PC-NRLF 
 
 MS flDt, 
 
DR. JONATHAN 
 
 A PLAY IN THREE ACTS 
 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO - DALLAS 
 ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITKO 
 
 LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Lm 
 
 TORONTO 
 
DR. JONATHAN 
 
 A PLAY IN THREE ACTS 
 
 BY 
 
 WINSTON CHURCHILL 
 
 Author of "The Inside of the Cup," "The 
 Dwelling Place of Light," etc. 
 
 gorfe 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1919 
 
 AU rights reserved 
 
COPYRIGHT. 1919 
 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Set up and printed. Published, September, 1919 
 
\><=> 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 This play was written during the war. But 
 owing to the fact that several managers politely 
 declined to produce it, it has not appeared on any 
 stage. Now, perhaps, its theme is more timely, 
 more likely to receive the attention it deserves, 
 when the smoke of battle has somewhat cleared. 
 Even when the struggle with Germany and her 
 allies was in progress it was quite apparent to the 
 discerning that the true issue of the conflict was 
 one quite familiar to American thought, of self- 
 determination. On returning from abroad to 
 ward the end of 1917 I ventured into print with 
 the statement that the great war had every aspect 
 of a race with revolution. Subliminal desires, 
 subliminal fears, when they break down the 
 censor of law, are apt to inspire fanatical creeds, 
 to wind about their victims the flaming flag of a 
 false martyrdom. Today it is on the knees of 
 the gods whether the insuppressible impulses for 
 human freedom that come roaring up from the 
 
 5052-42 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 subliminal chaos, fanned by hunger and hate, 
 are to thrash themselves out in anarchy and in 
 sanity, or to take an ordered, intelligent and con 
 scious course. Of the Twentieth Century, indus 
 trial democracy is the watchword, even as po 
 litical democracy was the watchword of the two 
 centuries that preceded it. Economic power is at 
 last realized to be political power. No man owns 
 himself, no woman owns herself if the individual 
 is not economically free. Perhaps the most en 
 couraging omen of the day is the fact that many 
 of our modern employers, and even our modern 
 financiers and bankers seem to be recognizing 
 this truth, to be growing aware of the danger to 
 civilization of its continued suppression. Edu 
 cators and sociologists may supply the theories; 
 but by experiment, by trial and error, yes, and" 
 by prayer, the solution must be found in the 
 practical domain of industry. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 
 
 ACT I 
 
 SCENE: The library of ASHER PINDAR S house 
 in Foxon Falls, a New England village of some 
 three thousand souls, over the destinies of 
 which the Pindars for three generations have 
 presided. It is a large, dignified room, built 
 early in the nineteenth century, with white 
 doors and gloss woodwork. At the rear of the 
 stage, zvhich is the front of the house, are 
 three high windows with small, square panes 
 of glass, and embrasures into which are fitted 
 white inside shutters. These windows reach 
 to within a foot or so of the floor; a person 
 walking on the lawn or the sidewalk just be 
 yond it may be seen through them. The trees 
 bordering the Common are also seen through 
 these windows, and through a gap in the foliage 
 a glimpse of the terraced steeple of the Pindar 
 Church, the architecture of which is of the 
 same period as the house. Upper right, at the 
 i 
 
2 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 end of the wall, is a glass door looking out on 
 the lawm. There is another door, lower right, 
 and a door, lower left, leading into ASHER PIN 
 DAR S study. A marble mantel, zvhich holds a 
 clock and certain ornaments, is just beyond 
 this door. The wall spaces on the right and 
 left are occupied by high bookcases filled with 
 respectable volumes in calf and dark cloth 
 bindings. Over the mantel is an oil painting 
 of the Bierstadt school, cherished by ASHER as 
 an inheritance from his father, a huge land 
 scape with a self-conscious sky, mountains, 
 plains, rivers and waterfalls, and two small fig 
 ures of Indians who seem to have been talk 
 ing to a missionary. In the spaces between the 
 window s are tivo steel engravings, " The Death 
 of Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham" and 
 "Washington Crossing the Delaware!" The 
 furniture, with the exception of a few heir 
 looms, such as the stiff sofa, is mostly of the 
 Richardson period of the 8os and pos. On 
 a table, middle rear, are neatly spread out sev 
 eral conservative magazines and periodicals, 
 including a religious publication. 
 
 TIME; A bright morning in October, 1917. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 3 
 
 GEORGE PINDAR, in the uniform of a first lieu 
 tenant of the army, enters by the doorway, up 
 per right. He is a well set up young man of 
 about twenty-seven, bronzed from his life in a 
 training camp, of an adventurous and social na 
 ture. He glances about the room, and then 
 lights a cigarette. 
 
 ASHER PINDAR, his father, enters, lower right. 
 He is a tall, strongly built man of about sixty, 
 with iron grey hair and beard. His eyes are 
 keen, shadowed by bushy brows, and his New 
 England features bear the stamp of inflexible 
 ff character." He wears a black " cutaway " 
 coat and dark striped trousers; his voice is 
 strong and resonant. But he is evidently pre 
 occupied and worried, though he smiles with 
 affection as he perceives GEORGE. GEORGE S 
 fondness for him is equally apparent. 
 GEORGE. Hello, dad. 
 ASHER. Oh, you re here, George. 
 GEORGE (looking at ASHER) . Something trou 
 bling you? 
 
 ASHER (attempting dissimulation). Well, 
 you re going off to France, they ve only given you 
 two days leave, and I ve scarcely seen anything 
 of you. Isn t that enough? 
 
4 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 GEORGE. I know how busy you ve been with 
 that government contract on your hands. I wish 
 I could help. 
 
 ASHER. You re in the army now, my boy. 
 You can help me again when you come back. 
 
 GEORGE. I want to get time to go down to the 
 shops and say goodbye to some of the men. 
 
 ASHER. No, I shouldn t do that, George. 
 
 GEORGE (surprised). Why not? I used to be 
 pretty chummy with them, you know, smoke a 
 pipe with them occasionally in the noon hour. 
 
 ASHER. I know. But it doesn t do for an 
 employer to be too familiar with the hands in 
 these days. 
 
 GEORGE. I guess I ve got a vulgar streak in 
 me somewhere, I get along with the common peo 
 ple. There ll be lots of them in the trenches, 
 dad. 
 
 ASHER. Under military discipline. 
 
 GEORGE (laughing). We re supposed to be 
 fighting a war for democracy. I was talking to 
 old Bains yesterday, he s still able to run a 
 lathe, and he was in the Civil War, you know. 
 He was telling me how the boys in his regiment 
 stopped to pick blackberries on the way to the 
 battle of Bull Run. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 5 
 
 ASHER. That s democracy! It s what we re 
 doing right now stopping to pick blackberries. 
 This country s been in the war six months, 
 since April, and no guns, no munitions, a hand 
 ful of men in France while the world s burn 
 ing! 
 
 GEORGE. Well, we won t sell Uncle Sam short 
 yet. Something is bothering you, dad. 
 
 ASHER. No no, but the people in Wash 
 ington change my specifications every week, and 
 Jonathan s arriving today, of all days. 
 
 GEORGE. Has Dr. Jonathan turned up? 
 
 ASHER. I haven t seen him yet. It seems he 
 got here this morning. No telegram, nothing. 
 And he had his house fixed up without consult 
 ing me. He must be queer, like his father, 
 your great uncle, Henry Pindar. 
 
 GEORGE. Tell me about Dr. Jonathan. A 
 scientist, isn t he? Suddenly decided to come 
 back to live in the old homestead. 
 
 ASHER. On account of his health. He was 
 delicate as a boy. He must have been about 
 eight or nine years old when Uncle Henry left 
 Foxon Falls for the west, that was before you 
 were born. Uncle Henry died somewhere in 
 Iowa. He and my father never got along. 
 
6 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 Uncle Henry had as much as your grandfather 
 to begin with, and let it slip through his ringers. 
 He managed to send Jonathan to a medical 
 school, and it seems that he s had some sort of a 
 position at Johns Hopkins s research work. I 
 don t know what he s got to live on. 
 
 GEORGE. Uncle Henry must have been a 
 philanthropist. 
 
 ASHER. It s all very well to be a philanthro 
 pist when you make more than you give away. 
 Otherwise you re a sentimentalist. 
 
 GEORGE. Or a Christian. 
 
 ASHER. We can t take Christianity too liter 
 ally. 
 
 GEORGE (smiling). That s its great advan 
 tage, as a religion. 
 
 ASHER. George, I don t like to say anything 
 just as you re going to fight for your country, 
 my boy, but your attitude of religious skepticism 
 has troubled me, as well as your habit of intimacy 
 with the shop hands. I confess to you that I ve 
 been a little afraid at times that you d take after 
 Jonathan s father. He never went to church, he 
 forgot that he owed something to his position as 
 a Pindar. He used to have that house of his 
 overrun with all sorts of people, and the yard 
 
DR. JONATHAN 7 
 
 full of dirty children eating his fruit and picking 
 his flowers. There s such a thing as being too 
 democratic. I hope I m as good an American as 
 anybody, I believe that any man with brains, who 
 has thrift, ought to rise but wait until they do 
 rise. You re going to command men, and when 
 you come back here into the business again 
 you ll be in a position of authority. Remember 
 what I say, if you give these working people an 
 inch, they ll take all you have. 
 
 GEORGE (laying his hand on ASHER S shoul 
 der). Something is worrying you, dad. We ve 
 always been pretty good pals, haven t we? 
 
 ASHER. Yes, ever since you were a little 
 shaver. Well, George, I didn t want to bother 
 you with it today. It seems there s trouble in 
 the shops, in our shops, of all places, it s 
 been going on for some time, grumbling, dissatis 
 faction, and they re getting higher wages than 
 ever before ruinous wages. They want me to 
 recognize the union. 
 
 GEORGE. Well, that beats me. I thought we 
 were above the labour-trouble line, away up here 
 in New England. 
 
 ASHER (grimly). Oh, I can handle them. 
 
 GEORGE. I ll bet you can. You re a regular 
 
8 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 old war horse when you get started. It s your 
 capital, it s your business, you ve put it all at the 
 disposal of the government. What right have 
 they to kick up a row now, with this war on ? I 
 must say I haven t any sympathy with that. 
 
 ASHER (proudly). I guess you re a real Pin 
 dar after all, George. 
 
 (Enter an elderly maid, loivcr right.) 
 
 MAID. Timothy Farrell, the foreman s here, 
 sir. 
 
 (Enter, loivcr right, TIMOTHY, a big Irish 
 man of about sixty, in working clothes.) 
 
 TIMOTHY. Here I am, sir. They re after 
 sending word you wanted me. 
 
 GEORGE (going up to TIMOTHY and shaking his 
 hand warmly). Old Timothy! I m glad to get 
 sight of you before I go. 
 
 TIMOTHY. And it s glad I am to see you, 
 Mr. George, before you leave. And he an officer 
 now ! Sure, I mind him as a baby being wheeled 
 up and down under the trees out there. My boy 
 Bert was saying only this morning how we d 
 missed the sight of him in the shops this sum 
 mer. You have a way with the men, Mr. George, 
 of getting into their hearts, like. I was thinking 
 just now, if Mr. George had only been home, in 
 
DR. JONATHAN 9 
 
 the shops, maybe we wouldn t be having all this 
 complaint and trouble. 
 
 GEORGE. Who s at the bottom of this, Tim 
 othy? Rench? Hillman? I thought so. Well, 
 they re not bad chaps when you get under their 
 skins. 
 
 (He glances at his wrist ivatch) 
 Let me go down and talk with them, dad, I ve 
 got time, my train doesn t leave until one thirty. 
 ASHER (impatiently, almost savagely). No, 
 I ll settle this, George, this is my job. I won t 
 have any humoring. Come into my study, Tim 
 othy. 
 
 TIMOTHY, shaking his head, follows ASHER 
 
 out of the door, left. 
 
 After a moment GEORGE goes over to the ex 
 treme left hand corner of the room, where 
 several articles are piled. He drags out a 
 kit bag, then some necessary wearing ap 
 parel, underclothes, socks, a sweater, etc., 
 then a large and rather luxurious lunch 
 kit, a pin cushion with his monogram, a 
 small travelling pillow with his monogram, 
 a linen toilet case embroidered in blue, 
 to hang on the ivall these last evidently 
 presents from admiring lady friends. 
 
io DR. JONATHAN 
 
 Finally he brings forth a large rubber life 
 preserving suit. He makes a show of put 
 ting all these things in the bag, including 
 the life- preserving suit; and reveals a cer 
 tain sentiment, not too deep, for the pil- 
 loiv, the pincushion and the toilet case. At 
 length he strews everything over the floor, 
 and is surveying the litter with mock de 
 spair when a girl appears on the lawn out 
 side, through one of the windows. She 
 throws into the room a small parcel 
 wrapped in tissue paper, and disappears. 
 GEORGE picks up the parcel and looks sur 
 prised, and suddenly runs out of the door, 
 upper right. He presently returns, drag 
 ging the girl by the wrists, she resist 
 ing. 
 
 MINNIE FARRELL is about twenty one, with 
 black hair and an abundant vitality. Her 
 costume is a not wholly ineffective imita 
 tion of those bought at a great price at 
 certain metropolitan establishments. A 
 string of imitation pearls gleams against 
 her ruddy skin. 
 
 MINNIE. Cut it out, George! (Glancing 
 around apprehensively.) Say, if your mother 
 
DR. JONATHAN n 
 
 was to find me here she d want to send me up to 
 the reformatory (she frees herself). 
 
 GEORGE. Where the deuce did you blow in 
 from? (Regarding her with admiration.) Is 
 this the little Minnie Farrell who left Foxon 
 Falls two years ago? Gee whiz! aren t we 
 smart ! 
 
 MINNIE. Do you like me? I m making good 
 money, since the war. 
 
 GEORGE. Do I like you? What are you do 
 ing here ? 
 
 MINNIE. My brother Bert s out there he 
 ain t working today. Mr. Pindar sent for father, 
 and we walked up here with him. Where is he ? 
 
 GEORGE (nodding tozvard the study). In 
 there. But what are you doing, back in Foxon 
 Falls? 
 
 MINNIE. Oh, visiting the scenes of my child 
 hood. 
 
 GEORGE (tearing open the tissue paper from 
 the parcel). Did you make these for me? 
 
 (He holds up a pair of grey woollen wrist 
 lets.) 
 
 MINNIE. Well, I wanted to do something for 
 a soldier, and when I heard you was going to 
 France I thought you might as well have em. 
 
12 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 GEORGE. How did you hear I was going? 
 
 MINNIE. Bert told me when I came home 
 yesterday. They say it s cold in the trenches, 
 and nothing keeps the hands so warm as wrist 
 lets. I know, because I ve had cm on winter 
 mornings, early, when I was going to work. 
 Will you wear em, George? 
 
 GEORGE. Will I wear them! (He puts them 
 on his urists.) I ll never take them off till the 
 war s over. 
 
 MINNIE (pleased). You always were a 
 josher ! 
 
 GEORGE. Tell me, Minnie, why did you run 
 away from me two years ago? 
 
 MINNIE. Run away from you! I left be 
 cause I couldn t stand this village any longer. 
 It was too quiet for me. 
 
 GEORGE. You re a josher! You went off 
 while I was away, without telling me you were 
 going. And then, when I found out where you 
 were and hustled over to Newcastle in my car, 
 you turned me down hard. 
 
 MINNIE. You didn t have a mortgage on me. 
 There were plenty of girls of your own kind at 
 that house party you went to. I guess you made 
 love to them, too. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 13 
 
 GEORGE. They weren t in the same class with 
 you. You ve got the ginger. 
 
 MINNIE. I ve still got the ginger, all right. 
 
 GEORGE, I thought you cared for me. 
 
 MINNIE. You always had the nerve, George. 
 
 GEORGE. You acted as if you did. 
 
 MINNIE. I m a good actor. Say, what was 
 there in it for me ? packing tools in the Pindar 
 shops, and you the son of my boss? You didn t 
 want nothing from me except what all men want, 
 and you wouldn t have wanted that long. 
 
 GEORGE. I was crazy about you. 
 
 MINNIE (her eyes falling on the travelling pil 
 low and the pincushion; picking them up in 
 turn). I guess you told them that, too. 
 
 GEORGE (embarrassed). Oh, I m popular 
 enough when I m going away. They don t care 
 anything about me. 
 
 MINNIE (indicating the wristlets) . You don t 
 want them, I ll give em to Bert. 
 
 GEORGE. No, you won t. 
 
 MINNIE. I was silly. But we had a good 
 time while it lasted, didn t we, George? 
 
 (She evades him deftly, and picks up the 
 
 life-preserving suit.) 
 What s this? a full dress uniform? 
 
i 4 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 GEORGE. When a submarine gets you, all 
 you ve got to do is to jump overboard and blow 
 this- 
 
 (He draws the siren from the pocket 
 and starts to blow it, but she seizes his 
 hand.) 
 
 and float around until a destroyer picks you 
 up. 
 
 (Takes from another pocket a metal lunch 
 
 box.) 
 
 This is for pate de foie gras sandwiches, and 
 there s room in here 
 
 (Indicating another pocket.) 
 for a bottle of fizz. Come along with me, Min 
 nie, ship as a Red Cross nurse, and I ll buy you 
 one. The Atlantic wouldn t be such a bad place, 
 with you, and we wouldn t be in a hurry to 
 blow the siren. You d look like a peach in a 
 white costume, too. 
 
 MINNIE. Don t you like me in this? 
 GEORGE. Sure, but I d like that better. 
 MINNIE. I d make a good nurse, if I do say 
 it myself. And I d take good care of you, 
 George, as good as any of them. 
 
 (She nods toward the pillow and pin 
 cushion.) 
 
DR. JONATHAN 15 
 
 GEORGE. Better ! 
 
 (He seizes her hands and attempts to draw 
 
 her toward him.) 
 You used to let me ! 
 
 MINNIE. That ain t any reason. 
 GEORGE. Just once, Minnie, I m going 
 away. 
 
 MINNIE. No. I didn t mean to come in here 
 - 1 just wanted to see what you looked like in 
 your uniform. 
 
 (She draws away from him, just as DR. 
 JONATHAN appears in the doorway, lower 
 right.) 
 Goodbye, George. 
 
 (She goes out through the doorway, upper 
 
 right.) 
 
 (DR. JONATHAN may be almost any age, in 
 reality about thirty five. His head is that 
 of the thinker, high above the eyes. His 
 face bears evidence in its lines of years 
 of labour and service, as well as of a tri 
 umphant struggle against ill health. In 
 his eyes is a thoughtful yet illuminating 
 smile, now directed toward GEORGE who, 
 when he perceives him, is taken aback,) 
 GEORGE, Hello ! 
 
16 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Hello! I was told to come 
 in here, I hope I m not intruding. 
 
 GEORGE. Not at all. How how long have 
 you been here ? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Just long enough to get my 
 bearings. I came this morning. 
 
 GEORGE. Oh ! Are you are you Dr. Jona 
 than ? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I m Jonathan. And you re 
 George, I suppose. 
 
 GEORGE. Yes. (He goes to him and shakes 
 hands.) I m sorry to be leaving just as you 
 come. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I ll be here when you return. 
 
 GEORGE. I hope so (a pause). You won t 
 find Foxon Falls a bad old town. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. And it will be a better one 
 when you come back. 
 
 GEORGE. Why do you say that? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (smiling). It seems a safe 
 conjecture. 
 
 (DR. JONATHAN is looking at the heap of 
 articles on the floor.) 
 
 GEORGE (grinning, and not quite at ease). 
 You might imagine I was embarking in the 
 gent s furnishing business, instead of going to 
 
DR. JONATHAN 17 
 
 war. (He picks up the life-preserving suit.) 
 Some friend of mother s told her about this, and 
 she insisted upon sending for it. I don t want 
 to hurt her feelings, but I can t take it, of course. 
 (Pie rolls it up and thrusts it under the sofa, 
 
 upper left.) 
 
 You won t give me away? 
 DR. JONATHAN. Never! 
 
 GEORGE. Dad ought to be here in a minute, 
 he s in there with old Timothy Farrell, the 
 moulder foreman. It seems that things are in 
 a mess at the shops. Rotten of the men to make 
 trouble now don t you think ? when the 
 country s at war ! Darned unpatriotic, I say. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I saw a good many stars in 
 your service flag as I passed the office door this 
 morning. 
 
 GEORGE. Yes. Over four hundred of our 
 men have enlisted. I don t understand it. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Perhaps you will, George, 
 when you come home. 
 GEORGE. You mean 
 
 (GEORGE is interrupted by the entrance, 
 lower right, of his mother, AUGUSTA PIN 
 DAR. She is now in the fifties, and her 
 hair is turning grey. Her uneventful. 
 
i8 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 provincial existence as ASHER S wife has 
 confirmed and crystallised her traditional 
 New England views, her conviction that 
 her mission is to direct for good the lives 
 of the less fortunate by whom she is sur 
 rounded. She carries her knitting in her 
 hand, a pair of socks for GEORGE. And 
 she goes at once to DR. JONATHAN.) 
 AUGUSTA. So you are Jonathan. They told 
 me you d arrived why didn t you come to us ? 
 Do you think it s wise to live in that old house 
 of your father s before it s been thoroughly 
 heated for a few days? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (taking her hand). Oh, I m 
 going to live with the doors and windows 
 open. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Dear me ! I understand you ve 
 been quite ill, and you were never very strong 
 as a child. I made it my business to go through 
 the house yesterday, and I must say it looks 
 comfortable. But the carpenters and plumbers 
 have ruined the parlour, with that bench, and the 
 sink in the corner. What are you going to do 
 there ? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I m having it made into a 
 sort of laboratory. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 19 
 
 AUGUSTA. You don t mean to say you intend 
 to do any work! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Work ought to cure me, in 
 this climate. 
 
