Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/233

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was to remind the Judge that a conviction in the case would make him (the president) a criminal. “And I am no criminal,” he said. The Judge replied that he was if he broke the law. But the president didn t break the law. If the law was broken, it was by his superintendent, and it was all right to fine his superintendent. But the president was a gentleman and a “big man.”

‘I’d rather fine you than your superintendent,” said the Judge. “He is only your agent, and, as you intimate, you wouldn’t mind if he were punished. So I’ll punish you as I warned you; I told you that if he persisted in violating the law for you, I’d hold you responsible.”

But, Judge, he said, “if you are going to keep up this fight, we will close the mill! ” And he proceeded to tell what a great industry it was; how many people it gave employment; how much good it was doing to the city (he meant the business) of Denver; and how much money had been invested in it by himself and other capitalists.

His point of view,” the Judge says, “was perfectly plain. Money was sacred, men were of no account. If business went well, children could go to — well, let us say, to work. And he blamed me, not the Law, not the State; he had no fear of these. I, personally, with my queer