not a serious danger of such moneys being misused - of
jobbery, in fact?«
    Old Hammond wriggled uneasily on his seat, and said:
    »Though all this happened so long ago, I still feel the pain of mere shame
when I have to tell you that it was more than a danger: that such rascality
often happened; indeed more than once the whole combination seemed dropping to
pieces because of it: but at the time of which I am telling, things looked so
threatening, and to the workmen at least the necessity of their dealing with the
fast-gathering trouble which the labour-struggle had brought about, was so
clear, that the conditions of the times had begot a deep seriousness amongst all
reasonable people; a determination which put aside all non-essentials, and which
to thinking men was ominous of the swiftly-approaching change: such an element
was too dangerous for mere traitors and self-seekers, and one by one they were
thrust out and mostly joined the declared reactionaries.«
    »How about those ameliorations,« said I; »what were they? or rather of what
nature?«
    Said he: »Some of them, and these of the most practical importance to the
men's livelihood, were yielded by the masters by direct compulsion on the part
of the men; the new conditions of labour so gained were indeed only customary,
enforced by no law: but, once established, the masters durst not attempt to
withdraw them in face of the growing power of the combined workers. Some again
were steps on the path of State Socialism; the most important of which can be
speedily summed up. At the end of the nineteenth century the cry arose for
compelling the masters to employ their men a less number of hours in the day:
this cry gathered volume quickly, and the masters had to yield to it. But it
was, of course, clear that unless this meant a higher price for work per hour,
it would be a mere nullity, and that the masters, unless forced, would reduce it
to that. Therefore after a long struggle another law was passed fixing a minimum
price for labour in the most important industries; which again had to be
supplemented by a law fixing the maximum price on the chief wares then
considered necessary for a workman's life.«
    »You were getting perilously near to the late Roman poor-rates,« said I,
smiling, »and the doling out of bread to the proletariat.«
    »So many said at the time,« said the old man drily; »and it has