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Pelle the Conqueror, Vol 3

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This was the attacking side; but, permeated as he was by a sense of
community, he saw clearly that the real battle was for maintenance. The
utmost foresight and widely comprehensive instructions were required if
the masses were to last out the campaign; in the long run it would be a
question of endurance! Foreign strike-breakers had to be kept at a
distance by prompt communications to the party newspapers of the
different countries, and by the setting of pickets in the railway
stations and on the steamers. For the first time the workers took the
telegraph into their own service. The number of the foreign
strikebreakers must by every possible means be kept down, and in the
first place supplies must be assured, so that the unemployed masses
could keep famine at bay.

In a vision, Pelle had beheld the natural solidarity of the workers
extended over the whole earth, and now this vision was of service to
him. The leaders issued a powerful manifesto to the workers of Denmark;
pointing to the abyss from which they had climbed and to the pinnacles
of light toward which they were striving upward; and warning them, in
impressive phrases, to stand firm and to hold together. A statement as
to the origin of the lock-out and the intention which lay behind it was
printed and distributed throughout the country, with appeal for
assistance and support, in the name of freedom! And by means of appeals
to the labor parties of foreign countries they reminded the people of
the vast solidarity of labor. It was a huge machine to set in motion;
federation had increased from one small trade union until it
comprehended the whole kingdom, and now they were striving to comprehend
the laboring populations of the whole world, in order to win them over
as confederates in the campaign. And men who had risen from the masses
and were still sharing the same conditions, were managing all this! They
had kept step with the rapid growth of the movement, and they were still
growing.

The feeling that they were well prepared inspired them with courage and
the prospect of a favorable result. From the country offers of
employment for the locked-out workers daily reached the central office.
Money was sent too--and assistance in the form of provisions; and many
families outside the capital offered to take in the children of
unemployed parents. Remittances of money came from abroad, and the
liberal circles of the capital sympathized with the workers; and in the
workers' quarter of the city shopkeepers and publicans began to collect
for the Federation.

The workers displayed an extraordinary readiness to undergo sacrifices.
Books of coupons were circulated everywhere in the workshops, and
thousands of workers gave each week a fourth part of their modest wages.
The locked-out workers left their work with magnificent courage; the
sense of community made them heroic. Destitute though they were as a
result of the hard winter, they agreed, during the first two weeks, to
do without assistance. Many of them spared the treasury altogether,
helping themselves as well as they could, seeking a little private
employment, or going out into the country to work on the land. The young
unmarried men went abroad.

The employers did what they could to cope with all these shifts. They
forbade the merchants and contractors to supply those who worked at home
on their own account with materials for their work; and secret agents
were despatched all over the country to the small employers and the
farmers, in order to prejudice them against the locked-out workers; and
the frontier of the country was covered with placards.

Their intention was obvious enough--an iron ring was to be drawn round
the workers, and once imprisoned therein they could do nothing but keep
starvation at bay until they had had enough, and surrendered. This
knowledge increased their resistance. They were lean with wandering
through the wilderness, but they were just in the mood for a fight. Many
of them had not until now understood the entire bearings of the
campaign; the new ideas had been stirring within them, but in a
fragmentary and isolated condition--as an expression of a dumb feeling
that the promised land was at hand at last. Often it was just one single
word that had fixed itself in their minds, and had to serve to express
the whole position. Any one might approach them with plausible arguments
and strike it from under them, and shatter the theory to which they had
clung; but faith itself remained, and the far-reaching concord; deep in
their hearts was the dim, immovable knowledge that they were chosen to
enter into the time of promise.

And now everything was gradually becoming plain to them. The battle shed
light both backward and forward. It illumined their existence in all its
harshness. Life was the same as it had always been, but now it was
revealed so plainly that all could see it. All the many whips and scorns
of life had been bound together in one vast scourge--the scourge of
famine--which was to drive them back into the midst of poverty! Want was
to be set upon them in its compactest form! This was the last, most
extreme weapon; it confirmed them in the certainty that they were now on
the right track, and near the goal. The night was always darkest before
the break of day!

