"Don't you see," he went on, "the whole game is a gamble.
Everybody gambles in one way or another.
The farmer gambles against the weather and the market on his crops.
So does the United States Steel Corporation.
The business of lots of men is straight robbery of the poor people.
But I've never made that my business.
You know that.
I've always gone after the robbers."
"I missed my point," she admitted. "Wait a minute."
And for a space they rode in silence.
"I see it more clearly than I can state it, but it's something like this.
There is legitimate work, and there's work that—well, that isn't legitimate.
The farmer works the soil and produces grain.
He's making something that is good for humanity.
He actually, in a way, creates something, the grain that will fill the mouths of the hungry."
"And then the railroads and market-riggers and the rest proceed to rob him of that same grain,"—Daylight broke in Dede smiled and held up her hand.
"Wait a minute. You'll make me lose my point.
It doesn't hurt if they rob him of all of it so that he starves to death.
The point is that the wheat he grew is still in the world.
It exists.
Don't you see?
The farmer created something, say ten tons of wheat, and those ten tons exist.
The railroads haul the wheat to market, to the mouths that will eat it.
This also is legitimate.
It's like some one bringing you a glass of water, or taking a cinder out of your eye.
Something has been done, in a way been created, just like the wheat."
"But the railroads rob like Sam Scratch," Daylight objected.
"Then the work they do is partly legitimate and partly not.
Now we come to you.
You don't create anything.
Nothing new exists when you're done with your business.
Just like the coal. You didn't dig it. You didn't haul it to market. You didn't deliver it.
Don't you see? that's what I meant by planting the trees and building the houses.
You haven't planted one tree nor built a single house."
"I never guessed there was a woman in the world who could talk business like that," he murmured admiringly. "And you've got me on that point.
But there's a lot to be said on my side just the same.
Now you listen to me.
I'm going to talk under three heads. Number one: We live a short time, the best of us, and we're a long time dead.
Life is a big gambling game.
Some are born lucky and some are born unlucky.
Everybody sits in at the table, and everybody tries to rob everybody else.
Most of them get robbed. They're born suckers.
"Fellow like me comes along and sizes up the proposition.
I've got two choices. I can herd with the suckers, or I can herd with the robbers.
As a sucker, I win nothing. Even the crusts of bread are snatched out of my mouth by the robbers.
I work hard all my days, and die working.
And I ain't never had a flutter. I've had nothing but work, work, work.
They talk about the dignity of labor.
I tell you there ain't no dignity in that sort of labor.
My other choice is to herd with the robbers, and I herd with them.