 AUGUSTA. You mean to practise medicine? 
 You ought to have consulted us. I m afraid you 
 won t find it remunerative, Jonathan, but your 
 father was impractical, too. Foxon Falls is still 
 a small place, in spite of the fact that the shops 
 have grown. Workmen s families can t afford 
 to pay big fees, you know. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (smiling). I know. 
 
 AUGUSTA. And we already have an excellent 
 physician here, Dr. Senn. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I shan t interfere with Dr. 
 Senn. 
 
 GEORGE (laying his hand on AUGUSTA S shoul 
 der: apologetically). Mother feels personally 
 responsible for every man, woman and child in 
 Foxon Falls. I shouldn t worry about Dr. Jona 
 than if I were you, mother, I ve got a notion he 
 can take care of himself. 
 
 AUGUSTA (a little baffled by DR. JONATHAN S 
 self-command, sits down and begins to knit). 
 I must get these socks finished for you to take 
 with you, my dear. (To DR. JONATHAN) I 
 
20 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 can t realize he s going! (To GEORGE) You 
 haven t got all your things in your bag! 
 Where s the life-preserving suit I sent for? 
 
 GEORGE (glancing at DR. JONATHAN). Oh 
 that s gone, mother. 
 
 AUGUSTA. He always took cold so easily, and 
 that will keep him warm and dry, if those terri 
 ble Germans sink his ship. But your presents, 
 George! (To DR. JONATHAN:) Made for him 
 by sisters of his college friends. 
 
 GEORGE (amused but embarrassed). I can t 
 fit up a section of the trenches as a boudoir. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Such nice girls! I wish he d 
 marry one of them. Who made you the wrist 
 lets? I hadn t seen them. 
 
 GEORGE (taking off the wristlets and putting 
 them in his bag). Oh, I can t give her away. 
 I was just trying them on, to see if they fitted. 
 
 AUGUSTA. When did they come? 
 
 GEORGE (glancing at DR. JONATHAN). Er 
 this morning. 
 
 (Enter ASHER and TIMOTHY from the study, 
 left. ASHER is evidently "drought up 
 from his talk with TIMOTHY.) 
 
 ASHER. Remember, Timothy, I rely on sensi 
 ble men like you to put a stop to this nonsense. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 21 
 
 AUGUSTA. Asher, here s Jonathan. 
 
 ASIIER. Oh ! (He goes up to DR. JONATHAN 
 and takes his hand, though it is quite evident that 
 his mind is still on the trouble in the shops). 
 Glad to see you back in Foxon Falls, Jonathan. 
 I heard you d arrived, and would have dropped 
 in on you, but things are in a muddle here just 
 now. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Not only here, but every 
 where. 
 
 ASHER. You re right. The country s going 
 to the dogs. I don t know what will straighten 
 it out. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Intelligence, open-minded- 
 ness, cooperation, Asher. 
 
 ASHER (arrested: looking at him). Hum! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (leaving him and going up to 
 TIMOTHY). You don t remember me, Timothy? 
 
 TIMOTHY. Sure and I do, sir, though you 
 were only a little lad. You mind me of your 
 father, your smile, like. He was the grand, 
 simple man ! It s happy I am to see you back 
 in Foxon Falls. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Yes, I ve been ordered to the 
 rear. 
 
 TIMOTHY. The rear, is it? I m thinking 
 
22 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 we ll be fighting this war in Foxon Falls, too. 
 DR. JONATHAN. Yes, much of it will be 
 fought behind the battle lines. 
 
 AUGUSTA. You think the Germans will come 
 over here? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. No, but the issue is over 
 here already. 
 
 (DR. JONATHAN picks up her ball of wool, 
 
 which has fallen to the floor.} 
 AUGUSTA (looking at him apprehensively, puz 
 zled). Thank you, Jonathan. 
 
 (She turns to TIMOTHY, who has started to 
 ward the door, lower right) 
 Wait a moment, Timothy, I want to ask you 
 about your children. What do you hear from 
 Minnie? I always took an interest in her, you 
 know, especially when she was in the tool pack 
 ing department of the shops, and I had her in 
 my Bible class. I appreciated your letting her 
 come, an Irishman and a Catholic as you are. 
 TIMOTHY. The Church has given me up as a 
 heathen, ma am, when I married your cook, and 
 she a Protestant. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I ve been worried about Minnie 
 since she went to Newcastle. She has so much 
 vitality, and I m afraid she s pleasure loving 
 
DR. JONATHAN 23 
 
 though she seemed to take to religion with her 
 whole soul. And where s Jamesy? 
 
 TIMOTHY. Jamesy, is it? It s gone to the 
 bad entirely he is, with the drink. He left the 
 shops when the twelve-hour shifts began 
 wherever he s at now. It s home Minnie came 
 from Newcastle yesterday, ma am, for a visit, 
 she s outside there now, with Bert, they 
 walked along with me. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Bring them in, I want to see them, 
 especially Minnie. I must say I m surprised 
 she should have come home without calling on 
 me. 
 
 TIMOTHY. I ll get them, ma am. 
 
 (He goes out of the door, upper right. 
 GEORGE, who has been palpably ill at ease 
 during this conversation, now makes for 
 the door, lower right.) 
 AUGUSTA. Where are you going, my dear? 
 GEORGE (halting). I thought I d look around 
 and see if I d forgotten anything, mother. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Stay with us, there s plenty of 
 time. 
 
 (TIMOTHY returns through the doorway, up 
 per right, with BERT, but without MIN 
 NIE.) 
 TIMOTHY. It s disappeared entirely she is, 
 
24 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 ma am, here one minute and there the next, 
 the way with young people nowadays. And 
 she s going back to Newcastle this afternoon, to 
 her job at the Wire Works. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I must see her before she goes. 
 I feel in a measure responsible for her. You ll 
 tell her? 
 
 TIMOTHY. I ll tell her. 
 
 AUGUSTA. How are you getting along, Bert? 
 
 BERT. Very well, thank you, Mrs. Pindar. 
 
 ( The MAID enters, lower right.) 
 MAID. Miss Thorpe wishes to speak with you, 
 ma am. 
 
 AUGUSTA (gathering up her knitting). It s 
 about the wool for the Red Cross. 
 
 (Exit, lozver right.) 
 
 GEORGE (shaking hands with BERT). Hello, 
 Bert, how goes it ? 
 
 BERT. All right, thank you, lieutenant. 
 GEORGE. Oh, cut out the title. 
 
 (BERT FARRELL is about twenty three. He 
 wears a brown flannel shirt and a blue 
 four-in-hand tie, and a good ready-made 
 suit. He holds his hat in front of him. 
 He is a self-respecting, able young Irish 
 American of the blue-eyed type that have 
 
DR. JONATHAN 25 
 
 died by thousands on the battle fields of 
 France, and whose pictures may be seen 
 in our newspapers.) 
 
 ASHER. You re not working today, Bert? 
 
 BERT. I ve left the shops, Mr. Pindar, I got 
 through last night. 
 
 ASHER. Left the shops ! You didn t say any 
 thing about this, Timothy! 
 
 TIMOTHY. No, sir, you have trouble enough 
 today. 
 
 ASHER (to BERT). Why did you leave? 
 
 BERT. I m going to enlist, Mr. Pindar, with 
 the Marines. From what I ve heard of that 
 corps, I think I d like to join it. 
 
 ASHER (exasperated). But why do you do 
 a thing like this when you must know I need 
 every man here to help turn out these machines ? 
 And especially young men like you, good mechan 
 ics ! If you wanted to serve your country, you 
 were better off where you were. I got you ex 
 empted (catching himself) I mean, you were 
 exempted from the draft. 
 
 BERT. I didn t want to be exempted, sir. 
 More than four hundred of the boys have gone 
 from the shops, as well as Mr. George here, and 
 I couldn t stand it no longer. 
 
26 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 ASHER. What s Mr. George got to do with 
 it? The cases are different. 
 
 BERT (stoutly). I don t see that, Mr. Pindar. 
 Every man, no matter who he is, has to decide 
 a thing like this for himself. 
 
 GEORGE. Bert s right, dad. 
 
 ASHER. You say he s right, when you know 
 that I need every hand I can get to carry out 
 this contract? 
 
 GEORGE. He s going to make a contract, too. 
 He s giving up all he has. 
 
 ASHER. And you approve of this, Timothy? 
 
 TIMOTHY. Sure, I couldn t stop him, Mr. 
 Pindar! And it s proud I am of him, the same 
 as you are of Mr. George, that he d be fighting 
 for America and liberty. 
 
 ASHER. Liberty ! License is what we re get 
 ting now ! The workman thinks he can do as 
 he pleases. And after all I ve done for my 
 workmen, building them a club house with a 
 piano in it, and a library and a billiard table, try 
 ing to do my best to make them comfortable and 
 contented. I pay them enough to buy pianos and 
 billiard tables for themselves, and you tell me 
 they want still higher wages. 
 
 TIMOTHY. They re saying they can go down 
 
DR. JONATHAN 27 
 
 to the shipyards, where they d be getting five 
 dollars and thirty cents a day. 
 
 ASHER. Let them go to the shipyards, if they 
 haven t any sense of gratitude! What else do 
 they say? 
 
 TIMOTHY. That you have a contract, sir, and 
 making millions out of it. 
 
 ASHER. What can they know about my 
 profits? 
 
 TIMOTHY. It s just that, sir, they know 
 nothing at all. But they re saying they ought to 
 know, since things is different now, and they re 
 working for the war and the country, the same 
 as yourself. 
 
 ASHER. Haven t I established a system of 
 bonuses, to share my profits with the efficient 
 and the industrious? 
 
 TIMOTHY. They don t understand the bo 
 nuses, how you come by them. Autocracy is 
 the word they use. And they say you put up a 
 notice sudden like, without asking them, that 
 there d be two long shifts instead of three eight- 
 hour ones. They re willing to work twelve hours 
 on end, for the war, they say, but they d want 
 to be consulted. 
 
 ASHER. What business is it of theirs? 
 
28 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 TIMOTHY. Well, it s them that has to do the 
 hard work, sir. There was a meeting last night, 
 I understand, with Rench and Hillman and a 
 delegate come from Newcastle making speeches, 
 the only way they d get their rights would be for 
 you to recognize the union. 
 
 ASHER. I ll never recognize a union! I 
 won t have any outsiders, meddlers and crooks 
 dictating my business to me. 
 
 TIMOTHY. I ve been with you thirty years, 
 come December, Mr. Pindar, and you ve been a 
 good employer to me. I don t hold with the 
 unions you know it well, sir, or you wouldn t 
 be asking me advice. I m telling you what 
 they re saying. 
 
 ASIIER. I didn t mean to accuse you, you ve 
 been a good and loyal employee that s why I 
 sent for you. Find out what their game is, and 
 let me know. 
 
 TIMOTHY. It s not a detective I am, Mr. 
 Pindar. I m a workman meself. That s an 
 other thing they re saying, that you d pay detec 
 tives to go among them, like workingmen. 
 
 ASHER (impatiently). I m not asking you to 
 be a detective, I only want you to give me 
 warning if we are to have a strike. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 29 
 
 TIMOTHY. I ve warned you, sir, if it s only 
 for the sake of beating the Germans, the dirty 
 devils. 
 
 GEORGE (turning to BERT). Well, here s wish 
 ing you luck, Bert, and hoping we ll meet over 
 there. I know how you feel, you want to be 
 in it, just as I do. 
 
 ASHER (turning). Perhaps I said more than 
 I meant to, Bert. I ve got to turn out these ma 
 chines in order that our soldiers may have shrap 
 nel to fight with, and what with enlistments and 
 the determination of unscrupulous workmen to 
 take advantage of the situation, I m pretty hard 
 pressed. I can t very well spare steady young 
 men like you, who have too much sense and 
 too much patriotism to mix yourselves up 
 with trouble makers. But I, too, can understand 
 your feeling, I d like to be going myself. 
 You might have consulted me, but your 
 place will be ready for you when you come 
 back. 
 
 BERT. Thank you, sir. (He turns his hat 
 over in his hands.) Maybe it would be fair to 
 tell you, Mr. Pindar, that I ve got a union card 
 in my pocket. 
 
 ASHER. You, Timothy Farrell s son! 
 
30 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 TIMOTHY. What s that? And never a word 
 to me ! 
 
 BERT (to TIMOTHY). Why wouldn t I join 
 the union? I took out the card this morning, 
 when I see that that s the only way we ll get 
 what s coming to us. We ain t got a chance 
 against the employers without the union. 
 
 TIMOTHY. God help me, to think my son 
 would join the union, and he going to be a 
 soldier! 
 
 BERT (glancing at GEORGE). I guess there ll 
 be other union men in the trenches besides me. 
 
 ASHER. Soldier or no soldier, I ll never em 
 ploy any man again who s joined a union. 
 
 GEORGE (perturbed). Hold on, dad! 
 
 ASHER. I mean what I say, I don t care who 
 he is. 
 
 BERT (who retains his self-possession). Ex 
 cuse me, Mr. Pindar, but I d like to ask you a 
 question I ve heard the men talking about this 
 in the shops. You don t like it if we go off to 
 fight, but if we join the union you fire us, no mat 
 ter how short-handed you are. 
 
 ASHER. It s a principle with me, I won t 
 have any outside agency dictating to me. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 31 
 
 BERT. But if it came to recognizing the 
 union, or shutting down? 
 
 ASHER. I d shut down tomorrow. 
 
 ( GEORGE, who sees the point, makes a gesture 
 as if about to interrupt.) 
 
 BERT. That s what I m getting at, Mr. Pindar. 
 You say you d shut down for a principle, whether 
 the government gets the machines or not. And 
 the men say they d join the union for a principle, 
 whether the government gets the machines or 
 not. It looks to me as if both was hindering the 
 war for a principle, and the question is, which 
 principle is it that agrees best with what we re 
 fighting for? 
 
 ASHER. No man joins a union for a principle, 
 but for extortion. I can t discuss it, I won t ! 
 
 BERT. I m sorry, sir. 
 
 (He turns to go out, lower right.) 
 
 GEORGE (overtaking him and grasping his 
 hand). So long, Bert. I ll look you up, over 
 there ! 
 
 BERT (gazing at him). All right, Mr. George. 
 
 GEORGE. Goodbye, Timothy. Don t worry 
 about the boy. 
 
 TIMOTHY, It s proud I am to have him go, 
 
32 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 Mr. George, but I can t think why he d be 
 joining the union, and never telling me. 
 
 (He stands for a moment troubled, glancing 
 at ASHER, torn between loyalty to his em 
 ployer and affection for his son. Then he 
 goes out slowly, upper right. All the 
 zvhile DR. JONATHAN has stood in the rear 
 of the room, occasionally glancing at 
 GEORGE. He now comes forward, unob 
 trusively, yet withal impressively.) 
 ASHER. I never expected to hear such talk 
 from a son of Timothy Farrell, a boy I thought 
 was level-headed. (To DR. JONATHAN) What 
 do you think of that? You heard it. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Well, he stated the issue, 
 Asher. 
 
 ASHER. The issue of what? 
 DR. JONATHAN. Of the new century. 
 GEORGE. The issue of the new century ! 
 ASHER. You re right, we ve got to put these 
 people down. After the war they ll come to 
 heel, we ll have a cheap labour market then. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Humanity has always been 
 cheap, but we re spending it rather lavishly just 
 now. 
 
 ASHER, You mean that there will be a scarcity 
 
DR. JONATHAN 33 
 
 of labour ? And that they can continue to black 
 mail us into paying these outrageous wages? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. When you pay a man 
 wages, Asher, you own him, until he is turned 
 over to somebody else. 
 
 ASHER (puzzled, a little suspicious for the first 
 time). I own his labour, of course. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Then you own his body, and 
 his soul. Perhaps he resents being regarded as 
 a commodity. 
 
 ASHER. What else is labour? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. How would you like to be a 
 commodity ? 
 
 ASHER. I? I don t see what that has to do 
 with it. These men have no consideration, no 
 gratitude, after the way I ve treated them. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Isn t that what they object 
 to? 
 
 ASHER. What? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. To being treated. 
 
 ASHER. Object to kindness? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. To benevolence. 
 
 ASHER. Well, what s the difference? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. The difference between self- 
 respect and dependence. 
 
 ASHER, Are are you a Socialist? 
 
34 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. No, I m a scientist. 
 
 (AsiiER is standing staring at him when the 
 
 MAID enters, lower right.) 
 MAID. Your long distance call to Washing 
 ton, sir. 
 
 ASHER. Very well. 
 
 (As he starts to go out he halts and looks at 
 DR. JONATHAN again, and then abruptly 
 leaves the room, lower right, folloiving the 
 MAID.) 
 
 GEORGE (ivho has been regarding DR. JONA 
 THAN: after a moment s hesitation). You seem 
 to think there s something to be said for the 
 workman s attitude, Dr. Jonathan. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. What is his attitude, George? 
 GEORGE. Well, you heard Bert just now. I 
 thought he had poor old dad on the hip when 
 he accused the employer of holding up the war, 
 too. But after all, what labour is after is more 
 money, isn t it? and they re taking advan 
 tage of a critical situation to get it. And when 
 they get money, most of them blow it in on 
 sprees. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. George, what are you going 
 to France to fight for? 
 
 GEORGE, Germany s insulted our flag, mur- 
 
DR. JONATHAN 35 
 
 dered our people on the high seas and wants to 
 boss the world. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (smiling). The issue, then, is 
 human freedom. 
 
 GEORGE. Sure thing! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. And you think every man 
 and woman in this country is reasonably free? 
 
 GEORGE. Every man can rise if he has the 
 ability. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. What do you mean by rise? 
 
 GEORGE. He can make money, set up for him 
 self and be his own boss. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. In other words, he can be 
 come free. 
 
 GEORGE (grinning). I suppose that s one way 
 of putting it. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Money gives him freedom, 
 doesn t it ? Money gave you yours, to go to 
 school and college until you were twenty four, 
 and get an education, such as it was. 
 
 GEORGE. Such as it was ! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Money gave you the choice 
 of engaging in an occupation in which you could 
 take an interest and a pride, and enabled you oc 
 casionally to go on a spree, if you ever went on 
 a spree, George. 
 
36 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 GEORGE. Once in a while. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. But this craving for amuse 
 ment, for excitement and adventure isn t peculiar 
 to you and me. Workingmen have it too, and 
 working girls. 
 
 GEORGE. You re a wise guy, I guess. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Oh no, not that ! But I ve 
 found out that you and I are not so very different 
 from Timothy Farrell and his children, Bert 
 and Jamesy and Minnie. 
 
 GEORGE (startled, and looking around to 
 folloiv DR. JONATHAN S glance toivard the 
 windows). What do you know about 
 them? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Oh, nothing at first hand. 
 But I can see why Bert s going to the war, and 
 why Jamesy took to drink, and why Minnie left 
 Foxon Falls. 
 
 GEORGE. The deuce you can! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. And so can you, George. 
 When you get back from France you will know 
 what you have been fighting for. 
 
 GEORGE. And what s that? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Economic freedom, without 
 which political freedom is a farce. Industrial 
 democracy. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 37 
 
 GEORGE. Industrial democracy! Well, it 
 wasn t included in my education at Harvard. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Our education begins, unfor 
 tunately, after we leave Harvard, with Bert 
 and Jamesy and Minnie. And here s Minnie, 
 now! 
 
 GEORGE (hastily). I ll beat it! Mother wants 
 to talk to her. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (his hand on GEORGE S arm). 
 No, wait. 
 
 (Enter, lower right, AUGUSTA, followed by 
 MINNIE FARRELL. MINNIE, AUGUSTA S 
 back being turned toivard her, gives 
 GEORGE a wink, which he acknowledges, 
 and then glances toiuard DR. JONATHAN. 
 AUGUSTA, with her knitting, seats herself 
 in an armchair. Her attitude is somezvhat 
 inquisitorial; her tone, as she addresses 
 MINNIE, non-committal. She is clearly 
 offended by MINNIE S poise and good- 
 natured self-assertion.) 
 
 AUGUSTA. You remember Mr. Pindar, Min 
 nie. 
 
 MINNIE (demurely). Glad to meet you 
 again, Mr. Pindar. I hear you re going off to the 
 war. Well, that s great. 
 
38 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 GEORGE (squeezing her hand; she winces a lit 
 tle). Oh, yes, I remember Minnie. 
 
 AUGUSTA. And this is Dr. Jonathan Pindar. 
 
 MINNIE (who has been eyeing DR. JONATHAN 
 as a possible enemy; with reserve). Glad to 
 meet you, I m sure. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (smiling at her as he takes her 
 hand). The pleasure is mutual. 
 
 MINNIE (puzzled, but somewhat reassured). 
 Glad to meet you. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I ve come to live in Foxon 
 Falls. I hope we ll be friends. 
 
 MINNIE. I hope so. I m going back to New 
 castle this afternoon, there s nothing doing here. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Would you stay, if there 
 were something doing? 
 
 MINNIE. I I don t know. What would I 
 be doing here ? 
 
 AUGUSTA (disapprovingly, surveying MINNIE S 
 costume). I don t think I should have recog 
 nized you, Minnie. 
 
