I'm going in with him and we're going to start a plant for making
automobile-tires right in Bidwell. The tire business is bound to be one
of the greatest on earth and they ain't no reason why Bidwell shouldn't
be the biggest tire center ever known in the world." Although the car
now ran quietly, Tom's voice again became shrill. "There'll be hundreds
of thousands of cars like this tearing over every road in America," he
declared. "Yes, sir, they will; and if I calculate right Bidwell'll be the
great tire town of the world."
For a long time Tom drove in silence, and when he again began to talk it
was a new mood. He told a tale of life in Bidwell that stirred both Hugh
and Clara deeply. He was angry and had Clara not been in the car would have
become violently profane.
"I'd like to hang the men who are making trouble in the shops in town," he
broke forth. "You know who I mean, I mean the labor men who are trying to
make trouble for Steve Hunter and me. There's a socialist talking every
night on the street over there. I'll tell you, Hugh, the laws of this
country are wrong." For ten minutes he talked of the labor difficulties in
the shops.
"They better look out," he declared, and was so angry that his voice rose
to something like a suppressed scream. "We're inventing new machines pretty
fast now-days," he cried. "Pretty soon we'll do all the work by machines.
Then what'll we do? We'll kick all the workers out and let 'em strike till
they're sick, that's what we'll do.
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