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Strife 203
less to gain by striking? Is there a man of you that had
more to lose? Is there a man among you who has given
up eight hundred pounds since this trouble began?
Come, now, is there? How much has Thomas given up
ten pounds or five or what? You listened to him,
and what had he to say?
"
None can pretend," he said,
"
that I m not a believer in principle but when Nature
says : No further, tes going against Nature !
"
I
tell you if a man cannot say to Nature :
"
Budge me from
this if ye can!
"
his principles are but his belly.
"
Oh,
but," Thomas says,
"
a man can be pure and honest, just
and merciful, and take off his hat to Nature." I tell you
Nature s neither pure nor honest, just nor merciful. You
chaps that live over the hill, an go home dead beat in the
dark on a snowy night don t ye fight your way every
inch of it? Do ye go lyin down an trustin to the ten
der mercies of this merciful Nature? Try it and you ll
soon know with what ye ve got to deal. Tes only by
that (he strikes a blow with his clenched fist} in Nature s
face that a man can be a man.
"
Give in," says Thomas ;
"
go down on your knees ; throw up your foolish fight, an
perhaps," he said,
"
perhaps your enemy will chuck you
down a crust." . . . And what did he say about Chapel?
"
Chapel s against it,"
he said.
"
She s against it."
Well, if Chapel and Nature go hand in hand, it s the
first I ve ever heard of it. Surrendering s the work of
cowards and traitors. . . . You ve felt the pinch o t in
your bellies. You ve forgotten what that fight as been;
many times I have told you; I will tell you now this
once again. The fight o the country s body and blood
against a blood-sucker. The fight of those that spend
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