 MINNIE. City life agrees with me, Mrs. Pin 
 dar. But I needed a little rest cure, and I came 
 to see what the village looked like. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. A sort of sentimental jour 
 ney, Minnie. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 39 
 
 MINNIE (flashing a look at GEORGE, and an 
 other at DR. JONATHAN). Well, you might call 
 it that. I get you. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Minnie, what church do you attend 
 in Newcastle ? 
 
 MINNIE. Well, I haven t got a seat in any 
 particular church, Mrs. Pindar. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I didn t expect you to go to the ex 
 pense of getting a seat. I hope you delivered the 
 letter our minister gave you to the minister of the 
 First Church in Newcastle. 
 
 MINNIE. No, I didn t, Mrs. Pindar, and that s 
 the truth. I never went near a church. 
 
 AUGUSTA (drily). It s a pity you ever went 
 to Newcastle, I think. 
 
 MINNIE. It s some town! Every time you 
 ride into it you see a big sign, " Welcome to New 
 castle, population one hundred and six thousand, 
 and growing every day. Goodbye, and thank 
 you ! " 
 
 AUGUSTA (knitting). You drive about in au 
 tomobiles ! 
 
 MINNIE. Oh, sometimes I get a joy ride. 
 
 AUGUSTA. It grieves me to hear you talk in 
 this way. I knew you were pleasure loving, I 
 thought I saw certain tendencies in you, yet you 
 
40 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 seemed to realize the grace of religion when you 
 were in my Bible class. Your brother Jamesy 
 took to drink 
 
 MINNIE. And I took to religion. You meant 
 to be kind, Mrs. Pindar, and I thank you. But 
 now I know why Jamesy took to drink it was 
 for the same reason I took to religion. 
 
 AUGUSTA (scandalized). Minnie! 
 
 MINNIE. We were both trying to be free, to 
 escape. 
 
 AUGUSTA. To escape? From what? 
 
 MINNIE (with a gesture indicating futility). 
 I guess it would be pretty hard to get it across to 
 you, Mrs. Pindar. But I was working ten hours 
 a day packing tools in your shops, and all you 
 gave me when the whistle blew was Jesus. 
 (A pause: GEORGE takes a step toivard her.) 
 
 Jamesy took to drink, and I took to Jesus. 
 I m not saying anything against Him. He had 
 His life, but I wanted mine. Maybe He would 
 have understood. 
 
 (Turning impulsively toward DR. JONA 
 THAN.) 
 
 I ve got a hunch that you understand. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Minnie, I can t let you talk about 
 religion in this way in my presence. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 41 
 
 MINNIE. I m sorry, Mrs. Pindar, I knew it 
 wasn t no use to come and see you, I told father 
 so. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I suppose, if you re determined to 
 continue this life of-- (she catches herself) 
 I can t stop you. 
 
 MINNIE (flaring up). What life? Don t 
 worry about me, Mrs. Pindar, I get twenty five 
 dollars a week at the Shale Works making barb 
 wire to trip up the Huns with, enough to get 
 nice clothes (she glances down at her dress) 
 and buy good food, and have a good time on 
 the side. 
 
 AUGUSTA (whose conceptions of what she be 
 lieves to be MINNIE S kind are completely upset}. 
 You still work? 
 
 MINNIE. Work! Sure I work. I wouldn t 
 let any man get a strangle hold on me. And I 
 don t kick at a little overtime, neither. I m work 
 ing for what he s going to fight for (indicating 
 GEORGE) it ain t for myself only, but for every 
 body that ain t been free, all over the world. 
 (To DR. JONATHAN.) Ain t that right? 
 
 (She does not wait for his nod of approval.} 
 
 I was just saying this morning (she looks 
 tozvard GEORGE and catches herself) I ve been 
 
42 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 wishing all along I could do more go as a nurse 
 for some of the boys. 
 
 AUGUSTA. A nurse ! 
 
 MINNIE (to DR. JONATHAN). If I was a man, 
 I d have been a doctor, like you. Sick people 
 don t bother me, I give myself to em. Before 
 mother died, when she was sick, she always said 
 I d ought to have been a nurse. (A pause.) 
 Well, I guess I ll go along. The foreman only 
 give me a couple of days off to see the old home 
 town. 
 
 GEORGE. Hold on, Minnie. 
 
 MINNIE. What is it? 
 
 GEORGE (to AUGUSTA). Minnie and I are old 
 friends, mother. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Old friends? 
 
 GEORGE. Yes. I knew her very well be 
 fore she went away from Foxon Falls, and I 
 went to Newcastle and took her out for a drive 
 in my car. 
 
 MINNIE (vehemently). No, you never. 
 
 GEORGE. Why do you deny it? 
 
 MINNIE. There s nothing to it. 
 
 AUGUSTA (aghast). George! 
 
 GEORGE. Well, it s true. I m not ashamed of 
 it, though Minnie appears to be. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 43 
 
 MINNIE (on the verge of tears ). If you 
 wasn t ashamed, why didn t you tell her before? 
 I m not ashamed of it, neither. It was natural. 
 AUGUSTA (after a pause, with a supreme effort 
 to meet the situation). Well, I suppose men are 
 different. But there s no excuse for you, after 
 all I tried to do for you. 
 
 MINNIE. Thank God men are different! 
 (AUGUSTA rises. The ball of wool drops to 
 the Hoor again, and DR. JONATHAN picks 
 it up.) 
 
 GEORGE. Mother, I d like to tell you about it. 
 You don t understand. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I m afraid I do understand, dear. 
 (As she leaves the room, with dignity, 
 GEORGE glances appealingly at DR. JONA 
 THAN.) 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (going up to MINNIE and tak 
 ing her hand). Do you think you d have time to 
 drop in to see me, Minnie, before your train goes ? 
 MINNIE (gazing at him; after a moment). 
 Sure ! I guess I d like to talk to you. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. It s the little white house 
 across the Common. 
 
 MINNIE. Oh, I know, that s been shut up all 
 these years. 
 
44 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. And is open now again. 
 (He goes out, lower right, and there is a brief 
 silence as the two look after him.) 
 
 MINNIE. Say, who is he? 
 
 GEORGE. Why, he s a cousin of mine 
 
 MINNIE. I don t mean that. He s somebody, 
 ain t he? 
 
 GEORGE. By jingo, I m beginning to think 
 he is! 
 
 (They stand gazing at one another.) 
 
 MINNIE (remembering her grievance: passion 
 ately). Now you ve gone and done it telling 
 your mother we were friends. 
 
 GEORGE. But we are aren t we? You 
 couldn t expect me to keep quiet, under the cir 
 cumstances. 
 
 MINNIE. She thinks I m not fit to talk to you. 
 Not that I care, except that I was fond of her, 
 she s been good to me in her way, and I felt real 
 bad when I went off to Newcastle with the letter 
 to the minister I never laid eyes on. She ll be 
 lieve you know what she ll believe, it ll trou 
 ble her. She s your mother, and you re going 
 away. You might have kept still. 
 
 GEORGE. I couldn t keep still. What would 
 you have thought of me? 
 
DR. JONATHAN 45 
 
 MINNIE. It don t make any difference what 
 I d have thought of you. 
 
 GEORGE. It makes a difference to me, and it 
 makes some difference what I think of myself. I 
 seem to be learning a good many things this 
 morning. 
 
 MINNIE. From him? 
 
 GEORGE. You mean Dr. Jonathan? 
 
 MINNIE. Yes. 
 
 GEORGE (reflecting). I don t know. I m 
 learning them from you, from everybody. 
 
 MINNIE. Maybe he put you wise. 
 
 GEORGE. Well, I don t feel wise. And seeing 
 you again this morning brought it all back to me. 
 
 MINNIE. You were only fooling. 
 
 GEORGE. I began that way, I ll own up. 
 But I told you I d never met a girl like you, 
 you re full of pep courage something I can t 
 describe. I was crazy about you, that s 
 straight, but I didn t realize it until you ran 
 off, and then I went after you, but it was no 
 good ! I don t claim to have been square with 
 you, and I ve been thinking well, that I m re 
 sponsible. 
 
 MINNIE. Responsible for what? 
 
 GEORGE. Well for your throwing yourself 
 
46 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 away down there at Newcastle. You re too 
 good. 
 
 MINNIE (-with heat). Throwing myself away? 
 
 GEORGE. Didn t you? Didn t you break 
 loose? have a good time? 
 
 MINNIE. Why wouldn t I have a good time? 
 That s what you were having, a good time with 
 me, wasn t it ? And say, did you ever stop to 
 think what one day of a working girl s life was 
 like? 
 
 GEORGE. One day? 
 
 MINNIE. With an alarm clock scaring you 
 out of sweet dreams in the winter, while it s 
 dark, and you get up and dress in the cold and 
 heat a little coffee over a lamp and beat it for the 
 factory, and stand on your feet all morning, 
 in a noise that would deafen you, feeding a thing 
 you ain t got no interest in ? It don t never need 
 no rest! By eleven o clock you think you re all 
 in, that the morning ll never end, but at noon you 
 get a twenty five cent feed that lasts you until 
 about five in the afternoon, and then you don t 
 know which way the machine s headed. I ve 
 often thought of one of them cutters at Shale s 
 as a sort of monster, watching you all day, wait- 
 
DR. JONATHAN 47 
 
 ing to get you when you re too tired to care. 
 (Dreamily.) When it looks all blurred, and you 
 want to put your hand in it. 
 
 GEORGE. Good God, Minnie ! 
 
 MINNIE. And when the whistle blows at night 
 all you have is your little hall bedroom in a room 
 ing house that smells of stale smoke and cabbage. 
 There s no place to go except the streets but 
 you ve just got to go somewhere, to break loose 
 and have a little fun, even though you re so tired 
 you want to throw yourself on the bed and cry. 
 (A pause.) 
 
 Maybe it s because you re tired. When you re 
 tired that way is when you want a good time 
 most. It s funny, but it s so. 
 (A pause.} 
 
 You ain t got no friends except a few girls 
 with hall bedrooms like yourself, and if a chance 
 comes along for a little excitement, you don t 
 turn it down, I guess. 
 
 GEORGE (after a pause). I never knew what 
 your life was like. 
 
 MINNIE. Why would you? with friends, 
 and everything you want, only to buy it? But 
 since the war come on, I tell you, I ain t kicking, 
 
48 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 I can go to a movie or the theatre once in a while, 
 and buy nice clothes, and I don t get so tired as I 
 used to. I don t want nothing from anybody, I 
 can take care of myself. It s money that makes 
 you free. 
 
 GEORGE. Money ! 
 
 MINNIE. When I looked into this rpyin this 
 morning and saw you standing here in your uni 
 form, I says to myself, "He s changed." Not 
 that you wasn t kind and good natured and gen 
 erous, George, but you didn t know. How could 
 you? You d never had a chance to learn any 
 thing! 
 
 GEORGE (bitterly, yet smiling in spite of him 
 self). That s so! 
 
 MINNIE. I remember that first night I ran 
 into you, I was coming home from your shops, 
 and you made love to me right off the bat ! And 
 after that we used to meet by the watering trough 
 on the Lindon road. We were kids then. And 
 it didn t make no difference how tired I was, I d 
 get over it as soon as I saw you. You were the 
 live wire ! 
 
 GEORGE. Minnie, tell me, what made you come 
 back to Foxon Falls today? 
 (He seises her hand.) 
 
DR. JONATHAN 49 
 
 MINNIE (struggling). Don t, George, don t 
 go and be foolish again ! 
 
 (The shop whistle blows. She pulls away 
 from him and backs toward the doorway, 
 upper right.) 
 
 There s the noon whistle! Goodbye, I ll be 
 thinking of you, over there. 
 
 GEORGE. I ll write to you. Will you write to 
 me, Minnie? 
 
 MINNIE (shaking her head). Don t lose any 
 sleep about me. Good luck, George ! 
 
 (She goes to the doorway, upper right, turns, 
 kisses her hand to GEORGE and disappears. 
 He goes to the doorway and gases after 
 her; presently he raises his hand and 
 waves in answer to another signal, and 
 smiles. He remains there until MINNIE 
 is out of sight, and then is about to come 
 back into the room when a man appears on 
 the sidewalk, seen through the windows. 
 The man is PRAG. He is a gaunt work 
 man, with high cheek bones and a rather 
 fanatical light in his blue eyes. He 
 stands motionless, gazing at the house.) 
 GEORGE (calling). Do you want anything, 
 Prag? 
 
50 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 PRAG. I joost come to look at your house, 
 where you live. It is no harm, is it? 
 GEORGE. None at all. 
 
 (PRAG continues to stare at the house, and 
 
 GEORGE obeys a sudden impulse.) 
 Won t you come in, Prag? 
 
 PRAG (looking fixedly at the house). No, I 
 stay here. 
 
 GEORGE. Come in a while, don t be unso 
 ciable. 
 
 (PRAG crosses the lawn and enters, upper 
 right. He surveys the room curiously, 
 defiantly, and then GEORGE in uniform, as 
 he comes down the stage.) 
 You re not working today? 
 
 PRAG (with bitter gloom). I lose my job, 
 you don t hear? No, it is nothings to you, and 
 you go avay to fight for liberty, ain t it? 
 GEORGE. How did you lose your job? 
 PRAG. The foreman come to me last night 
 und says, " Prag I hear you belong to the union. 
 You gets out." 
 
 GEORGE (after a moment s hesitation). But 
 there are plenty of other jobs these days. 
 You can go down to the coast and get more than 
 five dollars a day at a shipyard. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 51 
 
 PRAG. It is easy, yes, when you have a little 
 home bought already, and mortgaged, and chil- 
 drens who go to school here, and a wife a long 
 time sick. 
 
 GEORGE. I m sorry. But weren t you getting 
 along all right here, except your wife s illness? 
 I don t want to be impertinent, I recognize 
 that it s your affair, but I d like to know why you 
 joined the union. 
 
 PRAG. Why is it you join the army? To 
 fight for somethings you would give your life 
 for not so ? Und you are a soldier, vould 
 you run away from your comrades to live safe 
 and happy? No! That is like me. I lose my 
 job, I go away from my wife and childrens, but 
 it is not for me, it is for all, to get better things 
 for all, freedoms for all. 
 
 GEORGE. Then you think this isn t a free 
 country. 
 
 PRAG. When I sail up the harbour at New 
 York twenty years ago and see that Liberty shin 
 ing in the sun, I think so, yes. But now I know, 
 for the workmens, she is like the Iron Woman of 
 Nuremberg, with her spikes when she holds you 
 in her arms. You call me a traitor, yes, when I 
 say that. 
 
52 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 GEORGE. No I want to understand. 
 
 PRAG. I am born in Bavaria, but I am as 
 good an American as any, better than you, be 
 cause I know what I fight for, what I suffer for. 
 I am not afraid of the Junkers here, I have 
 spirits, but the Germans at home have no 
 spirits. You think you fight for freedoms, for 
 democracy, but you fight for this! (He waves 
 his hand to indicate the room.) If I had a mil 
 lion dollars, maybe I fight for it, too, I don t 
 know. 
 
 GEORGE. So you think I m going to fight for 
 this for money? 
 
 PRAG. Are you going to fight for me, for the 
 workmens und their childrens? No, you want 
 to keep your money, to make more of it from 
 your war contracts. It is for the capitalist sys 
 tem you fight. 
 
 GEORGE. Come, now, capital has some rights. 
 
 PRAG. I know this, that capital is power. 
 What is the workmen s vote against it? 
 against your newspapers and your system? 
 America, she will not be free until your money 
 power is broken. You don t like kings und em 
 perors, no, you say to us workmens, you are 
 not patriots, you are traitors if you do not work 
 
DR. JONATHAN 53 
 
 and fight to win this war for democracy against 
 kings. Are we fools that we should worry about 
 kings? Kings will fall of themselves. Now you 
 can put me in jail. 
 
 GEORGE. I don t want to put you in jail, God 
 knows ! How would you manage it ? 
 
 PRAG. Why does not the employer say to his 
 workmens, " This is our war, yours and mines. 
 Here is my contract, here is my profits, we will 
 have no secrets, we will work together und talk 
 together und win the war together to make the 
 world brighter for our childrens." Und then 
 we workmens say, " Yes, we will work night und 
 day so hard as we can, because we are free 
 mens." 
 
 (A fanatical gleam comes into his eyes.) 
 But your employer, he don t say that, no. He 
 says, " This is my contract, this is my shop, und 
 if you join the unions to get your freedoms you 
 cannot work with me, you are traitors ! " 
 
 (He rises to a frenzy of exaltation.) 
 After this there will be another war, and the 
 capitalists will be swept away like the kings ! 
 
 (He pauses; GEORGE is silent.) 
 Und now I go away, und maybe my wife she die 
 before I get to the shipyard at Newcastle. 
 
54 DR JONATHAN 
 
 (He goes slowly out, upper right, and 
 GEORGE does not attempt to stay him. 
 Enter ASHER, lower right.) 
 
 ASHER. I ve just called up the Department 
 in Washington and given them a piece of my 
 mind told em they d have to conscript labour. 
 Damn these unions, making all this trouble, 
 and especially today, when you re going off. I 
 haven t had a chance to talk to you. Well, you 
 know that I m proud of you, my boy. Your 
 grandfather went off to the Civil War when he 
 was just about your age. 
 
 GEORGE. And he knew what he was going to 
 fight for. 
 
 ASHER. What? 
 
 GEORGE. I thought I knew, this morning. 
 Now I m not so sure. 
 
 ASHER. You say that, when Germany in 
 tended to come over here and crush us, when she 
 got through with the Allies. 
 
 GEORGE. No, it s not so simple as that, dad, 
 it s bigger than that. 
 
 ASHER. Who s been talking to you? Jona 
 than Pindar ? I wish to God he d never come to 
 Foxon Falls ! I might have known what his 
 opinions would be, with his inheritance. (Re- 
 
DR. JONATHAN 55 
 
 proachfully.) I didn t suppose you could be so 
 easily influenced by sentimentalism, George, 
 I d hoped you d got over that. 
 
 GEORGE. Are you sure it s sentimentalism, 
 dad? Dr. Jonathan didn t say much, but I ll ad 
 mit he started me thinking. I ve begun to realize 
 a few things 
 
 ASHER. What things ? 
 
 GEORGE (glancing at the clock on the mantel). 
 I haven t got time to tell you, I m afraid I 
 couldn t make it clear, anyway, it isn t clear 
 in my own mind yet. But, go slow with this 
 labour business, dad, there s dynamite in it. 
 
 ASHER. Dynamite ? 
 
 GEORGE. Human dynamite, They re full of 
 it, we re full of it, too, I guess. They re not 
 so different from you and me, though I ll admit 
 that many of them are ignorant, prejudiced and 
 bitter. But this row isn t just the result of rest 
 lessness and discontent, that s the smoke, but 
 the fire s there, too. I ve heard enough this 
 morning to be convinced that they re struggling 
 for something fundamental, that has to do with 
 human progress, the issue behind the war. It s 
 obscured now, in the smoke. Now if that s so 
 you can t ignore it, dad, you can t suppress it, 
 
56 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 the only thing to do is to sit down with them and 
 try to understand it. If they ve got a case, if 
 the union has come to stay, recognize it and deal 
 with it. 
 
 ASHER. You you, my son, are not advising 
 me to recognize the union! To give our em 
 ployees a voice in our private affairs! 
 
 GEORGE (courageously). But is the war our 
 private affair, dad? Hasn t it changed things 
 already ? 
 
 ( ASHER makes a gesture of pain, of re 
 pudiation. GEORGE approaches him ap 
 pealing ly.) 
 
 Dad, you know how much we ve always been to 
 each other, I d hate to have any misunderstanding 
 between us, especially today. I ve always ac 
 cepted your judgment. But I m over twenty 
 one, I m going to fight this war, I ve got to make 
 up my own mind about it. 
 
 ASHER (extending his arms and putting his 
 hands on GEORGE S shoulders). Something s up 
 set you today, my boy, you don t know what 
 you re saying. When you get over there and 
 take command of your men you ll see things in a 
 truer proportion. 
 
 GEORGE. No, I can t leave it this way, dad. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 57 
 
 I ve come to feel this thing, it s got hold of me 
 now, I shan t change. And I ll be thinking of it 
 over there, all the time, if we don t talk it out. 
 
 ASHER. For God s sake, George, don t speak 
 of it again, don t think of it ! There s no sac 
 rifice I wouldn t make for you, in reason, but 
 you re asking me to go against my life-long con 
 victions. As your father, I forbid you to en 
 tertain such ideas (he breaks off, choking). 
 Don t speak of them, don t think of them! 
 
 (TIMOTHY FARRELL steps inside the door 
 way, upper right, followed by BERT, and 
 after a few moments by DR. JONATHAN.) 
 
 TIMOTHY. Excuse me sir, but you asked me 
 to be letting you know if I heard anything. 
 There s a meeting called for tonight, and they ll 
 strike on Monday morning. It s certain I am, 
 from the way the men are talking, unless ye d 
 agree to meet the committee this aftternoon and 
 come to an understanding like. 
 
 ASHER. Let them strike. If they burned 
 down the shops this afternoon, I wouldn t stop 
 them! (He waves TIMOTHY off.) My boy is 
 leaving for France, and I m going to New York 
 with him. 
 
 TIMOTHY (with a sudden flaring up of sym- 
 
58 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 pathy). It s meself has a boy going, too, Mr. 
 Pindar. And maybe it s almost the last I ll be 
 seeing of him, this noon hour. Just a word with 
 ye, before it s too late, sir. 
 