There were all sorts of things that they could understand now. People
used to go about saying that the Germans were the hereditary enemy, and
that the Fatherland was taking the lead of all other countries. But now
the employers were sending to Germany for troops of hirelings, and were
employing them to drive their own countrymen into a state of poverty.
All that talk about patriotic feeling had been only fine words! There
were only two nations--the oppressors and the oppressed!

That was how things appeared on closer inspection! One could never be
very sure of what those above one told one--and yet all teaching came
from them! A brave lot the clergy were--they knew very well which master
they had to serve! No, the people ought to have had their own schools,
where the children would learn the new ideas instead of religion and
patriotism! Then there would long ago have been an end of the curse of
poverty! So they profited by the campaign and their compulsory idleness
in order to think things over, and to endeavor to solve all manner of
problems.

The specter of hunger presently began to go from house to house, but the
result was not what was expected; it awakened only hatred and defiance.
It was precisely in this direction that they were invincible! In the
course of time they had learned to suffer--they had learned nothing more
thoroughly; and this came to their help now. They had an inexhaustible
fund to draw upon, from which they could derive their strength to
resist; they were not to be defeated. Weren't they nearly ready to
surrender? Very well--another thousand workers on the streets! But the
distress, to all appearance, became no greater than before; they had
learned to endure their privations in decency--that was their share in
the increasing culture. One saw no obtrusive signs of want; they
compromised with it in secret, and appeared full of courage. This
weakened the faith of their opponents in the infallible nature of their
means.

They even adopted hunger as their own weapon, boycotting the employers
and their dependents, striking the enemy a blow they were familiar with!
Many a great employer's door was marked with a cross, and all behind it
were doomed to ruin.

It was as though the courage of the people increased in proportion as
famine threatened them more closely. No one could tell how long this
would last; but they would make hay as long as the sun shone! Their
clothes were still tidy, and in the early spring there were many
excursions; the people went forth singing, with banners at their head,
and singing they came home.

This was the first time they had ever enjoyed their freedom, although
there was work enough to be done--it was their first holiday! As they
held the whip hand through their purchasing capacity, they boycotted all
the business concerns of their own quarter which did not array
themselves on the side of the workers. Their hatred was aroused; it was
"for us or against us"; all must declare themselves by taking sides. The
small shopkeepers concealed their convictions--if they had any--and
rivalled one another in friendliness toward the workers. On their
counters lay books of coupons for those who would contribute to the
funds, and some of them gave a percentage of their own takings. There
was plenty of time to keep a strict eye on such; the people's hatred was
aroused at last, and it grew more and more bitter.

The leaders held back and counselled prudence. But there was something
intoxicating in this battle for bare life--and for happiness! Something
that went to the head and tempted them to hazard all on the cast of the
dice. The leaders had given great attention to the problem of
restricting the number of idle hands--it was difficult for them to
procure sufficient funds. But those workers who still had work to do
forsook it, in order to join themselves, in blind solidarity, to their
locked-out comrades. They thought it was required of them!

One day the masons made an unexpected demand that an hour should be
struck off the day's work. They received a refusal. But that evening
they knocked off at six instead of seven. The men were unreasonable: to
demand shorter hours in the slack season following on a hard winter!

This move took the leaders by surprise. They feared that it might
diminish the general sympathy for the workers. It surprised them
particularly that the prudent and experienced Stolpe had not opposed
this demand. As president of the organization for many years, he had
great influence over the men; he must try to persuade them to go to work
again. Pelle opened negotiations with him.

"That is not my business," Stolpe replied. "I did not propose the
cessation of work, but at the general meeting the majority was in favor
of it--and with that there's no more to be said. I don't oppose my
comrades."

"But that's perverse of you," said Pelle. "You are the responsible
person, and your trade has the most favorable conditions of labor--and
you ought to remember the conflict in which we are engaged."

