urgent commissions at the appointed time; Meyer had to send to them, and got his own words as answer; they were not quite ready yet, but they would see what they could do for him! He had to run after his own workers in order not to offend his rich customers. In the first instances he settled the matter, as a rule, by dismissal. But that did not help him at all; the devil of arrogance had entered into the simple journeymen! It looked as though they had got their ideas of master and subordinate reversed! He had to give up trusting to the hard hand on the rein; he must seek them out with fair words! His business had the whole fashionable world as customer, and always required a staff of the very best workers. But not even friendly approaches availed. Scarcely did he find a good journeyman-worker but he was off again, and if he asked the reason he always received the same jeering answer: they didn't feel inclined to work. He offered high wages, and at great expense engaged qualified men from outside; but Pelle was at once informed and immediately sought them out. When they had been subjected to his influence only for a few days they went back to the place they came from, or found other masters, who, now that Meyer's business was failing, were getting more orders. People who went to the warehouse said that Meyer was raging about upstairs, abusing innocent people and driving them away from him.

Meyer was conscious of a hand behind all this, and he demanded that the Employers' Union should declare a lock-out. But the other masters scented a move for his benefit in this.

His own business was moribund, so he wanted to bring theirs to a standstill also. They had no fundamental objection to the new state of affairs; in any case they could see no real occasion for a lock-out.

So he was forced to give in, and wrote to Pelle requesting him to enter into negotiations--in order to put an end to the unrest affecting the craft. Pelle, who as yet possessed no skill in negotiations, answered Meyer in a very casual manner, practically sending him about his business. He showed his reply to his father-in-law before dispatching it.

"No, deuce take it, that won't do!" said Stolpe. "Look you, my lad, everything depends on the tone you take, if you are dealing with labor politics! These big folks think such a d.a.m.n lot about the way a thing is wrapped up! If I were setting about this business I'd come out with the truth and chuck it in their faces--but that won't answer; they'd be so wild there'd be no dealing with them. Just a nice little lie--that answers much better! Yes, yes, one has to be a diplomatist and set a fox to catch a fox. Now you write what I tell you! I'll give you an example.

Now--"

Stolpe paced up and down the room a while, with a thoughtful expression; he was in shirt-sleeves and slippers and had thrust both his forefingers in his waistcoat pockets. "Are you ready, son-in-law? Then we'll begin!"

"To the President of the Employers' Union, Herre H. Meyer, Shoemaker to the Court.

"Being in receipt of your honored favor of yesterday's date hereby acknowledged, I take the liberty of remarking that so far as is known to me complete quiet and the most orderly conditions prevail throughout the trade. There appears therefore to be no motive for negotiation.

"For the Shoemakers' Union,

"Your obedient servant,

"PELLE."

"There, that's to the point, eh? Napoleon himself might have put his name to that! And there's enough sting to it, too!" said Stolpe, much gratified. "Now write that out nicely, and then get a big envelope."

Pelle felt quite important when he had written this out on a big sheet of paper; it was like an order of the day issued by a sheriff or burgomaster at home. Only in respect of its maliciousness he entertained a certain doubt.

One morning, a few days later, he was sitting at home working. In the meantime he had been obliged to undertake casual jobs for sailors in the harbor, and now he was soling a pair of sea-boots for a seaman on board a collier. On the other side of the bench sat little La.s.se, chattering and aping his movements, and every time Pelle drove a peg home the youngster knocked his rattle against the edge of the table, and Pelle smiled at him. Ellen was running in and out between the living-room and the kitchen. She was serious and silent.

There was a knock at the door. She ran to the stove, s.n.a.t.c.hing away some of the child's linen which was drying there, ran out, and opened the door.

A dark, corpulent gentleman in a fur overcoat entered, bowing, holding his tall hat before him, together with his gloves and stick. Pelle could not believe his eyes--it was the Court shoemaker! "He's come to have it out!" thought Pelle, and prepared himself for a tussle. His heart began to thump, there was a sudden sinking inside him; his old submissiveness was on the point of coming to the surface and mastering him. But that was only for a moment; then he was himself again. Quietly he offered his guest a chair.

