The Rise of David Levinsky

Plot

Excerpt: ...for Me Would Be Taken Up With The Same Style For Many Days In Succession, Thus Developing A Much Higher Rate Of Speed And A Fatter Pay-envelope Altogether, I Always Contrived To Procure The Cheapest Labor Obtainable, Although This, As We Have Seen, By No Means Implied That My Hands Were Inferior Mechanics. The Sum And Substance Of It All Was That I Could Afford To Sell A Garment For Less Than What Was Its Cost Of Production In The Best-known Cloak-houses My Business Was Making Headway When The Cloak And Suit Makers' Union Sprang Into Life Again, With The Usual Rush And Commotion, But With Unusual Portents Of Strength And Stability. It Seemed As If This Time It Had Come To Stay. My Budding Little Establishment Was Too Small, In Fact, To Be In Immediate Danger. It Was One Of A Scattered Number Of Insignificant Places Which The Union Found It Difficult To Control. Still, Cheap Labor Being My Chief Excuse For Being, The Organization Caused Me No End Of Worry Just When A Fellow Is Beginning To Make A Living All Sorts Of Black Dreams Will Come Along And Trip Him Up, I Complained To Meyer Nodelman, Bitterly. A Bunch Of Good-for-nothings, Too Lazy To Work, Will Stir Up Trouble, And There You Are. Oh, It Won't Last Long, Meyer Nodelman Consoled Me. Don't Be Excited, Anyhow. Business Does Not Always Go Like Grease, You Know. You Must Be Ready For Trouble Too. He Told Me Of His Own Experiences With Unions And He Drifted Into A Philosophic View Of The Matter. You And I Want To Make As Much Money As Possible, Don't We? He Said. Well, The Working-men Want The Same. Can You Blame Them? We Are Fighting Them And They Are Fighting Us. The World Is Not A Wedding-feast, Levinsky. It Is A Big Barn-yard Full Of Chickens And They Are Scratching One Another, And Scrambling Over One Another. Why? Because There Are Little Heaps Of Grain In The Yard And Each Chicken Wants To Get As Much Of It As Possible. So Let Us Try Our Best. But Why Be Mad At The Other...