 ASHER (suppressing him). No, let them 
 strike ! 
 
 (He turns to hide his emotion and then 
 rushes out of the door, lower right. 
 GEORGE and BERT come forward and 
 stand with TIMOTHY, silent after ASHER S 
 dramatic exit; when TIMOTHY perceives 
 DR. JONATHAN.) 
 
 TIMOTHY. Did you see my Minnie, doctor? 
 She went to your house. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I met her on the street just 
 now, and left her with Mrs. Prag. 
 
 GEORGE. Prag s wife! You ve been to see 
 her? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Yes. Her condition is seri 
 ous. She needs a nurse, and Minnie volun 
 teered. 
 
 TIMOTHY. My Minnie, is it? Then she 
 won t be going back to Newcastle. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (looking at GEORGE). She 
 won t be going back to Newcastle. 
 
 TIMOTHY. That s Minnie! (he turns to 
 
DR. JONATHAN 59 
 
 GEORGE). Well, goodbye, Mr. George, I ll say 
 God bless you again. (He looks at BERT.) 
 You ll be fighting over there, the pair of you, for 
 freedom. Have an eye on him, sir, if you can, 
 give him some good advice. 
 
 GEORGE (his hand on BERT S shoulder). Bert 
 can take care of himself, I guess. / // be need 
 ing the advice ! 
 
 (He shakes hands with TIMOTHY.) 
 
 CURTAIN. 
 
ACT II 
 
 SCENE: A fairly large room in DR. JONA 
 THAN S house in Fo.von Falls, ivhich has been 
 converted into a laboratory. The house ante 
 dates the PINDAR mansion, having been built in 
 the first decade of the nineteenth century, and 
 though not large, has a certain distinction and 
 charm. The room has a panelled wainscoting 
 and a carved wooden mantel, middle left, 
 painted white, like the doors. Into the fire 
 place is set a Franklin stove. The windows 
 at the rear have small panes; the lower sashes 
 are raised; the tops of the hollyhocks and fox 
 gloves in the garden bed may be seen above 
 the window sills, and the apple trees beyond. 
 Under the windows is a long table, on which 
 are chemical apparatus. A white enamelled 
 sink is in the rear right corner. The walls are 
 whitewashed, the wooden floor bare. A door, 
 left, m the rear, leads into DR. JONATHAN S 
 60 
 
DR. JONATHAN 61 
 
 office; another, middle right, into a little front 
 hall 
 
 TIME: A July morning, 1918. 
 
 MINNIE FARRELL, in the white costume worn by 
 nurses and laboratory workers, is at the bench, 
 pouring liquid into a test tube and holding i/ 1 
 up to the light, when DR. JONATHAN enters 
 from the right. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Has anyone been in, Minnie ? 
 MINNIE (turning, with the test tube in her 
 hand). Now, what a question to ask, Dr. Jona 
 than ! Was there ever a morning or afternoon 
 that somebody didn t stray in here with their 
 troubles? (Fiercely.) They don t think a scien 
 tist has a real job, they don t understand, if 
 you put this across (she holds up the test tube) 
 you ll save the lives of thousands of soldiers, 
 and a few ordinary folks, too, I guess. But you 
 won t let me tell anyone. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. It will be time enough to tell 
 them when we do put it across. 
 
 MINNIE. But we re going to, that is, you re 
 going to. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. You re too modest, Minnie. 
 
62 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 MINNIE. Me modest! But what makes me 
 sore is that they don t give you a chance to put 
 this thing across. Dr. Semi s a back number, 
 and if they re sick they come here and expect you 
 to cure em for nothing. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. But they can t complain if I 
 don t cure them. 
 
 MINNIE. And half the time they ain t sick 
 at all, they only imagine it. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Well, that s interesting too, 
 part of a doctor s business. It s pretty hard 
 to tell in these days where the body ends and the 
 soul begins. 
 
 MINNIE. It looks like you re cutting out the 
 minister, too. You d ought to be getting his 
 salary. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Then I d have to do his job. 
 
 MINNIE. I get you you d be paid to give 
 em all the same brand of dope. You wouldn t 
 be free. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. To experiment. 
 
 MINNIE. You couldn t be a scientist. Say, 
 every time I meet the minister I want to cry, 
 he says to himself, " She ran away from Jesus 
 and went to the bad. What right has she got 
 to be happy?" And Mrs. Pindar s just the 
 
DR. JONATHAN 63 
 
 same. If you leave the straight and narrow 
 path you can t never get back they keep push 
 ing you off. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (who has started to work at 
 the bench). I ve always had my doubts about 
 your sins, Minnie. 
 
 MINNIE. Oh, I was a sinner, all right, 
 they ll never get that out of their craniums. 
 But being a sinner isn t a patch on being a scien 
 tist ! It s nearly a year now since you took me 
 in. The time s flown ! When I was in the Pin 
 dar Shops, and in the Wire Works at Newcastle 
 I could always beat the other girls to the Main 
 Street when the whistle blew, but now I m sorry 
 when night comes. I can t hardly wait to get 
 back here honest to God ! Say, Dr. Jona 
 than, I ve found out one thing, it s being in 
 the right place that keeps a man or a woman 
 straight. If you re in the wrong place, all the 
 religion in the world won t help you. If you re 
 doing work you like, that you ve got an interest 
 in, and that s some use, you don t need religion 
 (she pauses). Why, that s religion, it ain t 
 preaching and praying and reciting creeds, it s 
 doing it s fun. There s no reason why re 
 ligion oughtn t to be fun, is there? 
 
64 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. None at all ! 
 
 MINNIE. Now, if we could get everybody in 
 the right job, we wouldn t have any more wars, 
 I guess. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. The millennium always keeps 
 a lap ahead we never catch up with it. 
 
 MINNIE. Well, I don t want to catch up with 
 it. We wouldn t have anything more to do. 
 Say, it s nearly eleven o clock would you be 
 lieve it? and I ve been expecting Mr. Pindar 
 to walk in here with the newspaper. I forgot he 
 was in Washington. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. He was expected home this 
 morning. 
 
 MINNIE. What gets me is the way he hangs 
 around here, too, like everybody else, and yet 
 I ve heard him call you a Socialist, and swear he 
 hasn t any use for Socialists. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Perhaps he s trying to find 
 out what a Socialist is. Nobody seems to know. 
 
 MINNIE. He don t know, anyway. If it 
 hadn t been for you, his shops would have been 
 closed down last winter. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. It looks as if they d be closed 
 down now, anyway. 
 
 MINNIE (concerned, looking up). Is that so? 
 
DR. JONATHAN 65 
 
 Well, he won t recognize the union he doesn t 
 know what century he s living in. But he s hu 
 man, all the same, and he s good to the people 
 he s fond of, like my father, and he sure loves 
 George. He s got George s letters all wore 
 out, reading them to people. (A pause.) He 
 don t know where George is, does he, Dr. Jona 
 than? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Somewhere in France. 
 
 MINNIE. We spotted Bert because he s with 
 the Marines, at that place where they put a 
 crimp in the Huns the other day when they were 
 going to walk into Paris. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Chateau-Thierry. 
 
 MINNIE. I ll leave it to you. But say, Dr. 
 Jonathan, things don t look good to me, I m 
 scared we won t get enough of our boys over 
 there before the deal s closed up. I ve got so I 
 don t want to look at a paper. 
 
 (A brief silence.) 
 
 I never told you George wrote me a couple of let 
 ters, did I ? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. No, I m quite sure you 
 didn t. 
 
 MINNIE. I never told nobody. His father 
 and mother would be wild if they knew it I 
 
66 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 didn t answer them I just sent him two post 
 cards with no writing on except the address 
 just pictures. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Pictures? 
 
 MINNIE. One of the Pindar Church and the 
 other of the Pindar Shops. I guess he ll under 
 stand they were from me, all right. You see, 
 when I ran away from the Pindar Shops and 
 the Pindar Church I always connect them to 
 gether I was stuck on George. That s why 
 I ran away. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I see. 
 
 MINNIE. Oh, I never let him know. I don t 
 know why I told you I had to tell somebody, 
 and you won t give me away. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. You may count on me. 
 
 MINNIE. He didn t care nothing about me, 
 really. But you can t help liking George. He s 
 human, all right! If he was boss of the Pindar 
 Shops there wouldn t be any strike. 
 
 (A knock at the door, right.) 
 I wonder who s butting in now ! 
 
 (She goes to the door and jerks it open.) 
 
 (A man s voice, without.) Good morning, 
 Miss Farrell. Is the doctor in? 
 
 MINNIE. This is his busy day. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 67 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (going toward the door). Oh, 
 it s you, Hillman. Come in. 
 
 MINNIE. I guess I ll go for the mail. 
 
 (With a resigned expression she goes out 
 right as HILLMAN comes in, followed by 
 RENCH and FERSEN. They are the strike 
 committee. HILLMAN is a little man, 
 with red hair and a stiff, bristling red 
 moustache. He holds himself erect, and 
 walks on the balls of his feet, quietly. 
 RENCH is tall and thin, with a black mous 
 tache, like a seal s. He has a loud, nasal 
 voice, and an assertive manner. FERSEN 
 is a blond Swede.) 
 
 (DR. JONATHAN puts one or two objects in 
 place on the bench. His manner is casual 
 but cordial, despite the portentous air of 
 the Committee.) 
 
 (The men, their hats in their hands, go to 
 ward the bench and inspect the test tubes 
 and apparatus.) 
 
 RENCH (New England twang). Always man 
 age to have something on hand when you ain t 
 busy with the folks, doctor. It must be inter- 
 estin to fool with these here chemicals. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. It keeps me out of mischief. 
 
68 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 HILLMAN. I guess you haven t much time to 
 get into mischief. 
 
 FERSEN. We don t like to bother you. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. No bother, Fersen, sit 
 down. (He draws forward some chairs, and 
 they sit down.) How is the baby? 
 
 FERSEN. Oh, she is fine, now, since we keep 
 her outside in the baby carriage, like you tell us. 
 (FERSEN grins, and immediately becomes 
 serious again. A brief silence.) 
 
 HILLMAN (clearing his throat). The fact is, 
 Dr. Jonathan, the boys have struck, voted last 
 night to walk out at noon today. 
 
 FERSEN. We thought we tell you now. You 
 been such a good friend to us and our families. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. But isn t this rather sudden, 
 with Mr. Pindar in Washington? 
 
 RENCH. We couldn t wait no longer, he s 
 been standing us off for more than a year. 
 When he comes back from Washington there ll 
 be nothing doing. He s got to recognize the 
 union or lose his contract. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. He may prefer to lose his 
 contract. 
 
 RENCH. Well, he can afford to. Then he 
 can go to hell. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 69 
 
 HILLMAN. Hold on, Sam, that ain t no way 
 to talk to the doctor ! 
 
 RENCH. I didn t mean no disrespect to him. 
 He don t go round preachin , like some fellers I 
 could mention, but actions is louder than words. 
 Ain t that the reason we re here, because he sym 
 pathizes with us and thinks we re entitled to a 
 little more of this freedom that s bein handed 
 round? We want you to help us, doctor. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. It seems to me you ve come 
 a little late, Rench, after the event. 
 
 HILLMAN. Maybe if you d said a word, 
 they d never have voted to strike. 
 
 FERSEN. But you never said nothing, Doctor. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Well, when you get around 
 to admitting doctors to your labour unions, per 
 haps they ll talk. 
 
 HILLMAN. If all the doctors was like you! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Give em a chance, Hill- 
 man. 
 
 HILLMAN. We don t have to explain to you 
 why we want the union, it s the only way we ll 
 ever get a say about the conditions in which we 
 work and live, now that the day of individual 
 bargaining is gone by. You understand. Mr. 
 Pindar raised our wages when we threatened to 
 
70 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 strike last fall, but he calculates to drop em again 
 when the soldiers come home. 
 
 FERSEN (nodding). Sure thing! 
 
 HILLMAN. It s this way, doctor. We notice 
 Mr. Pindar comin in here to see you every day 
 or so, like the rest of Foxon Falls. And we 
 thought you could make him see this thing 
 straight, if any man could. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. So the shops will be idle. 
 
 RENCH. Not a shaft ll turn over till he recog 
 nizes the union. 
 
 HILLMAN. We don t want to do nothin to 
 obstruct the war, but we ve got to have our 
 rights. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Can you get your rights now, 
 without obstructing the war? 
 
 RENCH (aggressively). I get what you re 
 driving at, doctor. You re going to say that 
 we ve just reached quantity production on these 
 here machines, and if labour gets from under 
 now, the Huns win. But tell me this, where ll 
 labour be if America wins and our Junkers (he 
 pronounces the J) come out on top? as they 
 callate to. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (smiling). When a building 
 
DR. JONATHAN 71 
 
 with dry rot catches fire, Rench, can you put a 
 limit to how much of it will burn? 
 
 RENCH (after a pause). Maybe not. I get 
 you but 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. No nation, no set of men in 
 any nation can quench that fire or make the 
 world that is coming out of this war. They may 
 think they can, but they can t. 
 
 HILLMAN. That s so! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Germany will be beaten, be 
 cause it is the temper of the nation, the temper of 
 the times your temper. You don t want Ger 
 many to win, Rench? 
 
 RENCH. No, I guess not. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. And if you don t work here, 
 you ll go off to work somewhere else. 
 
 RENCH. Where they recognize the union. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. A good many of your 
 friends have enlisted, haven t they? (RENCH 
 nods.) And what do you suppose they are fight 
 ing for? 
 
 RENCH. For the same thing as we want, a 
 square deal. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. And what do you think 
 George Pindar is fighting for? 
 
72 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 RENCH. I ain t got nothing to say against 
 him. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. If you close down the Pindar 
 Shops, won t it mean that a few more of your 
 friends will lose their lives? These men are 
 fighting for something they don t yet understand, 
 but when they come back they ll know more about 
 it. Why not wait until George Pindar comes 
 back? 
 
 RENCH. He mayn t never come back. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Give him the opportunity. 
 
 RENCH. I like George, he s always been 
 friendly what we call a common man up here 
 in New England naturally democratic. But at 
 bottom employers is all alike. What makes you 
 think he won t take his ideas about labour from 
 the old man? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Because he belongs to the 
 generation that fights this war. 
 
 HILLMAN (shuffling). It ain t no use, doctor. 
 Unless you can bring Mr. Pindar round, the 
 shops ll close down. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I can t, but something else 
 can. 
 
 HILLMAN. What? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Circumstances. No man 
 
DR. JONATHAN 73 
 
 can swim up stream very long in these days, Hill- 
 man. Wait a while, and see. 
 
 RENCH (rising). We ve voted to put this 
 strike through, and by God, we ll do it. 
 
 FERSEN (rising and shaking hands with DR. 
 JONATHAN). It s fine weather, doctor. 
 
 RENCH (bursting into a laugh). He s like the 
 man who said, when Congress declared war, 
 " It s a fine day for it ! " It s a fine day for a 
 strike ! 
 
 HILLMAN (who has risen, shaking hands with 
 DR. JONATHAN). But you ll talk to Mr. Pindar, 
 anyway ? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (smiling}. Yes, I ll talk with 
 him. 
 
 (Enter TIMOTHY FARRELL, right, in working 
 clothes.) 
 
 TIMOTHY. Good morning, doctor. (Survey 
 ing the committee.) So it s here ye are, after 
 voting to walk out of the shops just when we re 
 beginning to turn out the machines for the sol 
 diers ! 
 
 RENCH. If we d done right we d have called 
 the strike a year ago. 
 
 TIMOTHY. Fine patriots ye are as I m 
 sure the doctor is after telling you to let the 
 
74 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 boys that s gone over there be murdered because 
 ye must have your union ! 
 
 HILLMAN. If Mr. Pindar recognizes the 
 union, Timothy, we ll go to work tomorrow. 
 
 TIMOTHY. He recognize the union! He ll 
 recognize the devil first! Even Dr. Jonathan, 
 with all the persuasion he has, couldn t get Mr. 
 Pindar to recognize the union. He ll close down 
 the shops, and it s hunting a job I ll be, and I 
 here going on thirty years. 
 
 RENCII. If he closes the shops what then? 
 The blood of the soldiers ll be on his head, not 
 ours. If there were fewer scabs in the coun 
 try - 
 
 HILLMAN. Hold on, Sam. 
 
 TIMOTHY. A scab, is it? If I was the gov 
 ernment do you know what I d do with the likes 
 of you striking in war time? I d send ye 
 over there to fight the Huns with your bare fists. 
 I m a workman meself, but I don t hold with 
 traitors. 
 
 RENCH. Who s a traitor? It s you who are 
 a traitor to your class. If a union card makes 
 a man a traitor, your own son had one in his 
 pocket the day he enlisted. 
 
 TIMOTHY. A traitor, and he fighting for his 
 
DR. JONATHAN 75 
 
 country, while you d be skulking here to make 
 trouble for it! 
 
 (MINNIE appears on the threshold of the 
 door, right. DR. JONATHAN, who is the 
 first to perceive from her expression that 
 there is something wrong, takes a step to 
 ward her. After a moment s silence she 
 comes up to TIMOTHY and lays a hand on 
 his arm.} 
 
 TIMOTHY (bewildered). What is it, Minnie? 
 MINNIE. Come home, father. 
 TIMOTHY. What is it? It s not a message 
 ye have it s not a message about Bert ? 
 
 (MINNIE continues to gaze at him.) 
 The one I d be looking for these many days ! 
 (He seises her.) Can t ye speak, girl? Is the 
 boy dead? 
 
 MINNIE. Yes, father. 
 
 TIMOTHY (puts his hand to his forehead and 
 lets fall his hat. DR. JONATHAN picks it up). 
 Me boy ! The dirty devils have killed him ! 
 MINNIE. Come, father, we ll go home. 
 TIMOTHY. Home, is it? It s back to the 
 shops I m going. (To the committee:) Damn ye 
 we ll run the shops in spite of ye ! Where s 
 me hat ? 
 
76 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 (DR. JONATHAN hands it to him as the com 
 mittee file out in silence.) 
 
 Come with me as far as the shops, Minnie. 
 Thank you, doctor (as DR. JONATHAN gives 
 him the hat) it s you I ll be wanting to see 
 when I get me mind again. 
 
 (DR. JONATHAN goes unth TIMOTHY and 
 MINNIE as far as the door, right, and then 
 comes back thoughtfully to the bench, 
 takes up a test tube and holds it to the. 
 light. Presently ASHER PINDAR appears 
 in the doorway, right.) 
 ASHER. Good morning, Jonathan. 
 DR. JONATHAN. Good morning, Asher. I 
 didn t know you d got back from Washington. 
 ASHER. I came in on the mail train. 
 DR. JONATHAN. Have you been to the office? 
 ASHER. No. I stopped at the house to speak 
 to Augusta, and then (he speaks a trifle apolo 
 getically) well, I went for a little walk. 
 DR. JONATHAN. A walk. 
 ASHER. I ve been turning something over in 
 my mind. And the country looked so fine and 
 fresh I crossed the covered bridge to the other 
 side of the river. When George was a child I 
 
DR. JONATHAN 77 
 
 used to go over there with him on summer after 
 noons. He was such a companionable little 
 shaver he d drop his toys when he d see me 
 coming home from the office. I can see him 
 now, running along that road over there, stop 
 ping to pick funny little bouquets the kind a 
 child makes, you know ox-eyed daisies and 
 red clover and buttercups all mixed up together, 
 and he d carry them home and put them in a 
 glass on the desk in my study. 
 
 (A pause.) 
 
 It seems like yesterday ! It s hard to realize that 
 he s a grown man, fighting over there in the 
 trenches, and that any moment I may get a tele 
 gram, or be called to the telephone Have you 
 seen today s paper? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. No. 
 
 ASHER. It looks like more bad news, the 
 Germans have started another one of those of 
 fensives. I was afraid they were getting ready 
 for it. West of Verdun this time. And George 
 may be in that sector, for all I know. How is 
 this thing going to end, Jonathan ? That damned 
 military machine of theirs seems invincible it 
 keeps grinding on. Are we going to be able to 
 
78 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 stem the tide, or to help stem it with a lot of raw 
 youths. They ve only had a year s training. 
 DR. JONATHAN. Germany can t win, Asher. 
 ASHER. What makes you say that? We 
 started several years too late. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. And Germany started several 
 centuries too late. 
 
 ASHER. My God, I hope you re right. I 
 don t know. 
 
 (He walks once or twice up and down the 
 
 room.) 
 I ve had another letter. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. This morning? 
 ASHER. No- I got it before I left for 
 Washington. But I didn t bring it in to you 
 I wanted to think about it. 
 
 (He draws the letter, together with a folded 
 paper, from his pocket, and lays the paper 
 down on the bench. Then he adjusts his 
 glasses and begins to read.) 
 " Dear dad, 
 
 " The sky is the colour of smeared charcoal. 
 We haven t been in the trenches long enough to 
 evolve web feet, so mine are resting on a duck 
 board spread over a quagmire of pea soup. The 
 Heinies are right here, soaking in another ditch 
 
DR. JONATHAN 79 
 
 beyond a barbed wire fence, about the distance of 
 second base from the home plate. Such is mod 
 ern war! 
 
