His Father's Namesake
High School: Grades 9–12
Story
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
As his father began to speak, Albert Jr. recognized the words, although he was unable to understand them: "All forms of government, whether it be a governor, a dictator, an emperor, king, or president, are nothing else than an organized conspiracy of the propertied class to deprive the working class of their natural rights..."
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Albert began wandering into the crowd and heard whispers that the mayor was present. He curiously scanned the crowd to find him. As far as he could remember, he had never seen Mayor Harrison at any other rallies. It was easy to locate him, though. Unlike other people who huddled in small groups, Mayor Harrison and his big beard and mustache stood out in the crowd. Many people nodded or shook their heads in response to Parsons's talk. But Mayor Harrison stood still, quietly gazing at the platform and then scanning the crowd. In his fingers he held a big, fat cigar. He lit the cigar; its tip glowed orange. A few minutes later Albert Jr. saw Mayor Harrison light his cigar again. Tension was palpable in the air, but Albert didn't have the vocabulary to put words to it. "Mother, why are policemen here? Why is the mayor here? Why does he keep lighting his cigar?"
"My oh my, Albert you do ask a lot of questions," his mother said. "The mayor and the policemen are here because they are finally taking notice of what the workers in this city have to say." Albert remembered with pride that his father wanted to help the workers. Then he saw his mother lean sideways and heard her whisper to one of the people who had followed them to the meeting, "I wonder if they think there is going to be trouble." This comment made him even more jittery.
Although he already knew the answer before asking, his small hand tugged at his mother's coat sleeve. "Can we go now?" he pleaded in a hushed voice.
"Albert, try to stand still. It's only right to listen to your father." Unable to stand still any longer, Albert Jr. looked around for something to do.
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Albert's father's voice boomed over the crowd. "My experience in the Labor Party has also taught me that bribery, intimidation, duplicity, corruption, and bulldozing have grown out of the conditions which made the working people poor and the idlers rich and that consequently the ballot-box cannot be made an index to record the popular will until the existing, debasing, impoverishing, and enslaving industrial conditions were first altered. For these reasons I have turned my activities mainly toward an effort to reduce the hours of labor to at least a normal working day so that the wage-workers might hereby secure more leisure from mere drudge work!"
Two men nearby were having a very animated conversation. Albert Jr. inched away from his mother to eavesdrop. One man had a hat that was pulled down far so you could hardly see his face. "Didn't you get the notice?" he asked his companion.
"Sure I got the notice, but it doesn't say anything about that." Both men next pulled Arbeiter-Zeitung notices out of their pockets and unfolded them. Albert Jr. had seen countless notices like these before: they invited people to come and stand together and be heard as the voice of the oppressed workers. He moved closer to the men. He could see that the top half of their notices were in English, the lower half in German. The man with the hat pointed to a line of text on his notice. Albert Jr. stood on tiptoe to see what the man was pointing at. The line of text read, "Workingmen Arm Yourselves and Appear in Full Force!" The other man looked at the text and his eyes widened in astonishment. He pointed to his notice of the meeting and shrugged; there was no line of text with the same command. The man with the hat smiled at him and touched the breast pocket of his coat. What was the man with the hat touching, Albert wondered? Instinctively he rushed back to be near his mother and sister and grabbed both their hands. He wished he could just leave and his wish was soon granted. His father descended from the platform and the Parsons family walked away into the night.
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