SHOMBERG: Who's goin' to pay it?
RILEY: Who run us into debt that way?
SALVATORE: That's the man we're after!
FRANKEL: Who's the man responsible for us bein' $17,162.48 bankrupt?
RILEY [hammering the table]: Who run us into debt over seventeen thousand dollars?
SIMPSON: Well, give him a chance to answer.
CARTER: What doIknow about it? That's what the report says. That's allIknow.
SHOMBERG: Well, somebody's got us into debt. And who is it?
NORA: It's all of us! Haven't we all done this thing together?
FRANKEL: Well, who's got to pay it?
NORA: We've all got to!
SHOMBERG, SALVATORE, FRANKEL, AND MRS. SIMPSON: You expect to git blood out of a stone? What do you take us for? You're crazy! You helped get us into this! [SHOMBERGandSALVATOREbegin shouting at each other.]
SHOMBERG: You pay me back that twenty-five dollars you got from meFriday!
SALVATORE: How I'm goin' to pay you twenty-five dollars when I'm seventeen thousand dollars in debt?
SHOMBERG: I'll have that money!
[He takes a paper weight from desk.]
SALVATORE: You throw that at me, I'll give you a little sticker where you won't like it!
[Puts his hand in the breast of his coat. Murder appears imminent. Sudden and general dispersal from the neighbourhood of the combatants, which bringsNORAtoGIBSON,unconsciously seeking his protection.]
SHOMBERG: Aw, I didn't mean anything serious like that. [Puts down the paper weight.] But I'll get the money.
SALVATORE: You'llneedit—to pay your share what we owe!
MRS. SIMPSON: I'd like to see 'em get one cent out of me!
CARTER: It ain't just us here of course; they's a hundred and seventy men outside the debt belongs to as well as us. The whole factory's got to pay it.
SIMPSON: Great gosh! Do you think we can go out there, when they're expectin' a month's pay, and tell 'em they're gettin' only a seventeen-thousand-dollardebt?
FRANKEL: And me, me, me! Look atme! Do you think I can go out and tell them thirty-five bloodhounds I ain't got no money to even pay their wages?
RILEY [vehemently]: What's more, you owe thirty-five shares of that debt, Frankel!
ALL [with vindictive satisfaction]: That's it! Sure he does! He owes thirty-five shares of the debt! That's right!
FRANKEL: What?
RILEY: You owe thirty-five shares of the seventeen-thousand debt.
FRANKEL: My heavens! Ain't the meetin' just settled it I didn't have no right to them shares and it was all to be divided even?
CARTER: What we got to do, we got to go out there and tell 'em they owe this money.
FRANKEL: I can't tell mine!
SALVATORE: I know one game little fellow that ain't goin' to pay nobody nothin'. Excuse me, gents; they'll have to find me!
[He goes out hastily by the door that leads to the street.]
CARTER: Well,somebody'sgot to go out there and tell 'em.
SIMPSON: Well, I won't!
MRS. SIMPSON: It's the chairman's place.
CARTER: We all got to go!
FRANKEL: Not me!
SIMPSON: Yes, you will! [Takes him by the shoulders.]
RILEY [taking him fromSIMPSON]: Put him first!
[They begin to jostle toward the factory door.]
FRANKEL [as they push him he waves a despairing hand atGIBSON]: Mr.Gibson, that was a fine trick you played on us!
THE COMMITTEE [shouting]: You go on there! Come on! We got to take our medicine!
FRANKEL: Lemme alone! Take your hands off me!
[They jostle out, leavingNORAandGIBSONalone together.NORAhas gone to the large table, sitting beside it, with her head far down between her hands. As the noise dies awayMIFFLINcomes in from the factory.]
MIFFLIN: What wonderful spirits! Just great, rough boys!
[Smiles as he gets his hat, magazines, newspaper, and umbrella.]
Everything is working out. Some little inevitable friction here, some little setback there. But it all works, it all works to the one great end. I'm sorry I wasn't present for the end of the meeting to hear what success there was this month, but that's a detail. The dream has come true. It's here, and we're living it! [At the door.] I'll send you a copy of my next article, Mr. Gibson. [Modestly laughs.] They tell me the series is making a little sensation in its way. Good morning!