 " But these aren t the things that trouble me. 
 Last night, when I was wet to the skin and listen 
 ing to the shells each singing its own song in 
 the darkness I was able to think with aston 
 ishing ease better than if I were sitting at a 
 mahogany desk in a sound proof room! I was 
 thinking over the talk we had the day I left home, 
 do you remember it ? about the real issue 
 of this war. I ve thought of it time and again, 
 but I ve never written you about it. Since I 
 have been in France I have had a liberal educa 
 tion gathered from all sorts and conditions of 
 men. Right here in the trench near me are a 
 street car conductor, a haberdasher, a Swedish 
 farm hand, a grocery clerk, a college professor, 
 a Pole from the Chicago Stock Yards, an Irish 
 American janitor of a New York apartment 
 house, and Grierson from Cleveland, whose 
 father has an income of something like a million 
 a year. We have all decided that this is a war 
 for the under dog, whether he comes from Bel 
 gium or Armenia or that so-called land of De 
 mocracy, the United States of America. The 
 
8o DR. JONATHAN 
 
 hope that spurs us on and makes us willing to 
 endure these swinish surroundings and die here 
 in the mud, if need be, is that the world will now 
 be reorganized on some intelligent basis ; that 
 Grierson and I, if we get back, won t have to rot 
 on a large income and petrified ideas, but will 
 have some interesting and creative work to do. 
 Economic inequalities must be reduced, and those 
 who toil must be given a chance to live, not 
 merely to exist. Their lives must include a lit 
 tle leisure, comfortable homes, art and beauty and 
 above all an education that none of us, especially 
 those of us who went to universities, never got, 
 but which now should be available for all. 
 
 "The issue of this war is industrial democracy, 
 without which political democracy is a farce. 
 That sentence is Dr. Jonathan s. But when I 
 was learning how to use the bayonet from a Brit 
 ish sergeant in Picardy I met an English manu 
 facturer from Northumberland. He is tempo 
 rarily an officer. I know your opinion of theo 
 rists, but this man is working out the experiment 
 with human chemicals. After all, the Constitu 
 tion of the United States, now antiquated and 
 revered, once existed only in the brains of French 
 theorists ! In the beginning was the Word, but 
 
DR. JONATHAN 81 
 
 the deed must follow. This Englishman, whose 
 name is Wray, has given me the little pamphlet 
 he wrote from his experience, and I shall send it 
 to you. 
 
 " Though I am writing this letter in what to 
 me is a solemn and undoubtedly exalted hour, 
 I am sure that my mind was never clearer or 
 saner. Dad, I have set my heart on inaugurating 
 an experiment in industrial democracy in Foxon 
 Falls ! I d like to be able to think if anything 
 happened to me that the Pindar shops were 
 among the first in America to recognize that we 
 are living in a new era and a changed world/ 
 (ASHER walks over to the bench and lays 
 
 dozvn the open letter on it.) 
 If anything should happen to that boy, Jonathan, 
 there wouldn t be anything in life left for me! 
 Industrial democracy! So you put that into his 
 head ! Socialism, I suppose. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. No, experimental science. 
 
 ASHER. Call it what you like. What sur 
 prises me is, when I look back over the months 
 you ve been here, how well we ve got along in 
 spite of your views. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Why not say in spite of 
 yours, Asher? 
 
82 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 ASHER (smiling involuntarily). Well, it s 
 been a comfort to drop in here and talk to you, 
 in spite of what you believe. You ve got the gift 
 of sympathy, Jonathan. But I don t approve of 
 you re spending your time in this sort of work 
 (he waves a hand toward the bench) which 
 may never come to anything, and in doctoring 
 people for nothing and patching up their troubles. 
 I daresay you enjoy it, but what worries me is 
 how you are going to live? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. By practising your cardinal 
 virtue, thrift. 
 
 ASHER. I ve got a proposal to make to you 
 part of a scheme I ve been turning over in my 
 mind for the last six months and when 
 George s letter came I decided to put it through. 
 I went to New York and had Sterry, a corpora 
 tion lawyer, draw it up. I m going to prove I m 
 not a mossback. It will reorganize the Pindar 
 Shops. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Well, that s good news. 
 
 ASHER. First, with reference to your part in 
 it, I shall establish a free hospital for my em 
 ployees, and put you in charge of it, at a salary 
 of five thousand a year. After all, you re the 
 
DR. JONATHAN 83 
 
 only Pindar left except George, and I m satis 
 fied that as a doctor you re up to the job, since 
 you ve driven Dr. Senn out of business. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Practical proof, Asher. 
 Fortunately Dr. Senn has enough to live on. 
 
 ASHER. In offering you this position I have 
 only one stipulation to make (he clears his 
 throat) it s about Minnie Farrell. I think the 
 world of Timothy, I wouldn t willingly hurt his 
 feelings, but I can t have Minnie with you in the 
 hospital, Jonathan. You deserve a great deal of 
 credit for what you ve done for the girl, you ve 
 kept her out of mischief, but considering her past, 
 her life at Newcastle well, even if I approved 
 of having her in the hospital Augusta would 
 never hear of it. And then she had some sort 
 of an affair with George I daresay there was 
 nothing wrong 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Wrong is a question of code, 
 Asher. We ve all had pasts What interests 
 me is Minnie s future. 
 
 ASHER. Of course you wouldn t decline my 
 offer on Minnie s account. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. On my own account, Asher. 
 We ll say no more about Minnie. 
 
84 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 ASHER. You refuse to help me, when I m 
 starting out on a liberal scheme which I thought 
 you would be the first to endorse? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I have not refused to help 
 you, but you have not told me the scheme? 
 
 ASHER. Well. (He taps the paper in his 
 hand.) For those employees who serve me 
 faithfully I have arranged pensions. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. For those, in other words, 
 who refrain from taking their destinies in their 
 own hands, and who do as you wish. 
 
 ASIIER. For those who are industrious and 
 make no trouble. And I have met the objection 
 that they have no share in the enterprise by al 
 lowing them, on favourable terms, to acquire 
 stock in the company. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I see. You will let them 
 acquire half of the stock, in order that they may 
 have an equal voice. 
 
 ASHER. Equal? It s my company, isn t it? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. At present. 
 
 ASHER. I supply the capital. Furthermore, 
 I have arranged for a system of workmen s com 
 mittees, which I recognize, and with which I 
 will continually consult. That s democratic 
 enough isn t it? If the men have any griev- 
 
DR. JONATHAN 85 
 
 ances, these will be presented in an orderly man 
 ner through the committees. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. And if you find the demands 
 reasonable, you grant them. 
 
 ASHER. Certainly. But one thing I set my 
 face against as a matter of principle, I won t 
 recognize the unions. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. But who is to enforce the 
 men s side of this contract? 
 
 ASHER. What do you mean? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. What guarantee have they, 
 other than a union organization, that you will 
 keep faith? 
 
 ASHER. My word. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Oh! 
 
 ASHER. Never in my life have I regarded my 
 possessions as my own. I am a trustee. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. The sole trustee. 
 
 ASHER. Under God. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. And you have God s proxy. 
 Well, it seems to me that that is a very delight 
 ful arrangement, Asher, William appears to 
 approve of it, too. 
 
 ASHER. William? William who? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. William Hohenzollern. 
 
 ASHER. You compare me to the Kaiser ! 
 
86 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Only in so far as you have 
 in common a certain benevolence, Asher. 
 Wouldn t your little plan, if your workmen ac 
 cepted it, keep you in as a benevolent autocrat ? 
 
 ASHER. Me? an autocrat? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. You are preparing to give 
 your men more privileges, and perhaps more 
 money on the condition that they will renounce 
 rights to which they are entitled as free men. 
 You are ready to grant anything but a constitu 
 tion. So is William. 
 
 ASHER. Do you seriously suggest that I give 
 labour a voice in my business? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Doesn t George suggest it, 
 when he pleads for industrial democracy? He 
 seems to think that he is ready to give his life 
 for it. And Bert Farrell has already given his 
 life for it. 
 
 ASHER (agitatedly). What? Timothy s boy, 
 Bert? Is he dead? Why didn t you tell me? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (gently). I ve had no chance. 
 Minnie and Timothy were here just before you 
 came in. 
 
 ASIIER. Oh God, I m sorry I m sorry for 
 Timothy. It might have been I ll go and see 
 Timothy. Where is he? at his house. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 87 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. No, at the shops. He 
 wanted to keep working until they close down. 
 
 ASHER (who has started for the door, right, 
 turns}. What do you mean? 
 
 (There is a knock at the door.) 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I mean that the moment has 
 come, Asher, to remember George. That your 
 opportunity is here heed it. 
 
 ASHER. I can t, I won t desert my princi 
 ples 
 
 (The knock is repeated. DR. JONATHAN 
 goes to the door and opens it. Enter, in 
 the order named, HILLMAN, RENCH and 
 FERSEN. 
 
 HILLMAN. Beg your pardon, Mr. Pindar, 
 we ve been waiting for you at the office, and we 
 heard you was here. 
 
 ASHER (facing them with a defiance almost 
 leonine). Well, what is it? 
 
 HILLMAN (glancing at DR. JONATHAN). 
 There s a matter we d like to talk over with you, 
 Mr. Pindar, as soon as convenient. 
 
 ASHER. This is as convenient as any time, 
 right now. 
 
 HILLMAN. The men voted to strike, last 
 night. Maybe Dr. Jonathan has told you. 
 
88 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 ASHER. Voted to strike behind my back while 
 I was in Washington attending to the nation s 
 business ! 
 
 RENCH. It ain t as if this was anything new, 
 Mr. Pindar, as if we hadn t been discussing this 
 here difference for near a year. You ve had 
 your warning right along. 
 
 ASHER. Didn t I raise your wages last Janu 
 ary? 
 
 HILLMAN. Wait a minute, Mr. Pindar. (He 
 looks at DR. JONATHAN.) It oughtn t to be only 
 what you say what capital says. Collective 
 bargaining is only right and fair, now that in 
 dividual bargaining has gone by. We want to 
 be able to talk to you as man to man, that s 
 only self-respecting on our part. All you ve got 
 to do is to say one word, that you ll recognize 
 the union, and I ll guarantee there won t be any 
 trouble. 
 
 RENCH. If you don t, we walk out at noon. 
 
 HILLMAN (with an attempt at conciliation). 
 I know if we could sit down and talk this thing 
 out with you, Mr. Pindar, you d see it reason 
 able. 
 
 ASHER. Reasonable? Treasonable, you 
 mean, to strike when the lives of hundreds of 
 
DR. JONATHAN 89 
 
 thousands of your fellow countrymen depend on 
 your labour. 
 
 RENCH. We ain t striking you re striking! 
 
 FERSEN (nodding). That s right! 
 
 RENCH. We re ready to go back to work this 
 afternoon if you treat us like Americans. (FER 
 SEN nods.) You say we re obstructing the war 
 by not giving in, what s the matter with you 
 giving in? Ain t the employers just as much 
 traitors as we ? 
 
 HILLMAN. Hold on, Sam, we won t gel 
 nowhere by calling names. Let s discuss il 
 cool! 
 
 ASHER. I refuse to discuss it. 
 
 (He takes the paper out of his pocket and 
 
 holds it up.) 
 
 Do you see this paper? It s a plan I had made, 
 of my own free will, for the betterment and 
 advancement of the working class. It was in 
 spired by the suggestion of my son, who is now 
 fighting in France. I came back to Foxon Falls 
 this morning happy in the hope that I was to do 
 something to encourage what was good in labour 
 and how have I been met? With a demand, 
 with a threat. I was a fool to think you could 
 stand decent treatment! 
 
90 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 (He seizes the paper, and tears it in two.) 
 
 HILLMAN. Wait a minute, Mr. Pindar. If 
 
 you won t listen to us, maybe Dr. Jonathan would 
 
 say a word for us. He understands how we feel. 
 
 ASHER (savagely tearing the paper in two, and 
 
 then again in four). That s my answer! I 
 
 won t have Dr. Pindar or anyone else interfering 
 
 in my private affairs. 
 
 RENCH. All right I guess we re wasting 
 time here, boys. We walk out and stay out. 
 (Threateningly.) Not a shaft ll turn over in 
 them shops until you recognize the union. And 
 if that s treason, go back to Washington and tell 
 em so. Come on boys! 
 
 (He walks out, followed by FERSEN, nod 
 ding, and lastly by HILLMAN, who glances 
 at DR. JONATHAN. ASHER stares hard at 
 them as they leave. Then an expression 
 of something like agony crosses his face.) 
 ASHER. My God, it s come! My shops shut 
 down, for the first time in my life, and when the 
 government relies on me ! 
 
 (DR. JONATHAN stoops down and picks up 
 the fragments of the document from the 
 fioor.) 
 What are you doing? 
 
DR. JONATHAN 91 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Trying to save the pieces, 
 Asher. 
 
 ASHER. I ve got no use for them now. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. But history may have. 
 
 ASHER. History. History will brand these 
 men with shame for all time. I ll fix em! I ll 
 go back to Washington, and if the government 
 has any backbone, if it s still American, they ll 
 go to work or fight ! (Pointedly.) This is what 
 comes of your Utopian dreams, of your social 
 ism ! 
 
 (A POLAK WOMAN is seen standing in the 
 doorway, right.) 
 
 WOMAN. Doctor! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Yes. 
 
 WOMAN. My baby is seek I think maybe 
 you come and see him. Mrs. Ladislaw she tell 
 me you cure her little boy, and that maybe you 
 come, if I ask you. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Yes, I ll come. What is 
 your name? 
 
 WOMAN. Sasenoshky. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Your husband is in the 
 shops ? 
 
 WOMAN. He was, doctor. Now he is in the 
 American army. 
 
92 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Sasenoshky in the Ameri 
 can army. 
 
 WOMAN (proudly). Yes, he is good Ameri 
 can now, he fight to make them free in the old 
 country, too. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Well, we ll have a look at the 
 
 baby. He may be in the White House some day 
 
 -President Sasenoshky! I ll be back, Asher. 
 
 (The noon whistle blows.) 
 ASHER. That s the signal ! I ll get along, too. 
 DR. JONATHAN. Where are you going? 
 ASIIER. I guess it doesn t make much differ 
 ence where I go. 
 
 (He ivalks out, followed by DR. JONATHAN 
 and the WOMAN. The room is empty for 
 a moment, and then MINNIE FARRELL en 
 ters through the opposite door, left, from 
 DR. JONATHAN S office. She gazes around 
 the room, and then goes resolutely to the 
 bench and takes up several test tubes in 
 turn, holding them to the light. Suddenly 
 her eye falls on GEORGE S letter, which 
 ASHER has left open on the bench with 
 the envelope beside it. MINNIE slowly 
 reaches out and jncks it up, and then holds 
 it to her lips . . . She still has the letter 
 
DR. JONATHAN 93 
 
 in her hand, gazing at it, when AUGUSTA 
 PINDAR enters, right.) 
 
 AUGUSTA. Oh, I thought Mr. Pindar was 
 here ! 
 
 MINNIE. Perhaps he s been here I don t 
 know. I just came in. (She hesitates a second, 
 then goes to the bench and lays the letter 
 doivn. ) 
 
 AUGUSTA. He must have been here, he told 
 me he was coming to talk with Dr. Pindar. 
 
 (She approaches the bench and glances at 
 
 the letter.) 
 Isn t that a letter from my son? 
 
 MINNIE (a little defiantly, yet almost in tears). 
 I guess it is. 
 
 AUGUSTA. It was written to you? 
 
 MINNIE. No. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Then what were you doing with 
 it? 
 
 MINNIE. I just picked it up. You think 
 I was reading it? Well, I wouldn t. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Then how did you know it was 
 written by my son? 
 
 (MINNIE is silent.) 
 
 You must be familiar with his handwriting. I 
 think I d better take it. (She folds it up and 
 
94 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 puts it in the envelope.) Does George write to 
 you? 
 
 MINNIE. I ve had letters from him. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Since he went to France? 
 
 MINNIE. Yes. 
 
 AUGUSTA (after a pause). I ve never ap 
 proved of Dr. Pindar employing you here. I 
 warned him against you I told him that you 
 would betray his kindness as you betrayed mine, 
 but he wouldn t listen to me. I told him that a 
 girl who was capable of drawing my son into 
 an intrigue while she was a member of the 
 church and of my Bible class, a girl who had the 
 career you had in Newcastle, couldn t become a 
 decent and trustworthy woman. The very fact 
 that you had the audacity to come back to Foxon 
 Falls and impose on Dr. Pindar s simplicity, 
 proves it. 
 
 MINNIE. You know all about me, Mrs. Pin 
 dar. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I wasn t born yesterday. 
 
 MINNIE. Oh, ladies like you, Christian 
 ladies, are hard! They won t believe nothing 
 good of anybody only the bad. You ve al 
 ways been sheltered, you ve always had every 
 thing you d want, and you come and judge us 
 
DR. JONATHAN 95 
 
 working girls. You d drive me out of the only 
 real happiness I ever had, being here with a man 
 like Dr. Jonathan, doing work it s a pleasure to 
 do a pleasure every minute ! work that may 
 do good to thousands of people, to the soldiers 
 over there maybe to George, for all you know ! 
 
 (She burst into tears.) 
 
 You can t understand how could you? After 
 all, you re his mother. I oughtn t to forget it. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Yes, I m his mother. And you? 
 You haven t given up the idea that he may marry 
 you some day, if you stay here and pretend to 
 have reformed. You write to him. George 
 may have been foolish, but he isn t as foolish as 
 that! 
 
 MINNIE. He doesn t care about me. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I m glad you realize it. But you 
 mean to stay here in Foxon Falls, nevertheless. 
 You take advantage of Dr. Pindar, who is easily 
 imposed upon, as his father was before him. 
 But if I told you that you might harm Dr. Pindar 
 by staying here, interfere with his career, would 
 you be willing to leave? 
 
 MINNIE. Me? Me doing Dr. Jonathan 
 harm? 
 
 AUGUSTA. Yes. I happen to know that he 
 
96 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 has very little money. He makes none, he never 
 asks anyone for a bill. He spends what he has 
 on this kind of thing research, for the benefit 
 of humanity, as he thinks, but very little re 
 search work succeeds, and even then it doesn t 
 pay. 
 
 MINNIE. He doesn t care about money. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Perhaps not. He is one of those 
 impractical persons who have to be looked out 
 for, if they are fortunate enough to have anyone 
 to look out for them. Since he is a cousin of 
 my husband, Mr. Pindar considers him as one 
 of his many responsibilities. Mr. Pindar has 
 always had, in a practical way, the welfare of his 
 working people at heart, and now he proposes to 
 establish a free hospital for them and to put Dr. 
 Pindar in charge of it. This will give him a 
 good living as well as a definite standing in the 
 community, which he needs also. 
 
 MINNIE. He s the biggest man in Foxon 
 Falls today! 
 
 AUGUSTA. That is as one thinks. At any 
 rate, he has this opportunity. Are you going to 
 stand in the way of it? 
 
 MINNIE. Me stand in the way of it? 
 
 AUGUSTA. If Dr. Pindar accepts the place, 
 
DR. JONATHAN 97 
 
 you can t go with him, you will have to find 
 some other position. Mr. Pindar is firm about 
 that, and rightly so. But I believe Dr. Pindar 
 would be quite capable of refusing rather than 
 inconvenience anyone with whom he is con 
 nected. 
 
 MINNIE. You re right there! 
 
 AUGUSTA. He s quixotic. 
 
 MINNIE. If that s a compliment, you re right 
 again. 
 
 AUGUSTA. It isn t exactly a compliment. 
 
 MINNIE. I guess you mean he s queer but 
 you re wrong you re wrong! He s the only 
 man in Foxon Falls who knows what kind of a 
 world we re going to live in from now on. 
 Why? Because he s a scientist, because he s 
 trained himself to think straight, because he un 
 derstands people like you and people like me. 
 He don t blame us for what we do he knows 
 why we do it. 
 
 (A pause.) 
 
 That s the reason I try not to blame you for be 
 ing hard you can t understand a girl like me. 
 You can t understand George. 
 
 AUGUSTA (white). We ll leave my son out of 
 the conversation, if you please. We were talk- 
 
98 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 ing of Dr. Pindar. You seem to have some con 
 sideration for him, at least. 
 
 MINNIE. I d go to the electric chair for him! 
 
 AUGUSTA. I m not asking you to do that. 
 MINNIE. You want me to go away and get 
 another place. I remember a lesson you gave us 
 one day in Bible class, " Judge not, that you be 
 not judged," that was what you talked about. 
 But you re judging me on what you think is my 
 record, and you d warn people against hiring 
 me. If everybody was a Christian like that these 
 days, I d starve or go on the street. 
 
 AUGUSTA. We have to pay for what we do. 
 
 MINNIE. And you make it your business to 
 see that we pay. 
 (A pause.) 
 
 Well, I ll go. I didn t know how poor Dr. Jona 
 than was, he never said anything about it to 
 me. I ll disappear. 
 
 AUGUSTA. You have some good in you. 
 
 MINNIE. Don t begin talking to me about 
 good! 
 
 (TIMOTHY FARRELL enters, right.) 
 
 TIMOTHY. Good morning, ma am. (Looking 
 at MINNIE and AUGUSTA). I came to fetch 
 Minnie to pass an hour with me. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 99 
 
 AUGUSTA (agitated and taken aback). We 
 we were having a little talk. (She goes up to 
 TIMOTHY.) I m distressed to hear about Bert! 
 
 TIMOTHY. Thank you for your sympathy, 
 ma am. 
 
 (A brief silence. Enter ASHER, right.) 
 
 ASHER (surveying the group). You here, 
 Augusta? (He goes up to TIMOTHY and presses 
 his hand.) I wanted to see you, Timothy, I 
 understand how you feel. We both gave our 
 sons in this war. You ve lost yours, and I ex 
 pect to lose mine. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Asher ! 
 
