Heroes for Sale Page #4

- I haven't got any money.

- You have enough so I can get a patent.

You can take my machine to your boss.

He listens to you, trusts you.

Nobody listens to me.

I'm a Red, a radical. They say I'm crazy.

I don't blame them much.

Crazy or not, I graduated with honors

from the Berliner Technische Hochschule.

I am a great technician...

...and I have invented a combination

washing machine and mangle...

...which will increase production

a thousand percent.

I can help your employer.

Wait, I thought you hated

all employers and capitalists.

I despise them, I spit on them.

But I'm willing to get rich with them.

If you don't sit down,

you're gonna have a stroke.

A machine that will increase production?

- In two hours, it does a whole day's work.

- Gosh, what a kick.

Means more leisure,

more time at home with your family.

Oh, plenty of time home with the family.

- Sounds too good to be true.

- You see it with your own eyes.

Then you give me the money.

I'm paying for this furniture,

every penny I've got.

Give it all back. Get the money.

One chance in a hundred lifetimes.

Oh, what's all the excitement about? Heh.

Besides, Max,

here's the best reason in the world.

I need every penny I make.

I'm gonna have a baby.

We're going to have a baby.

What good is a baby?

Anybody can have a baby.

Yeah? Well, you just try it sometime.

Increase and multiply like rabbits.

Make more poor people for the rich

to prey upon, starve and exploit.

Max, you're daffy.

If everybody felt like that...

...there wouldn't be any people left,

only machines.

Wouldn't it be a better world?

I am giving birth to something

more important than millions of babies.

Well, don't deliver it around here

or we'll have to have the place fumigated.

It means more leisure and freedom.

You're not taking any chances.

I saw this thing work with my own eyes.

I put every cent I've got into it.

Well, Tom, if you got faith in it,

I guess I can gamble $2o.

All right, Bessie.

Would you take a dollar?

As much or as little as you like.

This is a community proposition.

Well, if it's good enough for you, pal,

I can go 15.

All right, Ed.

Ed Brady, $ 15.

Now, let me see if I've got all this.

The basic patent remains the property

of Brinker, the inventor...

...and Holmes, the promoter.

Mr. Gibson simply pays them a royalty

for the use of the machines.

That's right.

Say, Tom, it might be pretty cumbersome

having all these people...

...with 5-, 1 o-, 15-dollar interests

mixed up in the transaction.

Can I pay them back what they put in

with a hundred-percent dividend...

...and get their releases?

Well, I don't know.

I'll tell you in the morning.

- Fine.

- Is there anything else you want included?

- Not me.

- Yes, sir, one thing, very important.

These machines must not be used

to throw anybody out of work...

...or to cut salaries.

We're leasing them to you

for one purpose:

To increase production, making jobs easier

and to make our working hours shorter.

Heh-heh. You're a real humanitarian, Tom.

Well, how about it, Mr. Gibson?

Go ahead. Put it in the contract.

I'm with Tom 1 oo percent.

Mr. Gibson's in conference.

You can't go in there.

I don't wanna see Mr. Gibson,

I wanna see Tom Holmes.

Get over or I'll call the police.

You will get out of my way

or I'll sock you in the jaw.

Tom, come quick.

Ruth just went to the hospital.

- Gosh, when?

- Just a few minutes ago. Come on.

Hope it's a boy.

- I'll take anything I can get.

- Did you get our check?

- Ruth just went to the hospital.

Well, what has Ruth got to do with it?

Where is our check?

She's having a baby.

So much excitement for what?

The world is full of babies.

Even billy goats have babies.

Heh. Breakfast, Bill.

I wanna run my auto.

Well, you can do that all day.

Go on, Bill, get your breakfast.

- Goodbye.

- Goodbye, dear.

I'll go.

Bill, come back here.

Where do you think you're going?

I wanna run my auto.

Now, don't you be a little monkey.

You come on and do as Mommy says.

Why can't I run my auto?

Now, I told you, honey, after breakfast.

Mr. Gibson's had a heart attack.

He's not?

Yeah, he's dead.

Oh.

It's childishly simply, L.M.

We replace these gears

with a centripetal cam.

Can't understand why Gibson didn't.

Neither can I.

Then we install a photoelectric cell,

which controls the whole thing.

It'll make the whole job automatic?

Absolutely.

How many employees

do you estimate we could drop?

Three-quarters

of your entire manual labor.

Cut our expenses almost to nothing.

That's what I've been telling you, L.M.

- It wouldn't cost much to install?

- Whatever it costs...

...you'll more than save

in your wages in the first year.

How long would it take

to install these machines?

Sixty days, maybe less.

Hop to it, Jim. Work night and day.

Never mind the expense.

Wait a minute. Give me a chance.

You made us raise the money ourselves

for the machine that starves us to death.

You've got your money back

with a profit, 1 oo percent.

What we got won't keep us a month

without our jobs.

I put up 1 o bucks and got 2o back

and lost a job that paid me 3o a week.

- Yeah, more leisure, more freedom.

- Pbbt.

Listen to me.

I put it in the agreement

that none of us were to lose our jobs.

- Oh, shut up. We got fired, ain't we?

- You're a liar.

Did you put in the agreement

how we're gonna eat?

Yeah, yeah.

I've been fighting the new bosses to show

them how they broke the agreement.

You sure must have been

tough with them.

You're still working, ain't you?

No, they fired me today.

- I keep telling you...

- That's just a bunk, trying to cover up.

- I'll bet you got a raise in salary.

Sure he did!

If you'd listen to me. We got a legal case.

You can take it into court.

Ah. Take it to court. That's great.

The lawyers get fat

while our children starve to death.

Why beat around the bush this way?

Why did we get fired?

What put us out of work?

The machines!

That's right, the machines did it.

The machines ruined us.

They grabbed our jobs away.

They wrecked our homes.

Are we gonna take it laying down?

No.

Please, wait a minute.

That's what I've been waiting to hear.

Smash the machines

that has been smashing you.

Come on, let's go. Come on.

That's not the way, men. You're crazy.

If you smash the machines,

they'll only build more.

- I've gotta stop them.

- No, Tom, you mustn't.

Tom, they'll kill you. Tom!

- Tom.

Mommy, Mommy.

Mommy.

- Mommy.

- Oh, Bill.

- You shouldn't have gotten out of bed.

- The noise woke me up.

I know, darling, I know.

But it's all over now.

Now be a good baby and go to sleep.

Michigan-3724.

What were all those men

saying to Daddy?

No more questions now, Bill.

Mind Mommy and go to sleep.

Hello, Mary, this is Ruth.

Come right over, will you? Yeah, hurry.

- Hey, wait a minute, fellas.

Quiet down.

Haven't you got any sense?

Riot guns will be there to meet you.

All you'll do is get these people arrested.

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