It was about this time that I began to establish cordial relations with the short, broad-shouldered, sad-faced labor¹ reporter whom I have previously² mentioned. At first he appeared to be a little shy of me, but as time passed and I seemed to have established myself in the favor of the paper, he became more friendly. He was really a radical³ at heart, but did not dare let it be known here. Often of a morning he would spend as much as two hours with me, discussing the nature of coal-mining and steel-making, the difficulty of arranging wage conditions which would satisfy all the men and not cause friction⁴; but in the main he commented on the shrewd and cunning way in which the bosses were more and more overreaching their employees, preying⁵ upon their prejudices by religious and political dodges⁶, and at the same time misusing⁷ them shamefully⁸ through the company store, the short ton, the cost of mining materials, rent. At first, knowing nothing about the situation, I was inclined to doubt whether he was as sound in these matters as he seemed to be. Later, as I grew in personal knowledge, I thought he might be too conservative, so painful did many of the things seem which I saw with my own eyes and his aid.