"But the Iron Heel can't maintain so costly a programme forever," I
objected.

"Oh, it hasn't subsidized all of the unions. That's not necessary. Here
is what is going to happen. Wages are going to be advanced and hours
shortened in the railroad unions, the iron and steel workers unions,
and the engineer and machinist unions. In these unions more favorable
conditions will continue to prevail. Membership in these unions will
become like seats in Paradise."

"Still I don't see," I objected. "What is to become of the other unions?
There are far more unions outside of this combination than in it."

"The other unions will be ground out of existence--all of them. For,
don't you see, the railway men, machinists and engineers, iron and
steel workers, do all of the vitally essential work in our machine
civilization. Assured of their faithfulness, the Iron Heel can snap
its fingers at all the rest of labor. Iron, steel, coal, machinery, and
transportation constitute the backbone of the whole industrial fabric."

"But coal?" I queried. "There are nearly a million coal miners."

They are practically unskilled labor. They will not count. Their wages
will go down and their hours will increase. They will be slaves like all
the rest of us, and they will become about the most bestial of all of
us. They will be compelled to work, just as the farmers are compelled
to work now for the masters who robbed them of their land. And the same
with all the other unions outside the combination. Watch them wobble and
go to pieces, and their members become slaves driven to toil by empty
stomachs and the law of the land.