[He goes out jauntily.GIBSONhas never moved from his chair; he turns his head, still not rising, and looks fixedly atNORA.She slowly lifts her head, meets his eye; her head sinks again. He rises and slowly walks over to her, looking down at her. Then, bending still lower, she begins to cry.]
GIBSON: Well, Nora, what was the matter with it?
NORA [not looking up]: I don't know. What was?
GIBSON: You needed a manager to do what I had been doing.
NORA: Couldn't we have learned? Couldn't one of us?
GIBSON: One of you did—Hill.
NORA: But he left!
GIBSON: Why did Hill leave?
NORA: Other people offered him more money.
GIBSON: Yes; he was the one man that all the rest of you depended on. He was worth more.
NORA: But were you worth all that you took? You took all that the business made.
GIBSON: Yes; and last year it was fifty thousand.
NORA: Were you actually worth that much to it?
GIBSON: Other men in the business think so. [Shows her a letter.] Here's an offer from the Coles-Hibbard people, out in Cleveland, of that much salary to do for them what I did here.
NORA: It isn't right; you pay labour only what you have to pay.
GIBSON: The Coles-Hibbard people offer to pay me what they'd have to, and they're pretty hard-headed men. The whole world pays only what it has to.
NORA: It isn't right! It isn't right!
GIBSON: Last winter I saw you in a three-dollar seat listening to Caruso. Have you ever given that much to the organ grinder who comes under these windows?
NORA: Will it always be so?
GIBSON: I don't know. But it's so now.
NORA: But will the planalwaysfail?
GIBSON: I think it will until human beings are as near alike as the ants and bees are. Your system is in full effect with them, but we—we strive; even in this fellowship here of yours the striving began to show.
NORA [looking up at him appealingly]: But are these inequalitiesright?
GIBSON [gently, rather sadly]: I don't know. I only know what is.
NORA: Well—I'm whipped.
[Smiles ruefully, away from him; then she turns again to him.]
Are you going to accept that offer?
GIBSON: What do you say?
[Her head droops again. Angry voices are heard, growing louder as they approach. The door is thrown open, and the members of the committee, noisily talking, appear in the doorway.]
FRANKEL: It was a bum deal all through!
SHOMBERG: Shovin' his run-down factory off onto us!
RILEY [fiercely]: You never give us no deed to this plant, Mr. Gibson!
SIMPSON: They ain't a court in the land'll hold us to it!
CARTER: No, sir; and we've voted this is your factory, Mr. Gibson! We ain't responsible!
GIBSON: It is my factory and I'm going to run it! Any man of you not back at work in ten minutes on the old scale of wages will be fired!
[The members whoop with joy.FRANKELandCARTERboth try to shake hands withGIBSONat once.]
CARTER: Well, that's a relief tome. Thank you, Mr. Gibson!
FRANKEL: That takes a heap off my mind!
RILEY: God bless you, sir!
GIBSON: Never mind that! You go back to work.
[Whooping, the committee, in great spirits and with the greatest friendliness to one another, depart rapidly. Closing the door, GIBSONturns briskly toNORA,and speaks in a businesslike way.]
GIBSON: Nora, will you marry me?
NORA [meekly]: Yes—I will.
GIBSON: Will you marry me to-day?
NORA [with a little more spirit]: Yes, I will!
GIBSON: Will you go with me and marry me right now?
NORA [more loudly and promptly]: Yes, I will!
GIBSON: Well, then—
[He gets his hat and coat, then thinks of something he wants from his desk and goes over to get it. MeantimeNORA,not moving so rapidly asGIBSON,but more thoughtfully, goes up to the wall where hang her jacket and hat, takes off her apron, puts on the jacket and hat and goes to the door that leads to the street, where she stands waiting. There is a knock on the factory door, which opens without waiting, andSIMPSONcomes in.]
SIMPSON: I don't want to detain you if you're goin' out, Mr. Gibson, but there's something's got to be settled. And the men in my department say it's got to be settled right now. That wage scale says we get time and a half for overtime, and the men in the finishing department, they ain't gettin' no time and a half on piecework and we never understood that agreement you claim we signed with you anyhow. So what we says, if we don't get double time instead of time and a half for overtime—why, Mr. Gibson, it looks like them men couldn't hardly be held back. Now what we demand is—
[He is still talking as the final curtain descends upon these three: GIBSONseated at his desk, looking fixedly atSIMPSON, NORAwaiting thoughtfully by the door that leads to the street.]