They could only be led to choose this work by inducements of an extraordinary nature—the payment of enormously high wages and the shortening of each day's work to a ridiculous minimum.
If wages were made unequal, the old problem of inequality would remain unsolved. For equal wages no man would lift his hand.
Confronted by this dilemma2 the executive [152]council decided3 at once to fix wages on an unequal basis rather than reduce its unwilling4 members to a condition of involuntary labour, which is merely a long way to spell slavery.
When this decision was announced, Roland Adair, the Bard5 of Ramcat, once more lifted his voice in solemn protest:
"I denounce this act in the name of every principle which has brought us together," he cried, with solemn warning. "You have established a system far more infamous6 than the unequal wages of the old society where the law of the survival of the fittest is the court of last resort. You have opened the door of fathomless7 corruption8 by substituting the whim9 of an executive council for the law of nature. It is the beginning of jealousy10, strife11, favouritism, jobbery, and injustice12."
"Then what's a better way?" Old Tom asked, with a sneer13.
"It's your business to find a better way," cried the man of visions.
Tom glared at the poet with a look of fury and Norman whispered to the old miner:
"Remember, Tom, you're sitting as a judge in the Supreme14 Court of State!"
"Can't help it. I never did have no use for a fool. Ef he can't tell us a better way, let 'im shet up."
[153]Barbara pressed Tom's arm, and he subsided15.
The court at once entered into the question of wages for domestic service.
It had been agreed, at the suggestion of the Wolfs, that they should spend their time in quietly investigating the qualifications of each member of the Brotherhood for the work to be assigned, and make their reports in secret to the majority of the court, which should sit continuously until all had been decided.
Neither Norman, Barbara, nor the old miner suspected for a moment the deeper motive16 which Wolf concealed17 behind this withdrawal18 from the decision of these cases. They found out in a very startling way later.
The chief cook demanded a hundred dollars a month.
Old Tom snorted with contempt. Norman smiled and spoke19 kindly20:
"Remember, Louis, you only received $75 a month in San Francisco. Here the Brotherhood provides every man with his food, his clothes, and his house. Wages are merely the inducement used to satisfy each individual that labour may still be done by free contract, not by force."
"Well, it'll take a hundred a month to satisfy me," was the stolid22 reply. "I didn't come here to cook. I could do that in the old hell we lived [154]in. I came here to do better and bigger things. I can do them, too——"
"But we've fixed23 the salary of the general manager at only seventy-five dollars a month, and you demand a hundred?"
"I do, and if the general manager prefers my job, I'll trade with you and guarantee to do your work better than it's being done."
"Yes, you will!" old Tom growled25, as he leaned over Barbara and whispered to Norman.
"Make it thirty dollars a month, and if he don't go to work—leave him to me, I'll beat him till he does it."
"No, we can't manage it that way, Tom. We must try to satisfy him."
"Hit's a hold-up, I tell ye—highway robbery—the triflin' son of a gun! Don't you say so, miss?" Tom appealed earnestly to Barbara.
"We must have cooks, Tom—and we want everybody to be happy."
"Make him cook, make him—that's his business—I'd do it if I knowed how. He's got to take what we give 'im. He can't git off this island. He enlisted26 for five years. If he deserts, court-martial and shoot him."
In spite of old Tom's bitter protest, Norman and Barbara succeeded in persuading the chief cook to accept eighty-five dollars a [155]month—an advance of ten dollars over the highest wages he had ever received before.
When the eighteen assistant cooks lined up for the settlement of their wages a new problem of unexpected proportions was presented. They had listened attentively27 to the case of the chef, and their chosen orator28 presented his argument in brief but emphatic29 words:
"We demand the exact wages you have voted the chef."
"Well, what do ye think er that?" old Tom groaned30 to Norman. "Hit's jist like I told ye. Hit's a hold-up."
"We must persuade them, Tom," the young leader replied.
"Let me persuade 'em!" the old miner pleaded.
"How?" Barbara asked, with a twinkle in her brown eyes.
"I'll line 'em up agin that wall and trim their hair with my six-shooter. I won't hurt 'em. But when I finish the job I'll guarantee they'll do what I tell 'em without any back talk. You folks take a walk and make me Chief Justice fer an hour, and when you come back we'll have peace and plenty. Jest try it now, and don't you butt31 in. Let me persuade 'em!"
Norman shook his head.
"Keep still, Tom! We must reason with them."
[156]"Ye 're wastin' yer breath," the miner drawled in disgust.
"Don't you think, comrades," Norman began, in persuasive32 tones, "that your demands are rather high?"
"Certainly not," was the prompt reply. "We come here to get equal rights. We don't want to cook. I'm a born actor, myself. I expected to play in Shakespeare when I joined the Brotherhood. Anybody that wants this job can have it. If we do your hot, dirty, disgusting, disagreeable work while the others play in the shade we are going to get something for it."
"Even so," the young leader responded, "is it fair that an assistant cook should receive equal wages with the chef?"