 TIMOTHY. Don t say that, Mr. Pindar! 
 
 ASHER. Why not ? What right have I to be 
 lieve, after what has happened in my shops to 
 day, that he ll come back? 
 
 TIMOTHY. God forbid that he should be lost, 
 too ! There s trouble enough sorrow enough ! 
 
 ASHER. Sorrow enough ! But if a man has 
 one friend left, Timothy, it s something. 
 
 TIMOTHY (surprised). Sure, I hope it s a 
 friend I am, sir, a friend this thirty years. 
 
 ASHER. We re both old fashioned, Timothy, 
 we can t help that. 
 
 TIMOTHY. I m old fashioned enough to want 
 
ioo DR. JONATHAN 
 
 to be working. And now that the strike s on, 
 whatever will I do? Well, Bert is after giving 
 his life for human liberty, the only thing a 
 great-hearted country like America would be 
 fighting for. There s some comfort in that! I 
 think of him as a little boy, like when he d be 
 carrying me dinner pail to the shops at noon, run- 
 nin and leppin and callin out to me, and he only 
 that high ! 
 
 ASHER. As a little boy ! 
 
 TIMOTHY. Yes, sir, it s when I like to think 
 of him best. There s a great comfort in childher, 
 and when they grow up we lose them anyway. 
 But it s fair beset I ll be now, with nothing to do 
 but think of him. 
 
 ASHER. You can thank these scoundrels who 
 are making this labour trouble for that. 
 
 TIMOTHY. Scoundrels, is it? Scoundrels is 
 a hard word, Mr. Pindar. 
 
 ASHER. What else are they? Scoundrels 
 and traitors ! Don t tell me that you ve gone 
 over to them, Timothy that you ve deserted 
 me, too! That you sympathize with these agi 
 tators who incite class against class ! 
 
 TIMOTHY. I ve heard some of them saying, 
 sir, that if the unions gain what they re after, 
 
DR. JONATHAN iof 
 
 there ll be no classes at all at all. And classes 
 is what some of us didn t expect to find in this 
 country, but freedom. 
 
 ASHER. Freedom! They re headed for an 
 archy. And they haven t an ounce of patriot 
 ism. 
 
 TIMOTHY (meaningly). Don t say that, sir. 
 Me own boy is after dying over there, and plenty 
 have gone out of your own shops, as ye can see 
 for yourself every time you pass under the office 
 door with some of the stars in the flag turn 
 ing to gold. And those who stays at home and 
 works through the night is patriots, too. The 
 unions may be no better than they should be, but 
 the working man isn t wanting anyone to tell 
 him whether he d be joining them or not. 
 
 ASHER. I never expected to hear you talk like 
 this! 
 
 TIMOTHY. Nor I, sir. But it s the sons, Mr. 
 Pindar, the childher that changes us. I ve 
 been thinking this morning that Bert had a union 
 card in his pocket when he went away, and if 
 he died for that kind of liberty, it s good enough 
 for his old father to live for. I see how wicked 
 it was to be old fashioned, 
 
 ASHER. Wicked? 
 
102 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 TIMOTHY. Isn t it the old fashioned nation 
 we re fighting, with its kings and emperors and 
 generals that would crush the life and freedom 
 out of them that need life. And why wouldn t 
 the men have the right to organize, sir, the way 
 that they d have a word to say about what they d 
 be doing? 
 
 ASIIER. You you ask me to sacrifice my 
 principles and yield to men who are deliberately 
 obstructing the war? 
 
 TIMOTHY. Oftentimes principles is nothing 
 but pride, sir. And it might be yourself that s 
 obstructing the war, when with a simple word 
 from you they d go on working. 
 
 ASIIER (agitatedly). I can t, I won t recog 
 nize a labour union! 
 
 TIMOTHY. Have patience, sir. I know ye ve 
 a kind heart, and that ye ve always acted ac 
 cording to your light, the same as me. But 
 there s more light now, sir, it s shining through 
 the darkness, brighter than the flashes of the 
 cannon over there. In the moulding room just 
 now it seems to break all around me, and me cry 
 ing like a child because the boy was gone. There 
 was things I hadn t seen before or if I saw 
 them, it was only dim-like, to trouble me 
 
DR. JONATHAN 103 
 
 (As HER turns away.) 
 
 the same as you are troubled now. And to think 
 it s me that would pity you, Mr. Pindar ! I says 
 to myself, I ll talk to him. I ain t got no learn 
 ing, I can t find the words I m after but maybe 
 I can persuade him it ain t the same world we re 
 living in. 
 
 ASHER. I was ready to recognize that. Be 
 fore they came to me this morning I had made 
 a plan to reorganize the shops, to grant many 
 privileges. 
 
 TIMOTHY. You ll excuse me, sir, but it s 
 what they don t want, anyone to be granting 
 them privileges, but to stand on their own feet, 
 the same as you. I never rightly understood un 
 til just now, and that because I was always 
 looking up, while you d be looking down, and 
 seeing nothing but the bent backs of them. It s 
 inside we must be looking, sir, and God made 
 us all the same, you and me, and Mr. George and 
 my son Bert, and the Polak and his wife and 
 childher. It s the strike in every one of us, sir, 
 and half the time we d not know why we re 
 striking ! 
 
 ASHER. You re right there, Timothy ! 
 
 TIMOTHY. But that makes no difference, sir. 
 
io 4 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 It s what we can t be reasoning, but the nature in 
 us all 
 
 (He flings his arm toward the open win- 
 
 doivs. ) 
 
 like the flowers and the trees in the doctor s 
 garden groping to the light of the sun. Maybe 
 the one ll die for lack of the proper soil, and 
 many is cruelly trampled on, but the rest ll be 
 growing, and none to stop em. 
 
 ASHER (pacing to the end of the room, and 1 
 turning). No, I won t listen to it! You you 
 ask me to yield to them, when you have lost your 
 son, when they re willing to sacrifice to mur 
 der my son on the field of battle? 
 
 (He pauses and looks toivard the doorway, 
 right. DR. JONATHAN is standing there, 
 holding in his hand a yellow envelope. 
 ASHER starts forward.) 
 A telegram? For me? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Yes, Asher. 
 
 (After giving it to ASHER, DR. JONATHAN 
 takes his stand beside MINNIE, who is at 
 the back of the room, near the bench. 
 He lays a hand on her arm. ASHER tears 
 open the envelope and stares at the tele 
 gram, his hands trembling.) 
 
DR. JONATHAN 105 
 
 ASHER (exclaiming, in a half whisper). 
 George ! 
 
 AUGUSTA. Oh Asher, not not ! 
 
 (She reaches for the telegram. He gives it 
 
 to her. She reads.) 
 
 " Captain George Pindar severely wounded, con 
 dition critical." 
 
 TIMOTHY. Please God he ll be spared to ye! 
 
 CURTAIN. 
 
ACT III 
 
 SCENE: Same as in Act I, the library of ASHER 
 PINDAR S house. 
 
 TIME: The following day, early afternoon. 
 A storm is raging, with wind and rain and oc 
 casional bright flashes of lightning and heavy 
 peals of thunder. ASHER is pacing up and 
 down the room, folding and unfolding his 
 hands behind his back, ivhen AUGUSTA enters, 
 lower right, her knitting in her hand. There 
 is a Hash and a peal of thunder. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Oh ! Asher, did you know that 
 the elm at the end of the Common was struck 
 just now? that splendid old landmark! 
 
 ASHER. All the old landmarks are being 
 struck down, one after another. 
 
 AUGUSTA (going up to him and putting her 
 hand on his arm). I ve been so nervous all day. 
 Do be careful how you go about during this 
 106 
 
DR. JONATHAN 107 
 
 strike. Those sullen and angry groups of men 
 on the street this morning 
 
 ASHER. Oh, they wouldn t dare touch me. 
 If we only had a state constabulary we d soon 
 break that sort of thing up. But the Legislature 
 trembles whenever a labour leader opens his 
 mouth. 
 
 AUGUSTA (sitting down and taking up her knit 
 ting). If only I could be of some help to you! 
 But it s always been so. 
 
 ASHER. You ve been a good wife, Augusta! 
 
 AUGUSTA. I don t know. I ve kept your 
 house, I ve seen that you were well fed, but I ve 
 been thinking lately how little that is for a wo 
 man for a human being. 
 
 ASHER (surprised). Why, Augusta! I can t 
 remember the time when you haven t been busy. 
 You ve taken an active part in church work and 
 looked out for the people of the village. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Yes, and what has it all amounted 
 to ? The poor are ungrateful, they won t go near 
 the church, and today they re buying pianos. 
 Soon there won t be any poor to help. 
 
 ASHER. That s so. We ll be the paupers, if 
 this sort of thing keeps on. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I ve tried to do my duty as a Chris- 
 
io8 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 tian woman, but the world has no use, appar 
 ently, for Christians in these times. And when 
 ever you have any really serious trouble, I seem 
 to be the last person you take into your confi 
 dence. 
 
 ASHER. I don t worry you with business mat 
 ters. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Because you do not regard me as 
 your intellectual equal. 
 
 ASHER. A woman has her sphere. You have 
 always filled it admirably. 
 
 AUGUSTA. " Adorn " is the word, I believe. 
 
 ASHER. To hear you talk, one would think 
 you d been contaminated by Jonathan. You, of 
 all people ! 
 
 AUGUSTA. There seems to be no place for a 
 woman like me in these days, I don t recog 
 nize the world I m living in. 
 
 ASHER. You didn t sleep a wink last night, 
 thinking of George. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I ve given up all hope of ever see 
 ing him again alive. 
 
 (Enter DR. JONATHAN, loiver right. His 
 calmness is in contrast to the storm, and 
 to the mental states of ASHER and ALN 
 GUSTA.) 
 
DR. JONATHAN 109 
 
 Why, Jonathan, what are you doing out in this 
 storm ? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I came to see you, Augusta. 
 
 AUGUSTA (knitting, trying to hide her per 
 turbation at his appearance). Did you? You 
 might have waited until the worst was over. 
 You still have to be careful of your health, you 
 know. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (sitting down). There are 
 other things more important than my health. 
 No later news about George, I suppose. 
 
 ASHER. Yes. I got another telegram early 
 this morning saying that he is on his way home 
 on a transport. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. On his way home ! 
 
 ASHER. If he lives to arrive. I ll show you 
 the wire. Apparently they can t make anything 
 out of his condition, but think it s shell shock. 
 This storm has been raging along the coast ever 
 since nine o clock, the wires are down, but I did 
 manage to telephone to New York and get hold 
 of Frye, the shell-shock specialist. In case 
 George should land today, he ll meet him. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Frye is a good man. 
 
 ASHER. George is hit by a shell and almost 
 killed nearly a month ago, and not a word do I 
 
no DR. JONATHAN 
 
 hear of it until I get that message in your house 
 yesterday! Then comes this other telegram this 
 morning. What s to be said about a government 
 capable of such inefficiency? Of course the 
 chances of his landing today are small, but I 
 can t leave for New York until tonight because 
 that same government sends a labour investigator 
 here to pry into my affairs, and make a prelimi 
 nary report. They re going to decide whether or 
 not I shall keep my property or hand it over to 
 them! And whom do they send? Not a busi 
 ness man, who s had practical experience with 
 labour, but a professor out of some university, 
 a theorist ! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Awkward people, these pro 
 fessors. But what would you do about it, 
 Asher? Wall up the universities? 
 
 ASHER. Their trustees, who are business men, 
 should forbid professors meddling in govern 
 ment and politics. This fellow had the impu 
 dence to tell me to my face that my own work 
 men, whom I am paying, aren t working for me. 
 I m only supposed to be supplying the capital. 
 We talk about Germany being an autocracy 
 it s nothing to what this country has become ! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (smiling). An autocracy of 
 
DR. JONATHAN in 
 
 professors instead of business men. Well, every 
 dog has his day. And George is coming home. 
 
 ASHER. And what is there left to hand over 
 to him if he lives? What future has the Pindar 
 Shops, which I have spent my life to build 
 up? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. If George lives, as we hope, 
 you need not worry about the future of the Pin 
 dar Shops, I think. 
 
 AUGUSTA. If God will only spare him! 
 
 ASHER. I guess I ve about got to the point 
 where I don t believe that a God exists. 
 
 (A Hash and a loud peal of thunder.) 
 
 AUGUSTA. Asher ! 
 
 ASHER. Then let Him strike me ! 
 
 (He hurries abruptly out of the door, left.) 
 
 AUGUSTA (after a silence). During all the 
 years of our married life, he has never said such 
 a thing as that. Asher an atheist ! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. So was Job, Augusta, for 
 a while. 
 
 AUGUSTA (avoiding DR. JONATHAN S glance, 
 and beginning to knit). You wanted to speak 
 to me, Jonathan? 
 
 (The MAID enters, lower right.) 
 
 MAID. Timothy Farrell, ma am, 
 
ii2 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 (Exit maid, enter TIMOTHY FARRELL.) 
 
 AUGUSTA. I m afraid Mr. Pindar can t see 
 you just now, Timothy. 
 
 TIMOTHY. It s you I ve come to see, ma am, 
 if you ll bear with me, who once took an in 
 terest in Minnie. 
 
 AUGUSTA. It is true that I once took an in 
 terest in her, Timothy, but I m afraid I have lost 
 it. I dislike to say this to you, her father, but 
 it s so. 
 
 TIMOTHY. Don t be hard on her, Mrs. Pindar. 
 She may have been wild-like in Newcastle, but 
 since she was back here to work for the doctor 
 she s been a good girl, and that happy I wouldn t 
 know her, and a comfort to me in me old age, 
 what with Bert gone, and Jamesy taken to 
 drink! And now she s run away and left me 
 alone entirely, with the shops closed, and no work 
 to do. 
 
 AUGUSTA (knitting). She s left Foxon Falls? 
 
 TIMOTHY (breaking down for a moment). 
 When I woke up this morning I found a letter 
 beside me bed I m not to worry, she says 
 and I know how fond of me she was be the 
 care she took of me. She s been keeping com 
 pany with no young man that I know. If she 
 
DR. JONATHAN 113 
 
 wasn t working with the doctor on that discovery 
 she d be home with me. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I m sorry for you, Timothy, 
 but I don t see what I can do. 
 
 TIMOTHY. I minded that you were talking 
 to her yesterday in the lab rat ry, before the tele 
 gram came about Mr. George. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Well? 
 
 TIMOTHY. It was just a hope, ma am, 
 catching at a straw like. 
 
 AUGUSTA (tightening her lips). I repeat that 
 I m sorry for you, Timothy. I have no idea 
 where she has gone. 
 
 TIMOTHY (looking at her fixedly. She pauses 
 in her knitting and returns his look). Very well, 
 ma am there s no need of my bothering you. 
 You ve heard nothing more of Mr. George? 
 
 AUGUSTA (with sudden tears). They re send 
 ing him home. 
 
 TIMOTHY. And now that ye re getting him 
 back, ma am, ye might think with a little more 
 charity of her that belongs to me the only one 
 I d have left. 
 
 (TIMOTHY goes out, lower right. AUGUSTA 
 is blinded by tears. She lets fall her ball 
 of wool. DR. JONATHAN picks it up.) 
 
H4 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 AUGUSTA. I try to be fair in my judgments, 
 and true to my convictions, but what Minnie has 
 done cannot be condoned. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (sitting down beside AU 
 GUSTA). And what has Minnie done, Au 
 gusta? 
 
 AUGUSTA. You ask me that? I try hard to 
 give you credit, Jonathan, for not knowing the 
 ways of the world but it s always been difficult 
 to believe that Minnie Farrell had become 
 well a bad woman. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. A bad woman. I gather, 
 then, that you don t believe in the Christian doc 
 trines of repentance and regeneration. 
 
 AUGUSTA (bridling). The leopard doesn t 
 change his spots. And has she shown any sign 
 of repentance? Has she come to me and asked 
 my pardon for the way in which she treated me ? 
 Has she gone to church and asked God s for 
 giveness ? But I know you are an agnostic, Jona 
 than, it grieves me. I couldn t expect you to 
 see the necessity of that. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. If it hadn t been for Minnie, 
 I shouldn t have been able to achieve a discovery 
 that may prove of value to our suffering sol 
 diers, as well as to injured operatives in factories. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 115 
 
 In spite of the news of her brother s death, Min 
 nie worked all afternoon and evening. It was 
 midnight when we made the successful test, 
 after eight months of experiment. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I hope the discovery may be valu 
 able. It seems to me that there is too much sci 
 ence in these days and too little religion. I ve 
 never denied that the girl is clever. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. But you would deny her the 
 opportunity to make something of her cleverness 
 because in your opinion she has broken the 
 Seventh Commandment. Is that it? 
 
 AUGUSTA. I can t listen to you when you 
 talk in this way. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. But you listen every Sun 
 day to Moses if it was Moses ? when he 
 talks in this way. You have made up your 
 mind, haven t you, that Minnie has broken the 
 Commandment ? 
 
 AUGUSTA. I m not a fool, Jonathan. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. You are what is called a 
 good woman. Have you proof that Minnie is 
 what you would call a bad one? 
 
 AUGUSTA. Has she ever denied it? And you 
 heard her when she stood up in this room and 
 spoke of her life in Newcastle. 
 
ii6 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. But no court of law would 
 convict her on that. 
 
 AUGUSTA. And she had an affair with 
 George. Oh, I can t talk about it ! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I m afraid that George will 
 wish to talk about it, when he comes back. 
 
 AUGUSTA. She s been corresponding with 
 George scheming behind my back. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Are you sure of that? 
 
 AUGUSTA. She confessed to me that she had 
 had letters from him. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. And that she d written let 
 ters in return? 
 
 AUGUSTA. What right have you to catechize 
 me, Jonathan? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. The same right, Augusta, 
 that you have to catechize Minnie. Only I wish 
 to discover the truth, and apparently you do 
 not. She left me a letter, too, in which she 
 said, " Don t try to find me I wouldn t come 
 back if you did. Mrs. Pindar was right about 
 me, after all I had to break loose again." 
 Now, Augusta, I d like to know what you make 
 of that? 
 
 AUGUSTA. It s pretty plain, isn t it? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. If the girl were really 
 
DR. JONATHAN 117 
 
 " bad," as you insist, would she say a thing like 
 that? 
 
 AUGUSTA. I m afraid I m not an authority on 
 Minnie s kind. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Well, I am. The only mo 
 tive which could have induced her to leave my 
 laboratory and Foxon Falls her father is 
 what you would call a Christian motive. 
 
 AUGUSTA. What do you mean? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. An unselfish motive. She 
 went because she thought she could help some 
 one by going. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Why do you discuss this with 
 me? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Because I ve come to the 
 conclusion that you know something about Min 
 nie s departure, Augusta. 
 
 AUGUSTA (again on the verge of tears). 
 Well, then, I do. I am responsible for her go 
 ing I m not ashamed of it. Her remaining 
 here was an affront to all right thinking people. 
 I appealed to her, and she had the decency to 
 leave. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Decency is a mild word to 
 apply to her sacrifice. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I suppose, with your extraordinary 
 
ii8 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 radical views, you mean that she might have re 
 mained here and married George. One never 
 can predict the harm that a woman of that kind 
 can do. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (rising). The harm that a 
 bad woman can do, Augusta, is sometimes ex 
 ceeded only by the harm a good woman can do. 
 You are unfortunately steeped in a religion 
 which lacks the faith in humanity that should be 
 its foundation. The girl has just given you the 
 strongest proof of an inherent goodness, and 
 you choose to call her bad. But if you will 
 not listen to Moses and the prophets, how will 
 you listen to Christ? 
 
 AUGUSTA. Jonathan ! Where are you go 
 ing? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. To find Minnie Farrell and 
 bring her back to Foxon Falls. 
 
 (He goes out, lower right. AUGUSTA sits for 
 a while, motionless, and then makes an at- 
 tempt to go on with her knitting. A man s 
 face is seen pressed against the glass of 
 the middle window. AUGUSTA does not 
 perceive him. He disappears, the glass 
 door, upper right, opens slowly and PRAG 
 enters. His clothes are wet, he is iin- 
 
DR. JONATHAN 119 
 
 shaven, he is gaunt and ill, and his eyed 
 gleam. He leaves the door open behind 
 him. Once inside the room, he halts and 
 stares at AUGUSTA, who gathers up her 
 knitting and rises. She does not lack 
 courage.) 
 
 AUGUSTA. What do you want? 
 PRAG. I come to see Mr. Pindar. 
 AUGUSTA. The proper place to see Mr. Pin 
 dar is in his office. What do you mean by forc 
 ing your way into this house? 
 
 PRAG (advancing). I have no right here 
 it is too fine for me, yes? 
 
 (Through the window the figure of a woman 
 is seen running across the lawn, and a mo 
 ment later MINNIE FARRELL comes in 
 through the open doorway, upper right. 
 She is breathless and somewhat wet.) 
 AUGUSTA. Minnie ! 
 
 PRAG (turning and confronting MINNIE). 
 So ! You come back to Foxon Falls, too ! 
 MINNIE. You guessed it. 
 PRAG. You follow me? 
 
 MINNIE. But you re some sprinter! (She 
 seizes him by the arm.) Come on, Prag, you 
 haven t got any business here, and you know it. 
 
120 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 PRAG (stubbornly). I come to see Mr. Pin 
 dar. I vill see him ! 
 
 AUGUSTA. He isn t home. 
 PRAG. Then I vait for him. 
 MINNIE (glancing toward the study door, 
 where she suspects ASHER is). No you don t, 
 either! You come along with me. 
 
