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The Right to Labor
(1910) United States of America
B&W : One reel / [?] 950 or 998? feet
Directed by (unknown)
Cast: (unknown)
Yankee Film Company production; distributed by Motion Picture Distributing & Sales Company. / Produced by William Steiner. / Released 18 July 1910. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Drama.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? “The mills have been shut down for six months.” No need to go into extensive details; can you not see the gaunt faces, the wild and hollow eye, the pinch of poverty obscuring the heavens from these poor suffering souls? A philosopher has said: “Some men go through life with their eyes half closed, like a tailor threading a needle.” So did John Caxton, the owner of the mills. From continued self-indulgence, luxury, comfort, a disposition to sidestep every issue that might disturb the serenity of his life, he became an inert mass, simply a receptacle for money made by those who toiled for him at starvation wages. McBride, his manager, was a good man to have about. What would Caxton do without this paragon of a man, who relieved him of the annoyance of thinking too much? Well, McBride, a product of the lower East Side, was for Mac first, foremost and last, never losing a trick, and you can bet if an opportunity to be cruel, mean and treacherous and generally dirty presented itself, Mac never passed it by. The workmen hated his “insides” and not without cause. Caxton was half disposed to meet their demands, but Mac insisted that their percentage of profit was lower than the preceding year. The men began to get turbulent. Such conditions bring out agitation, and Schmidt, who was secretly an anarchist, lost no time in stirring them up to a frenzy; but there are generally some cool heads who believe in pacific measures, and such a one was John Strong, a first-class mechanic, with a wife and daughter Gertrude. John was well liked by the men. One day while Cora Caxton, the mill-owner’s daughter, was walking along near his house, Schmidt, who was haranguing the crowd, broke into the storm of abuse at her good clothes and luxury, and he and some others scared the child into a panic. Strong calmed them and took the child into his house to protect her. Here she was confronted for the first time with the life of the poor; it touched her heart and she immediately became the friend of the little family. So impressed was she with Gertrude, that Strong and his wife granted her request to take Gertrude to the Caxton mansion on a visit. There she met the owner, and after many questions, he began to wake up to the true state of affairs. He summoned McBride by messenger. Scarcely had the note left the house when Schmidt sneaked up and began to ignite a bomb on the step; it spluttered and in a moment would have reduced the house to powder but for John Strong, who, like the quiet hero he was, picked up the deadly thing and threw it away. McBride, seeing him with the infernal thing, immediately summoned an officer, accusing him of the attempted crime. He was taken before Caxton, who, in a rage, ordered him to prison. But the children have observed the action from the window and clear him, as the real culprit, Schmidt, is brought in by an officer. Needless to say, Caxton is grateful to their preserver, and is willing to meet any demand that John Strong may make; but John says, “All I want is a square deal for the men.” Caxton agrees, and taking John out on the front steps, where the crowd of workmen have congregated, assures them of his friendship, and furthermore discharges McBride and takes John and Gertrude in his own automobile and goes with them to the humble cottage to convey the joyful news to John’s wife.
Survival status: Print exists in the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv film archive [35mm negative].
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 11 October 2023.
References: Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
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