Meyer sat down, looking about the neat, simple room as though he wanted to compare his enemy's means with his own before he made a move. Pelle gathered something from his wandering glance, and suddenly found himself considerably richer in his knowledge of human nature. "He's sitting there staring about him to see if something has gone to the p.a.w.nshop,"

he thought indignantly.

"H'm! I have received your favor of the other day," began Meyer.

"You are of opinion that there is no occasion for a discussion of the situation; but--however--ah--I think--"

"That is certainly my opinion," answered Pelle, who had resolved to adhere to the tone of the letter. "The most perfect order prevails everywhere. But generally speaking it would seem that matters ought to go smoothly now, when we each have our Union and can discuss affairs impartially." He gazed innocently at Meyer.

"Ah, you think so too! It cannot be unknown to you that my workers have left me one after another--not to say that they were taken away from me.

Even to please you I can't call those orderly conditions."

Pelle sat there getting angrier and angrier at his finicking tone. Why the devil couldn't he bl.u.s.ter like a proper man instead of sitting there and making his d.a.m.ned allusions? But if he wanted that sort of foolery he should have it! "Ah! your people are leaving you?" he said, in an interested manner.

"They are," said Meyer, and he looked surprised. Pelle's tone made him feel uncertain. "And they are playing tricks on me; they don't keep to their engagements, and they keep my messengers running about to no purpose. Formerly every man came to get his work and to deliver it, but now I have to keep messengers for that; the business can't stand it."

"The journeymen have had to run about to no purpose--I myself have worked for you," replied Pelle. "But you are perhaps of opinion that we can better bear the loss of time?"

Meyer shrugged his shoulders. "That's a condition of your livelihood--its conditions are naturally based on order. But if only I could at least depend on getting hands! Man, this can't go on!" he cried suddenly, "d.a.m.n and blast it all, it can't go on, it's not honorable!"

Little La.s.se gave a jump and began to bellow. Ellen came hurrying in and took him into the bedroom.

Pelle's mouth was hard. "If your people are leaving you, they must surely have some reason for it," he replied; he would far rather have told Meyer to his face that he was a sweater! "The Union can't compel its members to work for an employer with whom perhaps they can't agree.

I myself even have been dismissed from a workshop--but we can't bother two Unions on those grounds!" He looked steadily at his opponent as he made this thrust; his features were quivering slightly.

"Aha!" Meyer responded, and he rubbed his hands with an expression that seemed to say that--now at last he felt firm ground under his feet.

"Aha--so it's out at last! So you're a diplomatist into the bargain--a great diplomatist! You have a clever husband, little lady!" He turned to Ellen, who was busying herself at the sideboard. "Now just listen, Herre Pelle! You are just the man for me, and we must come to an arrangement.

When two capable men get talking together something always comes of it--it couldn't be otherwise! I have room for a capable and intelligent expert who understands fitting and cutting. The place is well paid, and you can have a written contract for a term of years. What do you say to that?"

Pelle raised his head with a start. Ellen's eyes began to sparkle, and then became mysteriously dark; they rested on him compellingly, as though they would burn their purpose into him. For a moment he gazed before him, bewildered. The offer was so overpowering, so surprising; and then he laughed. What, what, was he to sell himself to be the understrapper of a sweater!

"That won't do for me," he replied.

"You must naturally consider my offer," said Meyer, rising. "Shall we say three days?"

When the Court shoemaker had gone, Ellen came slowly back and laid her arm round Pelle's shoulders. "What a clever, capable man you are, then!"

she said, in a low voice, playing with his hair; there was something apologetic in her manner. She said nothing to call attention to the offer, but she began to sing at her work. It was a long time since Pelle had heard her sing; and the song was to him like a radiant a.s.surance that this time he would be the victor.