 (She pulls him, and he resists. They be 
 gin to struggle. AUGUSTA cries out and 
 runs to MINNIE S assistance.) 
 Keep away, Mrs. Pindar. If Mr. Pindar s 
 home, find him and tell him not to come in here. 
 This man s crazy. 
 
 PRAG (struggling with MINNIE). Crazy, is 
 it? What is it to you what I do with Mr. 
 Pindar. He is also your enemy the enemy of 
 all work-peoples. 
 
 AUGUSTA, after a second s indecision, turns 
 and runs toward the door, left, that leads 
 into ASHER S study. MINNIE tries to 
 push PRAG toward the doorway, upper 
 right, but she is no match for the nervous 
 strength he is able to summon up in 
 his fanatical frenzy. Just as AUGUSTA 
 reaches the study door, it is flung open and 
 ASHER appears.) 
 
DR. JONATHAN 121 
 
 ASHER. What s the matter? (Then he sees 
 MINNIE and PRAG struggling and strides to 
 ward them. AUGUSTA tries to prevent him 
 reaching them. PRAG wrenches himself free 
 from MINNIE and draws a pistol from his pocket. 
 MINNIE flings herself between him and ASHER, 
 who momentarily halts, too astonished to 
 act.) 
 
 PRAG (to MINNIE). Get avay! He kill my 
 
 wife, he drive me out of my home he will 
 
 not have the unions. I shoot him! Get oudt! 
 
 ASHER. Stand aside, Minnie, I ll take care of 
 
 him. 
 
 (AUGUSTA cries out. ASHER advances, 
 seizes MINNIE by the shoulder and thrusts 
 her aside. PRAG has the pistol levelled 
 at him.) 
 
 PRAG. Recognize the unions, or I shoot! 
 ASHER. Lower that pistol! Do you think 
 you can intimidate me? 
 
 PRAG. They can hang me, I die for free 
 doms ! 
 
 (He is apparently about to pull the trigger, 
 but he does not. His eyes are drawn\ 
 away from ASHER, toward the doorway, 
 lower right, zvhere DR. JONATHAN is seen 
 
122 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 standing, gazing at him. Gradually his 
 arm drops to his side, and DR. JONATHAN 
 goes up to him and takes the pistol from 
 his hand. PRAG breaks down, sobbing 
 violently.) 
 It is no good! I can t now. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (his hand on PRAG S shoulder). 
 Come with me, Prag, to my house. 
 
 (He leads PRAG, shaken by sobs, out of the 
 doorway, upper right, and they are seen 
 through the windows crossing the lawn 
 and disappearing.) 
 AUGUSTA. Oh, Asher ! 
 
 (She goes up to him and puts her hand on 
 
 his arm, and then turns to MINNIE.) 
 You saved him! 
 
 MINNIE. Dr. Jonathan saved him. He d 
 save everybody, if they d let him. Ever since he 
 took care of Prag s wife, when she died, he s got 
 him hypnotized. 
 
 ASHER. You ve done a brave thing, Minnie. 
 I shan t forget it. 
 
 MINNIE. I want you to forget it. I 
 wouldn t like to see anybody hurt. 
 
 AUGUSTA. But how did you happen to be 
 here in Foxon Falls? 
 
DR. JONATHAN 123 
 
 MINNIE. Oh, I didn t mean to come back. 
 I m going away again. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I have no right to ask you to go 
 away, now. 
 
 ASHER. What s this? Did you ask Minnie 
 to leave Foxon Falls? 
 
 AUGUSTA. Asher, I d like to talk with Min 
 nie, if you don t mind. 
 
 ASHER (glancing at the tivo women). Well, 
 I shan t forget what you ve done, Minnie. 
 (He goes out, lower right.) 
 
 MINNIE (who is on the verge of losing her 
 self-control). I didn t come back to Foxon 
 Falls to talk to you again, Mrs. Pindar. I m 
 sorry, but I ve got to go. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Where ? 
 
 MINNIE. You didn t care yesterday why 
 should you care today? 
 
 AUGUSTA (with an effort). I ought to tell 
 you that Dr. Pindar has declined Mr. Pindar s 
 offer. 
 
 MINNIE. He isn t going to take charge of 
 the hospital? 
 
 AUGUSTA. No. 
 
 MINNIE. But if he s so poor, how s he going 
 to live? He can t afford to hire me to help him. 
 
124 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 AUGUSTA. I don t know. Dr. Pindar was 
 about to leave in search of you. 
 
 MINNIE. I was afraid of that when he 
 ought to be going to New York to test the 
 discovery at the hospitals there. He meant 
 to. 
 
 AUGUSTA. You must see him. 
 
 MINNIE. Oh, I ll see him now. That was 
 what hurt me most, lying to him about why I 
 was leaving letting him think I was sick of 
 working with him. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Minnie, I m willing to say that I 
 was mistaken about you. You may have been 
 unwise, but you never did anything wrong. 
 Isn t it so ? 
 
 MINNIE. Why do you think that now? 
 What changed you ? Just because I might have 
 helped to keep Mr. Pindar from being shot 
 by a crazy man that didn t change you, did 
 it? 
 
 AUGUSTA. I was mistaken 
 
 MINNIE. If you thought I was bad yester 
 day, I m bad today. 
 
 AUGUSTA. A bad woman couldn t have done 
 what you did just now. 
 
 MINNIE. Don t you believe it, Mrs. Pindar. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 125 
 
 I knew a woman in Newcastle but there s no 
 use going into that, I guess. There s worse 
 kinds of badness than what you call bad. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I I can t discuss it. But I 
 want to be just. I m convinced that I did you a 
 wrong and I m sorry. Won t you believe 
 me? 
 
 MINNIE. But you ll never forgive me even 
 if I hadn t done what you thought on account 
 of what happened with George. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I I ll try. 
 
 MINNIE. No, don t try forgiveness doesn t 
 come that way, Mrs. Pindar. (With sudden 
 acuteness.) It was on account of George, not 
 Dr. Jonathan, that you wanted to get me out of 
 Foxon Falls. 
 
 AUGUSTA. I repeat I shouldn t have asked 
 you to go. Isn t that enough? 
 
 MINNIE. I told you not to worry about me 
 and George. I ran away from him once I 
 guess I won t have to do it again. 
 
 AUGUSTA. You you ran away from him? 
 
 MINNIE. From the church, too, and from the 
 Bible class and from you, and from the shops. 
 But I m free now, there isn t any danger of my 
 going wrong, I know what I can do, I ve 
 
126 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 learned my job Dr. Jonathan s taught me. 
 You needn t have me on your conscience, either. 
 I ll go across and see if I can help Dr. Jonathan 
 take care of that poor wreck, Prag. Life s been 
 too tough for him ! 
 
 AUGUSTA (starting fonvard to detain her). 
 Wait a moment, Minnie, tell me how you hap 
 pened to come back, to be here so providen 
 tially. 
 
 MINNIE. There wasn t anything providential 
 about it. I took the six o clock train to New 
 castle this morning. Not that I had any notion 
 of staying there. I ran into Prag at the station. 
 I nursed his wife, you know and he started in 
 to tell me how he was coming up to Foxon Falls 
 to shoot Mr. Pindar because he d closed down 
 the works rather than recognize the union. I 
 knew that Prag was just about crazy enough to 
 do it, because I ve heard Dr. Jonathan talk- 
 about the mental disease he s got. That was 
 about ten, and the train for Foxon Falls was 
 leaving in a few minutes. I ran into the booth 
 to phone Dr. Jonathan, but the storm had begun 
 down there, and I couldn t get a connection. 
 So I caught the train, and when it pulled in here 
 I saw Prag jump out of the smoking car and 
 
DR. JONATHAN 127 
 
 start to run. I couldn t run as fast as he could, 
 and I d only got to the other side of the Com 
 mon when I saw him walk into the house. 
 
 AUGUSTA (after a pause). Minnie, you ll 
 stay here now ? Your father needs you I I 
 should never forgive myself if you left. 
 
 MINNIE. Tell me, Mrs. Pindar, have you 
 heard anything more from George? 
 
 AUGUSTA (hesitating). Yes Mr. Pindar 
 got a telegram this morning. 
 
 MINNIE. He s coming home! When will he 
 get here? 
 
 AUGUSTA. I don t know. Oh, I m afraid he 
 may never get here alive. 
 
 MINNIE. Don t say that! George will live 
 he s got to live. 
 
 AUGUSTA (gazing, at her). What makes you 
 think so? 
 
 MINNIE. Because he s needed so in the world 
 in Foxon Falls. 
 
 (She starts for the doorway, upper right.) 
 
 AUGUSTA. You re not going? 
 
 MINNIE. I couldn t stay here now. 
 
 AUGUSTA. Why why not ? 
 
 MINNIE (in tears). I should think you d 
 know why not! 
 
128 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 AUGUSTA. You mean you care you care 
 that much ? 
 
 MINNIE. I m going. 
 
 (She turns to leave the room when the sound 
 of an automobile is heard without, the 
 brakes going on, etc. MINNIE, who has 
 got as far as the doorway, upper right,, 
 halts and stares.) 
 
 AUGUSTA (excitedly). What is it? 
 MINNIE. An automobile. Oh, Mrs. Pindar 
 it s him it s George ! 
 
 (She draws back from the doorway, her 
 
 hands clasped.) 
 
 AUGUSTA. George ! (She hurries toivard the 
 doorway, speaking as she goes.) Where is he? 
 Why doesn t he come in? 
 
 MINNIE (staring out). He can t. Oh, I ll 
 get Dr. Jonathan ! 
 
 (She is speaking as AUGUSTA goes out.) 
 (Mingling with other voices, ASHER S res 
 onant and commanding voice is heard.) 
 ASHER (without). Bring him in through the 
 library it s easier for you, George. 
 
 (MINNIE who obviously cannot now escape 
 through the doorway, upper right, without 
 GEORGE seeing her, after a second s ir- 
 
DR. JONATHAN 129 
 
 resolution dashes across the room and out 
 of the door, lower right. A moment later 
 GEORGE is brought in through the door 
 way, upper right, leaning heavily on DR. 
 FRYE, a capable looking man, whose well 
 fitting business suit and general appear 
 ance indicate a prosperous city practice. 
 GEORGE is in uniform. He is much thin 
 ner, and his face betrays acute suffer 
 ing. His left arm hangs helpless at his 
 side. 
 
 ( ASHER and AUGUSTA follow, ASHER with 
 a look of pain which has been increased 
 by an incident which occurred at the auto 
 mobile, where GEORGE refused to allow 
 ASHER to help support him.) 
 (GEORGE gets a little way into the room when 
 he stops, sways a little, and spasmodically 
 puts his hand to his heart. ASHER, in a 
 frenzy of anxiety, again approaches to 
 help him, but GEORGE repulses him.) 
 GEORGE (protesting with what strength he has, 
 
 as if in fear) . N-no, dad, I d rather not I 
 
 I can get along. 
 
 ( ASHER halts and gazes at him mutely, and 
 then looks at AUGUSTA.) 
 
130 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 DR. FRYE. You d better sit down here a min 
 ute and rest, Captain Pindar. 
 
 (ASHER starts to pull up an armchair, but 
 AUGUSTA looks at him and shakes her 
 head, and pulls it up herself. GEORGE 
 sinks into the chair, leans back his head 
 and closes his eyes. AUGUSTA hovers over 
 him, smoothing his hair.) 
 AUGUSTA. Is there nothing we can do, Dr. 
 Frye ? A little brandy ? - 
 
 DR. FRYE (who is evidently trying to hide 
 his own concern by a show of professional self- 
 confidence). I think I d wait a few moments. 
 
 GEORGE (murmuring). I I ll be all right, 
 mother 
 
 (DR. FRYE stands gazing doivn at him a few 
 seconds and then comes forward into the 
 room to join ASHER.) 
 
 ASHER. For God s sake tell me what it is, 
 doctor! Why did you leave New York with 
 him when he was in this condition? Was it be 
 cause ? 
 
 DR. FRYE (speaking more rapidly than is his 
 wont). He was surprisingly well, considering 
 everything, when we left New York, and the 
 army medical men advised taking him home. I 
 
DR. JONATHAN 131 
 
 thought an automobile better than a slow train. 
 I tried to telephone you, but the storm 
 
 ASHER. I know. 
 
 DR. FRYE. I sent you a wire. 
 
 ASHER. I didn t get it. 
 
 DR. FRYE. It was impossible to get a good 
 nurse on account of the influenza epidemic. In 
 fact, I didn t think he needed one but I thought 
 you d feel more comfortable if I came. He 
 seemed extraordinary well, even cheerful 
 until we got right into Foxon Falls. We were 
 passing your shops, and a big crowd of men 
 were there, making a noise, shouting at a 
 speaker. Is there a strike on here? 
 
 ASHER. Yes. You say he got like this when 
 he saw the crowd ? 
 
 DR. FRYE (indicating GEORGE). As you see. 
 He fell back on the cushions as though he d been 
 hit it all happened in a second. I have the 
 history of the case from the army people - he 
 had an attack something like this abroad. 
 
 ASHER. Did you notice how he avoided me? 
 
 DR. FRYE (with reluctance). That may not 
 be anything. It s his heart, at present, and 
 yet I m convinced that this is a case for a psy 
 chologist as well as for a medical man. I con- 
 
132 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 fess I m puzzled, and as soon as we can get a 
 connection with New York I want to summon 
 Barnwell. 
 
 ASHER. I ll see if I can get a wire through. 
 DR. FRYE. Telephone Plaza 4632. 
 
 ( ASHER hurries out, lower right. DR. FRYE 
 returns to GEORGE to take his pulse when 
 DR. JONATHAN enters, upper right. He 
 crosses the room directly to GEORGE and 
 stands looking doum at him.) 
 AUGUSTA (who is a little behind GEORGE S 
 chair, gives DR. JONATHAN an agonized glance, 
 ivhich she transfers to DR. FRYE when he drops 
 GEORGE S wrist). George! George, dear! 
 
 (DR. FRYE is silent Then ASHER r centers.) 
 ASHER (in a loiv tone, to DR. FRYE). They 
 think they can get New York within half an 
 hour. 
 
 (DR. FRYE nods. His attention is now fixed 
 upon DR. JONATHAN, whose gaze is still 
 focusscd on GEORGE. ASHER and AU 
 GUSTA now begin to look at DR. JONA 
 THAN. Gradually, as though by the com 
 pulsion of DR. JONATHAN S regard, 
 GEORGE slowly opens his eyes.) 
 GEORGE (stammering). Dr. Jonathan! 
 
DR. JONATHAN 133 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I m here, George. 
 
 GEORGE. Is there is there a strike in the 
 shops ? 
 
 (DR. JONATHAN glances at ASHER.) 
 
 ASHER (hesitating, speaking with difficulty). 
 Don t worry about that now, George. 
 
 GEORGE. Why why are they striking ? 
 
 ASHER. I ll tell you all about it later when 
 you feel better. 
 
 GEORGE (feebly, yet insistent). I I want 
 to know. 
 
 ASHER. We can t talk about it now, my boy 
 - later. 
 
 GEORGE. Did did you get my letter the 
 letter in which I begged you 
 
 ASHER. Yes, yes I ll explain it all tomor 
 row. 
 
 GEORGE. I I may not be here tomorrow. 
 You didn t do what I asked? It s so sim 
 ple when you ve thought about it when 
 you ve fought for it. 
 
 ASHER. I I had a plan, George. We ll go 
 over it 
 
 (He approaches GEORGE.) 
 
 GEORGE (shrinking) . No no ! 
 
 ( ASHER recoils. MINNIE FARRELL appears, 
 
134 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 upper right, from the direction of the 
 Common. She carries a phial, a dropper 
 and some water in a glass. Seeing the 
 group gathered about GEORGE, she hesi 
 tates, but DR. JONATHAN motions her to 
 come forward.) 
 W-who is that? Minnie? 
 
 (GEORGE makes an attempt to sit up, but his 
 head falls back and his eyes close again. 
 Then DR. JONATHAN lays his hand on 
 DR. FRYE S arm, as though to draw him 
 aside. ) 
 
 DR. FRYE. Is this Dr. Jonathan Pindar? 
 I wondered if you were a relation (he glances 
 at ASHER) but I wasn t looking for you in 
 Foxon Falls. If you have something to sug 
 gest? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (taking the phial and the 
 dropper from MINNIE). With your permission. 
 In any case it can do no harm. 
 
 DR. FRYE. By all means. If I had realized 
 you were here ! 
 
 ( ASHER looks on in astonishment. DR. 
 JONATHAN measures out a few drops of 
 the liquid from the phial into the glass of 
 water, which MINNIE holds.) 
 
DR. JONATHAN 135 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. George, will you take this ? 
 (He holds the glass while GEORGE drinks. 
 
 To DR. FRYE:) 
 
 There s a lounge in Mr. Pindar s study. 
 (To AUGUSTA:) Get a blanket. 
 
 (AUGUSTA goes toward the door, loiver 
 
 right, while MINNIE starts to retire.) 
 We ll need you, Minnie. 
 
 (He hands MINNIE the glass, dropper and 
 phial. The two physicians pick GEORGE 
 up and carry him out, left, followed by 
 MINNIE. ASHER goes a little way and 
 then halts with a despairing gesture. 
 AUGUSTA having gone for the blanket, 
 ASHER is left alone, pacing, until she re 
 turns. ) 
 
 AUGUSTA (going through the room from right 
 to left, ^vith the blanket). Ah, Asher! 
 
 ( ASHER begins pacing again, when DR. FRYE 
 
 r centers from the left.) 
 ASHER. Is there is there any hope? 
 DR. FRYE (his hand on ASHER S sleeve). I 
 can tell you more when I have had a chance to 
 talk with Dr. Pindar. This seems to be one of 
 his cases but I confess, when I mentioned 
 Barnwell, I didn t think of him. The situation 
 
136 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 came so suddenly. And in spite of his name 
 being yours, I didn t expect to find him here. 
 
 ASHER. Then you know of Jonathan? 
 
 DR. FRYE. I didn t know of him until I read 
 the book which he published about a year ago. 
 When I was in Baltimore in March, I asked for 
 him at Johns Hopkins s, and they told me that he 
 had gone to New England for his health. Ex 
 traordinary to meet him here and today ! 
 
 ASHER. What book? He s never spoken to 
 me of any book. 
 
 DR. FRYE. On the Physical Effects of Men 
 tal Crises. There has been a good deal of con 
 troversy about it in the profession, but I m one 
 of those who believe that the physician must seek 
 to cure, not only the body, but the soul. We 
 make a guess though he s published no ac- 
 ligion the true scientist is the minister of the 
 future. 
 
 ASHER. I never realized that Jonathan ! - 
 
 DR. FRYE (smiling a little). No prophet is 
 without honour save in his own country. 
 
 ASHER. What has he given George? 
 
 DR. FRYE. I can t tell you exactly, but I can 
 make a guess though he s published no ac 
 count of his recent experiments. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 137 
 
 (As DR. JONATHAN reenters from the 
 
 left.) 
 
 He will undoubtedly tell you himself. 
 (Exit DR. FRYE, left.) 
 
 ASHER. Will he live? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I ll be frank with you, Asher, 
 I don t know. All we can do is to wait. 
 
 ASHER. I call God to witness there s nothing 
 I wouldn t do, no sacrifice I wouldn t make, if 
 that boy could be saved! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Remember that, Asher. 
 
 ASHER. Remember what? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. If his life is saved, you will 
 be called upon to make a sacrifice, to do your 
 part. 
 
 ASHER. My part? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Yes. What I have given 
 him the medicine is only half the battle 
 should it succeed. My laboratory experiments 
 were only completed last night 
 
 ASHER. This is what you have been working 
 on? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. It happens to be. But I 
 have had no chance to test it except on ani 
 mals. I meant to have gone to a war hospital 
 in New York today. If it works, then we shall 
 
138 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 have to try the rest of the experiment, your 
 half of it. 
 
 ASHER. What s that? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. You probably noticed that 
 George avoided you. 
 
 ASHER. It s more than I can bear. You know 
 what we ve been to each other. If he should die 
 - feeling that way ! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. George hasn t lost his af 
 fection for you; if it were so, we shouldn t have 
 that symptom. I will tell you, briefly, my theory 
 of the case. But first let me say, in justice to 
 Frye, that he was in no position to know certain 
 facts that give the clue to George s condition 
 the mental history. 
 
 ASHER. I don t understand. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. The day he left home, for 
 France, certain things happened to him to arouse 
 his sympathy with what we call working people, 
 their lives and aspirations. As you know, 
 George has a very human side, he loves his 
 fellow men. He d never thought of these things 
 before. He went with them, naturally, to you, 
 and I infer that you suppressed him! 
 
 ASHER. I told him I couldn t discuss certain 
 aspects. His emotional state troubled me, he 
 
DR. JONATHAN 139 
 
 was going away, and I imagined he would get 
 over it. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. He didn t get over it. It 
 was an emotional crisis. He left home with a 
 conflict in his mind, a conflict between his affec 
 tion for you and that which he had suddenly 
 come to see was right. I mean, right for today, 
 for the year and hour in which we are living. 
 This question of the emancipation of labour be 
 gan a hundred years ago, with the introduction 
 of machinery and the rise of modern industry, 
 and in this war it has come to a head. Well, 
 as the time approached for George to risk his 
 life for his new beliefs, his mental conflict deep 
 ened. He talked with other young men who be 
 lieved they were fighting for the same cause. 
 And then it must have been shortly before he 
 was wounded he wrote you that appeal. 
 
