Hawaii - James Michener [579]
"I won't discuss a labor union."
"I haven't said anything about a labor union," Goro pointed out, shifting from one foot to the other while Hewlett slumped back in his chair.
"What else would you want to talk about?" Janders snapped.
"All right, since you bring the matter up, Mr. Janders. Malama Sugar is going to organize . . ."
"Get out!” Janders said abruptly, his voice rising even though he remained seated.
Quietly Goro replied, "Malama Sugar is going to be organized, Mr. Janders. Under federal law we are entitled . . ."
"Out!" Janders shouted. Leaping to the door he called for his assistants, and when they had piled into the room he commanded: "Throw this communist out."
Goro, even stockier than he had been in high school, braced himself against the table and spoke quickly: "Mr. Janders, I'm not a communist and I'm not going to let your people throw me out, because if they did I'd have a court case against you. Then your position on the union would harden, and we'd have even more trouble discussing things intelligently. So call the dogs off."
"I will never accept a union," Janders cried. "And don't you ever come stomping back into this office."
"Mr. Janders, I promise you that the first plantation we organize will be Malama Sugar, and when we reach the final negotiations I will sit in this chair . . ." Goro reached for a chair, lifted it carefully and set it down in (position. "This chair. Save it for me, Mr. Janders. The next time we meet here will be to sign papers. The name's Goro Sakagawa."
He left the room quietly and Janders dismissed his aides. Slumping into his chair he tried to understand what had happened: "A Japanese field hand stomped into my office and told me . . ." He collapsed in incredulity and called for Hoxworth Hale.
"How'd it go?" Hale asked.
"A Japanese field hand stomped into my office and told me . . ."
"Quit the dramatics, Hewie. What happened?"
"They're going to organize Malama Sugar."
"They'll never make it," Hale said firmly. He summoned The Fort and told his men, "Hewie's had a bad ten minutes. Young Sakagawa tipped his hand . . ."
"He stomped in here and tried to tell me . . ."
"Hewie!" Hale interrupted. "He didn't try to tell you. Damn it all, he told you."
"They're going to organize Malama Sugar," Janders repeated. "And if they succeed there . . . then they'll try the rest."
"This has come sooner than I expected," Hale observed. "When we beat back our Russian communists in the strikes of 1939 and 1946, I figured we had them licked. But apparently the dreadful Roosevelt virus has infected our entire society."
"But I never expected to see the day," Janders mumbled, "when a Japanese field hand could stomp into my office . . ."
Hard, competent Hoxworth Hale, who from behind the scenes had masterminded the two preceding fights against the union, now began marshaling his forces. 'Rapping on the table he said, "We shall present a unified force against them, and if anyone of you in this room wavers, we will show no mercy. On the one hand, the Japanese radicals will overwhelm you. And on the other, we'll ruin you. No credit. No common merchandising. No legal support. Gentlemen, you stick with us or you perish." He stopped, glared at the men, and asked, "Is that agreed?"
"Agreed," the plantation men muttered, and the strike was on.
When policies had been set and the meeting adjourned, the plantation owners stood nervously about the room, unwilling to leave, and Hale asked, "How did a decent young man like Goro Sakagawa, with three brothers in Punahou, 'become a communist?"
Janders replied, "I think he was assigned to the A.F. of L. in Japan."
A pall settled over The Fort. John Whipple Hoxworth mused: "To think that our government took a decent Japanese boy and instructed him in labor tactics!" Something of the world's maniacal contradiction seeped into the room and mocked the managers, and Hoxworth Hale asked sadly, "You mean that a boy who might have gone to Punahou was perverted by our