I wish those masons in London who strike for nine hours'
work with ten hours' pay could be driven to the labor market of
Western America for a spell.
And moreover, which astonished me, I
have seen men driven and hurried, as it were forced forward at
their work, in a manner which, to an English workman, would be
intolerable. This surprised me much, as it was at variance with
our - or perhaps I should say with my - preconceived ideas as to
American freedom. I had fancied that an American citizen would not
submit to be driven; that the spirit of the country, if not the
spirit of the individual, would have made it impossible. I thought
that the shoe would have pinched quite on the other foot. But I
found that such driving did exist, and American masters in the West
with whom I had an opportunity of discussing the subject all
admitted it. "Those men'll never half move unless they're driven,"
a foreman said to me once as we stood together over some twenty men
who were at their work. "They kinder look for it, and don't well
know how to get along when they miss it." It was not his business
at this moment to drive - nor was he driving. He was standing at
some little distance from the scene with me, and speculating on the
sight before him. I thought the men were working at their best;
but their movements did not satisfy his practiced eye, and he saw
at a glance that there was no one immediately over them.
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