 ASHER. The letter I read to you ! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. The fact that in his own 
 home, in the shops which bore his name, no at 
 tempt had been made to meet the new issues for 
 which he was going into battle, weighed upon 
 him. Then came the shell that shattered his 
 body. But the probabilities are that he was 
 struck down, unconscious, at the very moment 
 
140 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 when the conflict in his mind was most acute. 
 He was thinking of you, of the difference you 
 and he had had, he was lonely, he was afraid 
 for the bravest men feel fear. To him the burst 
 ing of the shell was the bursting of the con 
 flict within him. I won t go into the profes 
 sional side of the matter, the influence of the 
 mental state on the physical but after the 
 wound healed, whenever anything occurred to 
 remind him of the conflict, a letter from you, 
 the sight of the strikers this afternoon at the 
 shops, meeting you once more, a repetition came 
 of what happened when the shell struck him. 
 Certain glands fail in their functions, the heart 
 threatens to stop and put an end to life. If my 
 theory is correct, what I have given him may 
 tide over that danger, but only on one condition 
 can he continue to live and become a useful mem 
 ber of society. 
 
 ASHER. What condition? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. That the mental conflict, the 
 real cause of the trouble, be resolved. The time 
 has come, Asher, when you must make your 
 choice between your convictions and your 
 son. 
 
 ASHER. Speak out. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 141 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I mean that you must be pre 
 pared to tell George, if he recovers, that you 
 have abandoned your attitude toward the work 
 men, that you are willing to recognize their 
 union, settle the strike, and go even further than 
 in their ignorance they ask. You must try the 
 experiment in the democratization of industry 
 on which George s heart is set. Otherwise I will 
 not answer for his sanity, I cannot even give you 
 the hope that he will live. 
 
 ASHER. I never heard of a mental conflict 
 producing such a state! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Remember, you have said 
 that you will make any sacrifice to save George s 
 life. 
 
 ASHER (turning on DR. JONATHAN). You re 
 not trying to play on my my superstition, at 
 a time like this ! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. I m not dealing with super 
 stition, Asher, but with science. If George re 
 vives, he will wish to talk with you. 
 
 ASHER. When? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Probably this evening or 
 never. I ask you the question will you yield 
 your convictions? 
 
 ( ASHER bows his head. DR. JONATHAN 
 
142 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 gazes at him for a moment, compassion 
 ately.) 
 
 I ll go back to him now. I think he d better be 
 
 moved to his room, and put to bed. 
 
 (Exit DR. JONATHAN, left. For a minute 
 ASHER remains alone, and then DR. JONA 
 THAN and DR. FRYE reappear, carrying 
 GEORGE. The blanket is Hung over his 
 knees, and he seems lifeless. They are fol 
 lowed by MINNIE, carrying the phial and 
 the glass, and by AUGUSTA. They cross 
 the room and go out, lower right. ASHER 
 ivalks behind them as far as the door, 
 hesitates, and then goes out.) 
 (THE CURTAIN falls and remains down a 
 minute to indicate a lapse of three hours. 
 When it rises again night has come, the 
 lamps are lighted and the window cur 
 tains drawn. ASHER and AUGUSTA are 
 discovered standing together. ASHER has 
 a black, leather covered book in his hand, 
 with one finger in the place where he has 
 been reading. Both shozv the effects of 
 a strain.) 
 AUGUSTA (who has been speaking). And 
 
 when we took him upstairs, I was sure he was 
 
DR. JONATHAN 143 
 
 going to die it seemed to me as if nothing 
 could save him. He s been sitting up and talk 
 ing to us of course he s pale and weak and 
 wasted, but in spite of that, Asher, he seems to 
 have a strength, a force that he didn t have be 
 fore he went away. He isn t a boy any more. 
 I can t describe it, but I m almost afraid of 
 him ! 
 
 ASHER. He he hasn t mentioned me ? 
 
 AUGUSTA. No, my dear and since Jonathan 
 warned me not to, I ve said nothing about you. 
 Why is it? 
 
 ASHER. Jonathan s the master now. 
 
 AUGUSTA. In spite of what I ve felt about 
 him, he has saved George for us. It seems a 
 miracle. 
 
 ASHER. A scientific miracle. 
 
 AUGUSTA (indicating the book ASHER holds). 
 And yet you were reading the Bible ! 
 
 ASHER. I just took it down. (He lays it on 
 the table, and touches AUGUSTA, with an un 
 wonted tenderness, on the shoulder). I think 
 we may hope, now, Augusta. But before we can 
 be sure that he ll get well, there s something else 
 to be done. 
 
 AUGUSTA (anxiously). What? 
 
144 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 ASHER. Go back to George, I ll tell you 
 later. It seems that we must trust Jonathan. 
 Here he is now. 
 
 (Enter DR. JONATHAN, lower right, as 
 AUGUSTA departs.) 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. George wants to get dressed, 
 and come down. 
 
 ASHER. You think it wise? 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Under the circumstances 
 yes. The heart is practically normal again, we 
 have done all that is physically possible. One 
 half of the experiment seems to have succeeded, 
 and the sooner we try the other half, the better. 
 Are you still willing? 
 
 ASHER. I m prepared. I ve carried out your 
 instructions sent for the committee. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (looking at him). Good! 
 
 ASHER (with an effort). Jonathan, I I 
 guess I misjudged you 
 
 DR. JONATHAN (smiling). Wait until you are 
 sure. Nothing matters if we can save that boy. 
 By the way, he asked for Timothy, and I ve sent 
 for him. 
 
 ASHER. He asked for Timothy, and not for 
 me! 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. It seems he saw an officer of 
 
DR. JONATHAN 145 
 
 Bert s regiment, after the boy was killed. Here s 
 the committee, I think. 
 
 ( The MAID enters, lower right. She does not 
 speak, but ushers in HILLMAN, RENCH 
 and FERSEN, and retires.) 
 
 HILLMAN. - _. , ~ , 
 
 Good evening, Mr. Pindar. Good 
 RENCH. 
 
 evening, doctor. 
 FERSEN. 
 
 ASHER. Good evening. 
 
 (An azvkward silence. From habit, ASHER 
 stares at them defiantly, as DR. JONATHAN 
 goes out, lower right.) 
 
 HILLMAN (going up to ASHER). How s your 
 son, Mr. Pindar? 
 
 RENCH. We re real anxious about the Cap 
 tain. 
 
 FERSEN (nodding). The boys think a whole 
 lot of him, Mr. Pindar. 
 
 ASHER. He s better, thank you. The medi 
 cine Dr. Pindar has given him 
 
 RENCH. Didn t I say so? When I heard 
 how he was when he got back, I said to Fred 
 Hillman here, if anybody can cure him, it s 
 Dr. Jonathan, right here in Foxon Falls ! 
 
 (A pause.) 
 I m sorry this here difference came up just now, 
 
146 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 Mr. Pindar, when the Captain come home. We 
 was a little mite harsh but we was strung up, 
 I guess, from the long shifts. If we d known 
 your son was comin 
 
 ASHER. You wouldn t have struck? 
 
 RENCH. We d have agreed to put it off. 
 When a young man like that is near dying for 
 his country why anything can wait. But what 
 we re asking is only right. 
 
 ASHER. Well, right or not right, I sent for 
 you to say, so far as I m concerned, the strike s 
 over. 
 
 RENCH. You ll you ll recognize the union? 
 
 ASHER. I grant (he catches himself) I 
 consent to your demands. 
 
 (After a moment of stupefaction, their faces 
 light up, and they approach him.) 
 
 RENCH. We appreciate it, Mr. Pindar. 
 This ll make a lot of families happy tonight. 
 
 FERSEN. It will that. 
 
 HILLMAN. Maybe you won t believe me, Mr. 
 Pindar, but it was hard to see the shops closed 
 down as hard on us as it was on you. We 
 take pride in them, too. I guess you won t re 
 gret it. 
 
 ASHER (waving them away). I hope not. I 
 
DR. JONATHAN 14? 
 
 ought to tell you that you may thank my son for 
 this my son and Dr. Pindar. 
 
 RENCH. We appreciate it, just the same. 
 (ASHER makes a gesture as thought to dis 
 miss the subject, as well as the committee. 
 They hesitate, and are about to leave when 
 GEORGE, followed by DR. JONATHAN, 
 comes in, lower right. His entrance is 
 quite dramatic. He walks with the help 
 of a stick, slowly, but his bearing is sol 
 dierly, authoritative, impressive. He 
 halts when he perceives the commit 
 tee.) 
 
 HILLMAN (going up to GEORGE). How are 
 you, Captain? 
 
 FERSEN. Good to have you home once more. 
 RENCH (going up to GEORGE). Good to see 
 you, Captain, on a day like this. As Larz Fersen 
 said when we were going to strike, " It s a fine 
 day for it." Well, this is a better day you 
 home and well, and the strike off. 
 
 GEORGE (glancing from one to the other, and 
 then at ASHER). What do you mean? 
 
 RENCH. Why, Mr. Pindar your father 
 here s just made everybody happy. He s recog 
 nized the union, and we re going back to work. 
 
148 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 We ll turn out machines to make shrapnel enough 
 to kill every Hun in France, get square with 
 em for what they done to you. 
 
 ( They all watch GEORGE, absorbed in the ef 
 fect this announcement has on him.. An 
 expression of happiness grows in his eyes. 
 After a moment he goes up to ASIIER.) 
 GEORGE. Dad, why did you do this? 
 ASHER. I ll tell you, George. When you 
 came home this afternoon I realized something 
 I hadn t realized before. I saw that the tide 
 was against me, that I was like that old English 
 king who set his throne on the sands and thought 
 he could stay the waters. If if anything had 
 happened to you, I couldn t have fought on, but 
 now that you re here with me again, now that 
 you ve risked your life and almost lost it for 
 this this new order in which you believe, 
 why, it s enough for me I can surrender with 
 honour. I m tired, I need a rest. I d have gone 
 down fighting, but I guess you ve saved me. I ve 
 been true to my convictions, you, who belong 
 to the new generation, must be true to yours. 
 And as I told you once, all I care about this busi 
 ness is to hand it over to you. 
 GEORGE. You ll help me! 
 
DR. JONATHAN 149 
 
 ASHER. This seems to be Jonathan s spe 
 ciality, science. But I never give my word 
 half heartedly, my boy, and I ll back you to my 
 last dollar. Be prepared for disappointments, 
 but if you accomplish something, I ll be glad. 
 And if you fail, George, any failure for a 
 man s convictions is a grand failure. 
 
 GEORGE. Well, it means life to me, dad. I 
 owe it to you. 
 
 ASHER (turning toivard DR. JONATHAN). 
 No, you owe it to him, to science. 
 
 (He puts one hand on GEORGE S shoulder, 
 and the other, with an abrupt movement, 
 on DR. JONATHAN S.) 
 
 And if science will do as much for democracy, 
 then- 
 
 GEORGE. Then, you re from Missouri. Good 
 old dad ! 
 
 ASHER (huskily, trying to carry it off, and al 
 most overcome by emotion at the reconciliation). 
 I m from Missouri, my boy. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Then you re a true scientist, 
 Asher, for science, too, waits to be shown. 
 
 (AsriER goes out, lozver right. DR. JONA 
 THAN, evidently in support and sympathy, 
 goes with him. GEORGE and the commit- 
 
ISO DR. JONATHAN 
 
 tec look after them, and then GEORGE sits 
 down, and smiles at the men.) 
 
 GEORGE. And we ve got to be scientists, too. 
 Are you fellows willing to take your share in 
 the experiment? 
 
 HILLMAN. What experiment s that, Captain? 
 
 GEORGE. Now that you ve got your union, 
 what s the good of it? 
 
 RENCH (after a pause). Why, I thought we d 
 made that pretty clear, Captain. We ve got 
 something to fall back on in case the employers 
 don t live up to their agreements. I m not 
 speaking of you 
 
 GEORGE. In other words, you ve got a 
 weapon. 
 
 RENCH. Well, you might call it that. 
 
 GEORGE. But weapons imply warfare, don t 
 they? 
 
 RENCH. We wouldn t fight with you. 
 
 GEORGE. Yes, you would, if our interests 
 conflicted. When I was in the trenches I kept 
 thinking of the quotation Lincoln used, " A house 
 divided against itself cannot stand." We re go 
 ing to try to perpetuate that house, just as he did. 
 
 HILLMAN. Lincoln had common sense. 
 
 GEORGE. Another name for intelligence. 
 
DR. JONATHAN 151 
 
 And what we ve got to decide is whether the old 
 house will do for democracy industrial de 
 mocracy ? Can we shore up the timbers or 
 shall we have to begin to build a new house ? 
 
 RENCH (glancing at HILLMAN). The old 
 one sure enough looks rotten to me. I ve said 
 that all along. 
 
 GEORGE. It seems to have served its day. 
 Has your union got the plans of a new house 
 ready consulted an architect ? 
 
 RENCH. I m afraid we don t get you, Cap 
 tain. 
 
 GEORGE. You belong to the American Federa 
 tion of Labour, don t you? Has it got a new 
 house ready to move into ? 
 
 RENCH. Well, I haven t seen any plans. 
 
 GEORGE. If the old structure s too small, one 
 party or the other will have to be shoved out. 
 The capitalist or the employee. Which will it 
 be? 
 
 RENCH (laughing). If it comes to that 
 
 GEORGE (smiling). There s no question in 
 your mind. But you hadn t thought about it 
 your Federation hasn t thought about it, or 
 doesn t want to think about it, and your em 
 ployers don t want to, either, 
 
152 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 HILLMAN (stroking his moustache). That s 
 so! 
 
 GEORGE. I ll tell you who have thought about 
 it the Bolshevists and the I. W. W. And be 
 cause they have a programme, some pro 
 gramme, any programme, they re more intelli 
 gent than we, for the time. 
 RENCH. Those guys? 
 
 GEORGE. Exactly, those guys. At least 
 they see that the house isn t fit to live in. They 
 want to pull it down, and go back to living in 
 trees and caves. 
 
 HILLMAN. That s about right. 
 GEORGE. But you re conservatives, you la 
 bour union people the aristocrats of labour, 
 which means that you don t think. What you 
 really object to, when you come down to it, is 
 that men like my father and me, and the bankers, 
 we re all in the same boat, most of us own 
 banks, too, control the conditions of life for 
 you and men like you. 
 
 RENCH. I never heard it put in those words, 
 but by gum, it s so. 
 
 GEORGE. And your Confederation, your 
 unions are for the skilled workers, whose con 
 ditions aren t so bad, and they re getting better 
 
DR. JONATHAN 153 
 
 every time you jack up the wages. You com 
 plain that we employers aren t thinking of you, 
 but are you thinking of the millions of the un 
 skilled who live from hand to mouth? The old 
 structure s good enough for you, too. But what 
 will the miserable men, who don t sit in, be do 
 ing while we re squabbling to see who ll have 
 the best rooms? 
 
 RENCH. Blow the house up, I guess. 
 
 GEORGE. If they re rough with it, it ll tumble 
 down like a pack of cards simply because we re 
 asses. Can t we build a house big enough for 
 all for a hundred million people and their 
 descendants? A house in which, after a while, 
 there will be no capitalists and no exploiters and 
 no wreckers, only workers each man and wo 
 man on the job they were fitted for? It s a 
 man-sized job, but isn t it worth tackling? 
 
 RENCH (enthused). It s sure worth tackling, 
 Captain. 
 
 GEORGE. And can t we begin it, in a modest 
 way, by making a little model of the big house 
 right here in Foxon Falls? Dr. Jonathan will 
 help us. 
 
 RENCH. Go to it, Captain. We ll trust him 
 and you. 
 
154 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 GEORGE. Trust is all right, but you ve got to 
 go to it, too, and use your headpieces. We ve 
 got to sit down together and educate ourselves, 
 who are now employers and employees, get hold 
 of all the facts, the statistics, and all the ele 
 ments, the human nature side of it, from the 
 theorists, the students, whom we ve despised. 
 
 RENCH. Well, it s a fact, I hadn t thought 
 much of them intellectuals. 
 
 GEORGE. They re part of the game their 
 theories are the basis for an intelligent practice. 
 And what should we be able to do without their 
 figures? Look at what we ve worked out in 
 large scale production and distribution in this 
 war! That s a new world problem. Shall we 
 be pioneers here in Foxon Falls in the new ex 
 periment. 
 
 RENCH. An experiment in human chemicals, 
 as the doctor would say. Pioneers! I kind of 
 like that word. You can put me in the wagon, 
 Captain. 
 
 GEORGE. It will be a Conestoga with the cur 
 tains rolled up, so that everybody can see in. 
 No secrets. And it will be a wagon with an in 
 dustrial constitution, 
 
DR. JONATHAN 155 
 
 FERSEN. Excuse me, Captain, but what s 
 that? 
 
 (RENCH laughs.) 
 
 GEORGE (smiling). Hasn t it struck you, Fer- 
 sen, that unless a man has a voice and an inter 
 est in the industry in which he works his voice 
 and interest in the government for which he 
 votes is a mockery? 
 (FERSEN nods.) 
 
 RENCH. We ll have to give Larz a little edu 
 cation. 
 
 GEORGE. Oh, I guess he ll make a good in 
 dustrial citizen. But that s part of the bargain. 
 
 RENCH. That s fair. Human nature ain t so 
 rotten, when you give it a chance. 
 
 GEORGE. Well, then, are you willing to try it 
 out, on the level? 
 
 RENCH. I cal late we ll stick, Captain. 
 
 HILLMAN. We sure will. 
 
 FERSEN. We ll be pioneers! 
 
 GEORGE. That s good American, Fersen, not 
 to be afraid of an ideal. Shake ! We ll sit down 
 with it in a day or two. 
 
 (They all shake. The members of the com 
 mittee Hie out of the room, lower right. 
 
156 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 GEORGE is left alone for a brief interval, 
 when MINNIE, in the white costume of a 
 nurse, enters, lower right, with a glass of 
 medicine in her hand.) 
 
 MINNIE (halting). You re all alone? 
 Where s Dr. Jonathan? 
 
 GEORGE. He s gone off with dad. 
 MINNIE. It s nine o clock. 
 
 (She hands him the glass, he drinks the con 
 tents and sets the glass on the table. 
 Then he takes her hands and draivs her to 
 him and kisses her. She submits almost 
 passively. ) 
 Why are you doing this, George? 
 
 GEORGE. Because I love you, because I need 
 you, because I m going to marry you. 
 
 MINNIE (shaking her head: slowly). No 
 you re not. 
 
 GEORGE. Why not? 
 
 MINNIE. You know why not, as well as I do. 
 (She gazes up at him. He is still holding her 
 in his arms. Suddenly she kisses him 
 passionately, breaks away from him and 
 starts to fly from the room, when she runs 
 into DR. JONATHAN, who is entering, 
 loiver right.) 
 
DR. JONATHAN 157 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. Where are you going, Min 
 nie? 
 
 (MINNIE halts, and is silent. DR. JONA 
 THAN lays a detaining hand on her arm, 
 and looks from one to the other, compre- 
 hendingly. ) 
 
 GEORGE. I ve asked her to marry me, Dr. 
 Jonathan. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. And what are your objec 
 tions, Minnie? 
 
 MINNIE. You know why I can t, Dr. Jona 
 than. What kind of a wife would I make for 
 him, with his family and friends. I d do any 
 thing for him but that ! He wouldn t be happy. 
 
 DR. JONATHAN. And what s your answer, 
 George ? 
 
 GEORGE. I don t want her for my family and 
 friends, I want her for myself. This isn t a 
 snap judgment I ve had time to think it over. 
 
 MINNIE. I didn t mean to be here when you 
 got home. I know I m not fit to be your wife 
 I haven t had any education. 
 
 GEORGE. Neither have I. We start level 
 there. I ve lived among people of culture, and 
 I ve found out that culture chiefly consists of 
 fixed ideas, and obstruction to progress, of hat- 
 
158 DR. JONATHAN 
 
 ing the President, of knowing the right peo 
 ple and eating fish with a fork. 
 
 MINNIE (smiling, though in tears). Well, I 
 never ate fish with a knife, anyway. 
 
 GEORGE. I spent my valuable youth learning 
 Greek and Latin, and I can t speak or read either 
 of them. I know that Horace wrote odes, and 
 Cicero made orations, but I can t quote them. 
 All I remember about biology is that the fittest 
 are supposed to survive, and in this war I ve seen 
 the fittest killed off like flies. You ve had sev 
 eral years of useful work in the Pindar Shops 
 and the Wire Works, to say nothing of a course 
 in biological chemistry, psychology and sociology 
 under Dr. Jonathan. I ll leave it to him whether 
 you don t know more about life than I do 
 about the life and problems of the great mass of 
 people in this country. And now that the strike s 
 over 
 
 MINNIE. The strike s over! 
 
 GEORGE. Yes. I ve chosen my life. It isn t 
 going to be divided between a Wall Street office 
 and Newport and Palm Beach. A girl out of 
 a finishing school wouldn t be of any use to me. 
 I m going to stay right here in Foxon Falls, Min 
 nie, I ve got a real job on my hands, and I need 
 
DR. JONATHAN 159 
 
 a real woman with special knowledge to help me. 
 I don t mean to say we won t have vacations, 
 and we ll sit down and get our education to 
 gether. Dr. Jonathan will be the schoolmaster. 
 
 MINNIE. It s a dream, George. 
 
 GEORGE. Well, Minnie, if it s a dream worth 
 dying for it s a dream worth living for. Your 
 brother Bert died for it. 
 
 CURTAIN 
 
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