All went well with the young superintendent for some months after the assumption of his duties.  He was alert, and surprised every one by his practical knowledge.  He was stern and strict, and, after warning several negligent employes, discharged them.  This did not help his popularity, but, so long as the directors were satisfied, Harvey cared for the opinion of no one else.

When dull times came, Superintendent Bradley scaled down the wages of all, including his own.  The promise to restore them, as soon as business warranted the step, averted the threatened strike.  Within a month the restoration took place, but every employe was required to work a half hour over time without additional pay.

A strike was averted for the time, but the friendly feeling and mutual confidence that ought to exist between the employer and the employed was destroyed.  The latter kept at work, and the former felt that he had not sacrificed his dignity nor his discipline.

But the discontent increased.  One day Hugh O’Hara, the chief foreman, and Thomas Hansell, one of the most influential of the workmen, called upon Mr. Bradley, and speaking for the employes, protested against the new arrangement.  They said every man, woman and child was willing to work the extra half hour, but inasmuch as the need for such extra time indicated an improvement in business, they asked for the additional pay to which they were clearly entitled.

Harvey was looking for such protest and he was prepared.  He said it was an error to think there was an improvement in business.  While in one sense it might be true, yet the price of the manufactured goods had fallen so low that the mills really made less money than before.  The wages that had been paid were better than were warranted by the state of trade.  Now, when the employes were asked to help in a slight degree their employers who had done so much for them, they would not do so.  O’Hara and Hansell, showing a wish to discuss the matter, the superintendent cut them short by saying that it was idle to talk further.  He would not make any reduction in their time, nor would he pay any extra compensation.

That night 200 employes of the Rollo Mills quit work, with the intention of staying out until justice was done them.  Harvey asserted that he would never yield; he would spend a few days in overhauling the machinery and in making a few needed repairs; then, if the employes chose, they could come back.  All who did not do so would not be taken back afterwards.  New hands would be engaged and in a short time the mills would be running the same as before.

O’Hara and Hansell warned the superintendent that serious trouble would follow any such course.  While making no threat themselves, they told him that blood was likely to be shed.  Harvey pooh-poohed and reminded them that a few men and children would make sorry show in fighting the whole state, for, in the event of interference by the strikers, he meant to appeal to the authorities.