"And why not? Labour creates all value. The chef's a fakir. We do all the work. He never lifts his hand to a pot or pan. He struts33 and loafs through the kitchen and lords it over the men. Let him try to run the kitchen without us, and see how much you get to eat! We stand on the equal rights of man!"
"But my dear comrade——"
"Don't use them words," old Tom pleaded, "jest let me make a few remarks——"
Barbara pinched Tom's arm and he subsided.
"Can't you see," Norman went on, "that we [157]are paying the chef for his directive ability, for his inventive genius in creating new dishes and making old ones more delicious? You but execute his orders."
"We stand square on our principles. Labour creates all values. The chef never works. We make every dish that goes to the table. If it has any value we make it. We demand our rights!"
The court agreed on fifty dollars a month, and the men refused to consider it.
"We prefer to work in the fields, the foundry, the machine-shop, the mills, the forests, anywhere you like except the kitchen. Let the chef do your work. Good day!"
They turned and marched out in a body and sat down in the sunshine.
In vain Norman argued and pleaded. They stood their ground with sullen34 determination.
A final clincher which the young leader could not evade35 always ended the argument. The spokesman came back to it with dogged persistence36:
"What did you mean, then, when you've been drumming into our ears that labour creates all value? We do all the work, don't we?"
The upshot of it was the eighteen assistant cooks marched back into the hall, stood before the judges, and all were granted equal wages with the chef.
[158]Whereupon the chef sprang to his feet and faced the court with blazing eyes.
"You grant these chumps—these idiots—wages equal to mine? Not one of them has brains enough to cook an egg if I didn't tell him how. Their wages equal to mine. I resign!"
Tom spoke vigorously:
"Now will ye leave him to me?"
Norman and Barbara looked at each other in angry and helpless amazement37.
The old miner leaped to his feet, made his way down from the platform, and with two swift strides reached the chef. He leaned close and whispered something in the rebel's ear. There was a moment's hesitation38 and the chef turned, signalled to his assistants, and amid cheers marched to the kitchen.
Tom resumed his seat beside Barbara with a smile, quietly saying:
"That's the way to do business, ladies and gentlemen!"
"What did you say to him?" Barbara asked.
"Oh, nothin' much," was the careless answer.
"I hope you didn't threaten him, Tom?" Norman asked with some misgiving39.
"Na—I didn't threaten him. I spoke quiet and peaceable."
"But what did you tell him?" the young leader persisted.
[159]"I jest told him I'd give him two minutes ter git back ter the kitchen or I'd blow his head off!"
"I'm afraid our table will feel the effects of that remark, Tom," Barbara said, doubtfully.
Next to the question of cooks the most urgent issue to be settled was the case of the scrubbers, cleaners, and drainmen. The women who had been assigned to the tasks of scrubbing the floors, washing the windows and dishes, had watched the triumphs of the cooks with keen appreciation40 of their own power. It was easy to see that the more disagreeable and disgusting the character of the work, the more extravagant41 the demands which could be made and enforced. The scrubbers and dishwashers boldly demanded one hundred dollars a month and six hours for a working day, and refused with sullen determination to argue the question.
To Barbara's mild and gentle protest their answer was complete and stunning42:
"You have assigned us this dirty job. Do you want it at any price?" asked their orator. "I'll take yours without wages and jump at the chance."
Tom lost all interest in the proceedings43 and drew himself up in a knot in his chair. Now and then a growl24 came from the depths of his throat.
[160]Once he was heard to distinctly articulate:
"This makes me tired."
The court begged and pleaded, cajoled, argued in vain with the stubborn scrubwomen. Not an inch would they move in their demands. The floors were becoming unspeakably filthy44. They had not been scrubbed since the arrival of the colony.
Norman turned to Barbara.
"Put the question solemnly to ourselves—we don't want the job at any price, do we?"
"I couldn't do it!" she admitted, frankly46. "Then what's the use? We must be fair. It's worth what they ask."
The court granted the demands and the scrubwomen and dishwashers marched to the kitchen and once more the chef tore his hair and cursed the fate which brought him to such disgrace as to work with stupid subordinates at equal wages and gaze on dishwashers and scrubwomen whose wages exceeded his own.
The climax47 of all demands was reached when the drainman demanded a hundred and fifty dollars a month and four hours for each working day.
Norman looked at him in dumb confusion. He knew what he was going to say before he opened his mouth and he had no answer.
[161]The drainman bowed low in mock humility48, but the proud wave of his hand belied49 his words.
"My calling was a humble50 one in the old world, Comrade Judges," he said. "I came here to climb mountain heights and find my way among the stars. You have sent me back to the sewers52. I always felt that I had missed my true calling. I've always wanted to be a poet——"
The Bard shook his mane and groaned.
"I don't want this job at any price. But the sewers are choked. They have not been cleaned for two years. It must be done. I've named my price. I'll gladly yield to any man who envies my luck. If such a man is here let him speak—or forever hereafter hold his peace."
With a grandiloquent53 gesture the drainman swept the crowd with his eye, but no man responded.
The court granted his demand.