XX

Pelle continued the struggle indefatigably, contending with opposing circ.u.mstances and with disloyalty, but always returning more boldly to the charge. Many times in the course of the conflict he found himself back at the same place; Meyer obtained a new lot of workers from abroad, and he had to begin all over again; he had to work on them until they went away again, or to make their position among their housemates so impossible that they resigned. The later winter was hard and came to Meyer's a.s.sistance. He paid his workers well now, and had brought together a crowd of non-union hands; for a time it looked as though he would get his business going again. But Pelle had left the non-unionists alone only through lack of time; now he began to seek them out, and he spoke with more authority than before. Already people were remarking on his strength of will; and most of them surrendered beforehand. "The devil couldn't stand up against him!" they said. He never wavered in his faith in an ultimate victory, but went straight ahead; he did not philosophize about the other aspect of the result, but devoted all his energies to achieving it. He was actuated by sheer robust energy, and it led him the shortest way. The members of the Union followed him willingly, and willingly accepted the privations involved in the emptying of the workshops. He possessed their confidence, and they found that it was, after all, glorious sport to turn the tables, when for once in a way they could bring the grievance home to its point of departure!

They knew by bitter experience what it was to run about to no purpose, to beg for work, and to beg for their wages, and to haggle over them--in short, to be the underdog. It was amusing to reverse the roles. Now the mouse was playing with the cat and having a rattling good time of it--although the claws did get home now and again! Pelle felt their confidence, the trust of one and all, in the readiness with which they followed him, as though he were only the expression of their own convictions. And when he stood up at the general meetings or conferences, in order to make a report or to conduct an agitation, and the applause of his comrades fell upon his ears, he felt an influx of sheer power. He was like the ram of a ship; the weight of the whole was behind him. He began to feel that he was the expression of something great; that there was a purpose within him.

The Pelle who dealt so quietly and cleverly with Meyer and achieved precisely what he willed was not the usual Pelle. A greater nature was working within him, with more responsibility, according to his old presentiment. He tested himself, in order to a.s.similate this as a conviction, and he felt that there was virtue in the idea.

This higher nature stood in mystical connection with so much in his life; far back into his childhood he could trace it, as an abundant promise. So many had involuntarily expected something from him; he had listened to them with wonder, but now their expectation was proving prophetic.

He paid strict attention to his words in his personal relations, now that their illimitable importance had been revealed to him. But in his agitator's work the strongest words came to him most naturally; came like an echo out of the illimitable void that lay behind him. He busied himself with his personality. All that had hitherto had free and careless play must now be circ.u.mscribed and made to serve an end. He examined his relations with Ellen, was indulgent to her, and took pains to understand her demand for happiness. He was kind and gentle to her, but inflexible in his resolve.

He had no conscientious scruples in respect of the Court shoemaker.

Meyer had in all respects misused his omnipotence long enough; owing to his huge business he had made conditions and ruled them; and the evil of those conditions must be brought home to him. It was now summer and a good time for the workers, and his business was rapidly failing. Pelle foresaw his fall, and felt himself to be a righteous avenger.

The year-long conflict absorbed his whole mind. He was always on his feet; came rushing home to the work that lay there waiting for him, threw it aside like a maniac, and hurried off again. He did not see much of Ellen and little La.s.se these days; they lived their own life without him.

He dared not rest on what he had accomplished, now that the cohesion of the Union was so powerful. He was always seeking means to strengthen and to undermine; he did not wish to fall a sacrifice to the unforeseen.

His indefatigability infected his comrades, they became more eager the longer the struggle lasted. The conflict was magnified by the sacrifice it demanded, and by the strength of the opposition; Meyer gradually became a colossus whom all must stake their welfare to hew down.

Families were ruined thereby, but the more sacrifice the struggle demanded the more recklessly they struggled on. And they were full of jubilation on the day when the colossus fell, and buried some of them in his fall!

Pelle was the undisputed victor. The journeyman-cobbler had laid low the biggest employer in the trade. They did not ask what the victory had cost, but carried his name in triumph. They cheered when they caught sight of him or when his name was mentioned. Formerly this would have turned his head, but now he regarded his success as entirely natural--as the expression of a higher power!