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The Bridge
(METRO)
By Robert Keene
John Stoddard was building a four-rnillion-dollar iron bridge for Courtland Van Nest. Janet, the latter's daughter, didn't even know that her father was building the bridge. The social butterfly and the worker met. She was already engaged to a young society man, but Stoddard did not know that. Nor would it have made any difference in his conduct if he had. What that conduct was — and the big thing it led to — is grippingly told in this story, based on the Metro Pictures Corporation photo drama of the same title. The cast:
John Stoddard .. .Henry Kolker
Janet Van Nest Renee Kelly
Courtland Van Nest Orlando Daly
Kenneth Stuyvesant J. H. Goldworthy
J AVINSKY, the labor agitator, was |»— ' busy again.
"How much longer are we goin' to .stand for it, that's what I want to know? We're gettin' a dollar-twentyfour a day, when it ought to be one Hfty. And is it because we ain't worth union wages ? No ! That ain't the reason we don't get paid enough so's ourselves and our fam'lies can live better'n animals. It's because Van Nest the pres'dent of the railroad we're buildin' this bridge for, and others like him, don't want to cut down on their champagne dinners and their fancy society balls to pay us what we earn !"'
A murmur of assent went up from the workingmen gathered around the pile of iron girders from which Lavinsky was addressing them at the noon hour. Encouraged by their agreement with his words, the agitator's harangue grew wilder.
'"We'd ought to show capital it can't grind us down under its heel !" Lavinsky shouted. "Capital thinks it's got the whip hand of labor. But I notice, and you all have, too, that ev'ry oncet in a while labor turns around and shows it that the shoe's on the other foot. S'pose we called a strike? Where would Van Nest and his crowd get their bridge built then? We're the ones that're puttin' it up, by the sweat of our orows, and not them, with all their millions. If we don't get fair wages for ■our work, why, we hadn't ought to work. We'd ought to strike!"
A deeper growl in corroboration of the agitator's words went up from the listening workingmen. And then
In the library John Stoddard made his plea to the directors of the road,
assembled there.
who
through their midst a tall, powerfully built young man came shouldering his way, to spring up on the pile of girders beside Lavinsky.
He was John Stoddard, the young constructing engineer in charge of the work of building the four-million-dollar iron bridge that was to span the Waybrun Valley.
"You get back to your work, and shut your mouth !" he addressed Lavinsky curtly. "Keep it shut, too — understand? I've warned you once before about talking to the men this way. If I catch you
at it once again, you can get your time and quit."
Then Stoddard turned to address the workingmen.
"You're dissatisfied with your wages, and I don't blame you," he told them. "You ought to be getting a dollar and a half a day, instead of one-twenty-four. I know that. And I'll tell you what I'm going to do : I'm going to go and tell Mr. Van Nest and the board of directors that in my opinion you're entitled to more pay for the work you're doing, and see if I can get it for you. I'm