"Yes, the conflict! Of course we thought of it. And you are right, I
have a good and comfortable home, because my craft is in a good
position; and we masons have obtained good conditions, and we earn good
money. But are we to enjoy ourselves and look on while the others are
fighting for dry bread? No, we are with them when it comes to a fight!"

"But the support you were giving--it was ten thousand kroner a week, and
now we shall have to do without it! Your action may have incalculable
consequences for us. You must put an end to this, father-in-law! You
must see that the majority doesn't have its way."

"That would be diplomatic, wouldn't it? But you seem anxious to side
with our opponents! We hold the suffrage in honor, and it is the
suffrage that is to reform society. If once one begins to meddle with
the voting-papers!--"

"But that isn't necessary in the least! The people aren't really clear
as to what they are doing--you can't expect any quickness of perception
from them! You could demand a fresh vote--if I could first have a talk
with them about the campaign!"

"So you think we couldn't see what we were doing!" replied Stolpe, much
offended. "But we can accept the consequences--we can do that! And you
want to get up on the platform and talk them silly, and then they are to
vote the other way round! No, no nonsense here! They voted according to
their convictions--and with that the matter's settled, whether it's
right or wrong! It won't be altered!"

Pelle had to give in; the old man was not to be moved from his point of
view. The masons increased the unemployed by a few thousand men.

The employers profited by this aggression, which represented them to the
public in a favorable aspect, in order to strike a decisive blow. The
universal lock-out was declared.




XXX


At home matters were going badly with Pelle. They had not yet recovered
from the winter when he was drawn into the conflict; and the
preparations for his new position had plunged them into debt. Pelle
received the same relief as the other locked-out workers--ten to twelve
kroner a week--and out of this Ellen had to provide them with food and
firing. She thought he ought, as leader, to receive more than the
others, but Pelle did not wish to enjoy other conditions than those
allotted to the rest.

When he came home, thoroughly exhausted after his strenuous day, he was
met by Ellen's questioning eyes. She said nothing, but her eyes
obstinately repeated the same question day after day. It was as though
they asked him: "Well, have you found employment?" This irritated him,
for she knew perfectly well that he was not looking for work, that there
was none to look for. She knew what the situation was as well as he did,
but she persistently behaved as though she knew nothing of all that he
and his comrades were endeavoring to achieve, and when he turned the
conversation on to that subject she preserved a stubborn silence; she
did not wish to hear anything about it.

When the heat of battle rose to Pelle's head, there was no one with whom
he would rather have shared his opinions and his plans of campaign. In
other directions she had urged him on, and he had felt this as a
confirmation and augmentation of his own being; but now she was silent.
She had him and her home and the children, and all else besides was
nothing to her. She had shared the privations of the winter with him and
had done so cheerfully; they were undeserved. But now he could get work
whenever he wished. She had resumed her dumb opposition, and this had an
oppressive effect upon him; it took something from the joy of battle.

When he reached home and related what had been said and done during the
day, he addressed himself to Lasse. She moved about the home immersed in
her own cares, as though she were dumb; and she would suddenly interrupt
his conversation with the statement that this or that was lacking. So he
weaned himself from his communicative habits, and carried on all his
work away from home. If there was writing to be done, or if he had
negotiations to accomplish, he selected some tavern where he would be
free of her constraining presence. He avoided telling her of his post of
confidence, and although she could not help hearing about it when away
from home she behaved as if she knew nothing. For her he was still
merely Pelle the working-man, who shirked supporting his wife and
children. This obstinate attitude pained him; and the bitterness of his
home life made him throw himself with greater energy into the struggle.
He became a hard and dangerous opponent.

Lasse used to gaze at them unhappily. He would willingly have
intervened, but he did not know how to set about it; and he felt himself
superfluous. Every day he donned his old clothes and went out in order
to offer his services as casual laborer, but there were plenty of idle
hands younger than his. And he was afraid of obtaining employment that
might take the bread out of other folks' mouths. He could not understand
the campaign, and he found it difficult to understand what was forbidden
ground; but for Pelle he felt an unconditional respect. If the lad said
this or the other, then it was right; even if one had to go hungry for
it--the lad was appointed to some special end.

