dividend can easily be declared?"
"Very creditable, very creditable," agreed the director; he had
recognized the agent's ability from the first and always upheld him
generously. "I mean to propose a special vote of thanks for your
management. There isn't a minor corporation in New England that stands
so well to-day."
The agent listened. "We had some advantages, partly by accident and
partly by lucky foresight," he acknowledged. "I am going to ask your
backing in something that seems to me not only just but important. I
hope that you will not declare above a six per cent. dividend at that
directors' meeting; at the most, seven per cent.," he said.
"What, what!" exclaimed the listener. "No, sir!"
The agent left his desk-chair and stood before the old director as if
he were pleading for himself. A look of protest and disappointment
changed the elder man's face and hardened it a little, and the agent
saw it.
"You know the general condition of the people here," he explained
humbly. "I have taken great pains to keep hold of the best that have
come here; we can depend upon them now and upon the quality of their
work. They made no resistance when we had to cut down wages two years
ago; on the contrary, they were surprisingly reasonable, and you know
that we shut down for several weeks at the time of the alterations. We
have never put their wages back as we might easily have done, and I
happen to know that a good many families have been able to save little
or nothing.
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