The Bard leaped once more to his feet and entered his protest. This time old Tom listened with interest. His concluding sentence rang with bitter irony54:
"Against these absurd decisions I lift my voice once more in solemn protest. We came to this charmed island to abolish all class distinctions. You have destroyed the old classes based on culture, achievement, genius, wealth, and power. [162]You have created a new arisracy on whose shield is emblazoned—a dish-rag and scrubbing-brush encircled by a sewer51 pipe! I make my most humble bow to our new king—the drainman! I hail the apotheosis55 of the scrubwoman!"
"Say, you give me a pain—shut up" thundered Tom.
The singer collapsed56 with a sigh and the crowd laughed.
The foreman of the farm brought two men before the court and asked for important instructions.
"Comrade Judges," he began, "I had two men assigned to me a week ago whom I don't want and won't have at any price. I return them to the Brotherhood with thanks. You can do what you please with them."
"What's the matter?" Norman asked, with some irritation57.
The foreman shoved and kicked a man in front of the judges.
"This fool——"
"You must not use such language, Mr. Foreman," Barbara interrupted.
"I beg your pardon, Comrade Judges," he apologized. "This coyote I put on a mowing-machine yesterday. He said he knew how to run it. He broke it on a smooth piece of ground [163]the first hour. I gave him another and he wrecked58 it before noon. It will take the labour of five men two days to repair the damage he has done. I don't want him at any price."
"What have you to say?" Norman asked the accused.
"It wasn't my fault. The thing broke itself."
"But how did it happen twice the same day, sonny?" Tom asked.
"I dunno. Hit jist happened," was the dogged answer.
"I've another scoundrel——"
"You must not use such language," Barbara broke in.
"Again begging the pardon of Comrade Judges," the foreman continued: "This dog"—he kicked another slovenly59 looking lout60 before the judges—"tore to pieces the shoulders of two pairs of horses with careless harnessing before I found him and kicked him out of the stables. Those four horses can't work for a month. We'll have to pay at least $500 for two teams right away to take their places, or lose a crop of hay."
Tom glared at the culprit.
"What did ye ruin them horses' shoulders fer?"
"I didn't know it," was the sulking answer.
[164]"He's a liar61!" cried the foreman. "He put the same collars on their galled62 necks three days in succession and beat them unmercifully when they couldn't pull the load."
"What do you say, Tom?" Norman asked.
The old miner glared at the last culprit and his grim mouth tightened63:
"Wall, you kin21 do as ye please, but any man that'll abuse a hoss will commit murder. I'd put the fust one in the cow lot to shovellin' compost. This one I'd quietly lynch—no public rumpus about it—jest take 'im down by the beach, hang 'im to one of them posts on the pier64, shoot 'im full of holes, and drop 'im into the sea to be sure he don't come back to life."
Norman conferred with Barbara a moment and rendered the decision:
"Mr. Foreman, the first man is transferred from the field machinery65 to the compost-heap in the barnyard. The second man who disabled the horses will assist in cleaning the sewers. Their wages will remain the same as before."
A round of applause greeted this decision.
The Bard renewed his attack with unusual zeal66. Standing67 before the court and shaking his long hair he cried:
"At last the climax of tyranny! Two comrades condemned68 without a jury and without [165]defense! I congratulate you. In one day you have established an arisracy of filth45 and created a penal69 colony without a hearing or appeal. We are making progress."
The old miner grunted70, Barbara smiled tenderly at Norman, and the court adjourned71.
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收听单词发音
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1
brotherhood
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| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
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dilemma
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| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
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3
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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bard
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| n.吟游诗人 | |
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infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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fathomless
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| a.深不可测的 | |
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corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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whim
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| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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13
sneer
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| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
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14
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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15
subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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16
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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withdrawal
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| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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24
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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25
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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26
enlisted
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| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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struts
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| （框架的）支杆( strut的名词复数 )； 支柱； 趾高气扬的步态； （尤指跳舞或表演时）卖弄 | |
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sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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evade
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| vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避 | |
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persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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misgiving
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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41
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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stunning
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| adj.极好的；使人晕倒的 | |
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proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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belied
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| v.掩饰( belie的过去式和过去分词 )；证明（或显示）…为虚假；辜负；就…扯谎 | |
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50
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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51
sewer
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| n.排水沟，下水道 | |
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sewers
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| n.阴沟，污水管，下水道( sewer的名词复数 ) | |
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53
grandiloquent
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| adj.夸张的 | |
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54
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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55
apotheosis
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| n.神圣之理想；美化；颂扬 | |
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56
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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57
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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58
wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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slovenly
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| adj.懒散的，不整齐的，邋遢的 | |
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lout
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| n.粗鄙的人；举止粗鲁的人 | |
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liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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galled
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| v.使…擦痛( gall的过去式和过去分词 )；擦伤；烦扰；侮辱 | |
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tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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64
pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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65
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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66
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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67
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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68
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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69
penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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70
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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71
adjourned
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| （使）休会， （使）休庭( adjourn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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