One day he silently left the house; Pelle scarcely noticed it, so
absorbed was he. "He must have gone back to the old clothes woman at the
'Ark,'" he thought; "it's by no means amusing here."

Pelle had charge of the external part of the campaign; he knew nothing
of bookkeeping or administration, but simply threw himself into the
fight. Even as a child of eight he had been faced with the problem of
mastering life by his own means, and he had accomplished it, and this he
profited by now. He enjoyed the confidence of the masses; his speech
sounded natural to them, so that they believed in him even when they did
not understand him. If there was any one who did not wish to follow
where Pelle led, he had to go just the same; there was no time just now
for lengthy argument; where civil words didn't answer he took more
energetic means.

The campaign consisted in the first place of the federation of the
masses, and Pelle was continually away from home; wherever anything was
afoot, there he put in an appearance. He had inaugurated a huge parade,
every morning all the locked-out workers reported themselves at various
stations in the city, and there the roll was called, every worker being
entered according to his Union. By means of this vast daily roll-call of
nearly forty thousand men it was possible to discover which of them had
deserted in order to act as strike-breakers. A few were always absent,
and those who had a good excuse had to establish it in order to draw
their strike-pay. Pelle was now here, now there, and always unexpected,
acting on impulse as he did. "Lightning Pelle," they called him, on
account of the suddenness of his movements. His actions were not based
upon long deliberations; nevertheless, he had a radical comprehension of
the entire movement; one thing grew out of another, naturally, until the
whole was more than any conscious intelligence could comprehend. And
Pelle grew with it, and by virtue of his impulsiveness was a summary of
it all.

There was plenty to be done; at the roll-call all those who failed to
attend had to be entered, and those who knew anything about them must
give information. This man had gone abroad; that one had gone into the
country, to look for work; so far, so good. If any fell away and acted
as strike-breaker, instructions were immediately given for his
punishment. In this way Pelle kept the ranks closed. There were many
weak elements among them--degenerate, ignorant fellows who didn't
understand the importance of the movement, but a strong controlling hand
and unfailing justice made it a serious matter for them to break away.

At the outset he had organized with Stolpe's assistance a large body of
the best workers as pickets or watchmen. These were zealous, fanatical
members of the various trades, who had taken part in the organization of
their own professional organization, and knew every individual member
thereof. They stationed themselves early in the morning in the
neighborhood of the various places of employment, marking those who went
to work there and doing their best to prevent them. They were in
constant conflict with the police, who put every possible obstacle in
their way.

Morten he met repeatedly. Privation had called him out of his
retirement. He did not believe that the campaign would lead to better
conditions, and on that account he took no part in it. But want he knew
as did no other; his insight in that direction was mysteriously keen.
The distribution of relief in the form of provisions could not have been
entrusted to better hands. He superintended the whole business of
distribution, but what he liked best was to stand, knife in hand,
cutting up pork for the families of locked-out workers. The portions
were strictly weighed; none the less, the women always thronged about
him. There was a blessing in that faint smile of his--they felt sure
his portions were the biggest!

Morten and Pelle were in disagreement on almost every point. Even now,
when everything depended on a strict cohesion, Morten could never be
trusted to behave with severity. "Remember, they aren't of age yet," he
would say continually. And it could not be gainsaid that there were many
to whom the conflict was unintelligible--they understood nothing of it,
although otherwise they were thoughtful and intelligent enough. These
were mostly people who had come in from the provinces at a somewhat
advanced age; indeed some had been small employers there. For them
trades unionism was a sort of lynch law, and they profited by the strike
in all simplicity in order to obtain well-paid employment. When they
were reviled as strikebreakers or "gentlemen," they laughed like little
children who are threatened with a revolver. Slow-witted as they were,
in this respect, they took the consequences to heart, although they
could not see the reason for them. These must be compelled to obey.

The iron industry was doing its utmost to keep going, as a trade which
must fulfill its contracted engagements, under penalty of seeing the
business fall into foreign hands. This industry had if possible to be
disabled. The pickets were at work, and _The Working Man_ published
the names and addresses of the strike-breakers. When these left the
factory they encountered a crowd of people who treated them with scorn
and contempt; they had to be escorted by the police. But the resentment
aroused by their treachery followed them home even to the barracks they
lived in. The wives and children of the locked-out workers resumed the
battle and carried on hostilities against the families of the strike-
breakers, so that they had to move. One saw them of a night, with all
their possessions on a handcart, trudging away to seek a new home under
cover of the darkness. But the day revealed them, and again they were
fugitives, until the police took them in hand and found lodging for
them.

One day a large factory by the North Bridge resumed operations with the
help of foreign labor and strike-breakers. Pelle set to work to prepare
a warm reception for the workers when they went homeward, but in the
course of the day a policeman who was friendly to the workers tipped him
the wink that two hundred police would be concealed in a neighboring
school, ready for the workers' departure.

In the afternoon people began to collect--unemployed workers, poor
women, and children. They came early, for it well might be that the
workers would be released an hour before their time, in order to avoid a
clash, and they were missing nothing by waiting there. Finally several
thousand people stood before the gates of the factory, and the police
were moving to and fro through the crowd, which stood many men deep, but
they had to give up the effort to drive them asunder. The street urchins
began to make an uproar, and to egg the watchers on. They felt the need
of warming themselves a little, so they gradually began to bait the
police.

"Hullo, there!" suddenly shouted a mighty voice. "In the school over
there are two hundred police, waiting for us to make a disturbance, so
that they can come and use their truncheons on us. Hadn't we better
leave them where they are? I think it's quite as well they should go
back to school for a time!" "Hurrah!" they cried. "Hurrah! Long live
'Lightning'!" A movement went through the crowd. "That's Pelle!" The
whisper passed from mouth to mouth, and the women stood on tiptoe to see
him.

Pelle and Stolpe were standing against a wall, surrounded by a few dozen
pickets. The police went up to them and reprimanded them. They had
orders to hinder the picketing, but they had no desire to meddle with
Pelle. They lived in the workers' quarter, were at home there, and a
word from him would make the city impossible for them.

The usual time for stopping work came round, but the workers were not
released from the factory. The crowd used its wits to keep itself warm;
punning remarks concerning strike-breakers and capitalists buzzed
through the air. But suddenly an alarm ran through the crowd. The street
urchins, who are always the first to know everything, were whistling
between their fingers and running down the side streets. Then the crowd
began to move, and the police followed at a quick march, keeping to the
middle of the street. The factory had discharged the workers by a back
door. They were moving down Guldberg Street by now, disheartened and
with never a glance behind them, while a whole escort of police
accompanied them. They were soon overtaken and brought home to the
accompaniment of a sinister concert, which now and again was interrupted
by cries of, "Three cheers for the gentlemen!"

The pickets walked in a long file, close to the procession, zealously
occupied in noting each individual worker, while Pelle moved in the
midst of the crowd, endeavoring to prevent over-hasty action. There was
need to be careful. Several men were still in prison because during the
winter they had come to blows with the strike-breakers, and the police
had received stringent orders from the authorities. The press of the
propertied classes was daily calling for stricter measures, demanding
that every meeting in the streets, and especially before the gates of a
factory, should be broken up by the police.

Now and then a strike-breaker parted from the squad and ran into the
door of his dwelling, followed by a long whistle.

Among the workers was a solitary, elderly man, still powerful, whom
Pelle recognized. He kept at the extreme edge of the police, walking
heavily, with bowed head, along the pavement close to the houses. His
hair was quite gray, and his gait was almost crippled. This was Mason
Hansen, Stolpe's old comrade and fellow-unionist, whom Pelle had
interviewed in the winter, in the hope of persuading him to refrain from
strikebreaking.

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