Page:H.M. The Patrioteer.djvu/363

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THE PATRIOTEER
355

prepared to co-operate with me is welcome, but I will stand no radicalism! Barely two years ago I said that to a few of you, and now you can see how many I have under my orders. You may be proud to have such a master! You can rely upon me, I will undertake the responsibility of arousing you to a sense of patriotism, and of making you faithful supporters of the existing order." He promised them dwellings, sick relief and cheaper necessities of life. "But I forbid socialistic agitation! In the future you can vote as I tell you, or leave!" Diederich also said that he was determined to curb irreligion. He would note every Sunday who went to church and who did not. "So long as the world is unredeemed from sin, there will be war and hatred, envy and discord. Therefore, there must be one master!"

In order to enforce this fundamental principle every room in the factory was adorned with inscriptions to drive it home: No thoroughfare! It is strictly prohibited to fetch water in the buckets for use in case of fire! They were not allowed to send out for bottles of beer, for Diederich had not failed to make a contract with a brewery which ensured him a profit on what his employes consumed. … Eating, sleeping, smoking, children, "Courting, flirting, lovemaking, in fact, every vice," was strictly prohibited! In the workmen's dwellings, even before they were built, foster-children were forbidden. An unmarried couple living together, who had evaded detection for ten years under Klusing, were solemnly dismissed. This occurrence even inspired Diederich to invent a new means of raising the moral tone of the people. In the appropriate places he had paper hung up, which was manufactured in Gausenfeld itself, and nobody could use it without noticing the moral and patriotic maxims with which it was adorned. At times he would hear the men shouting some august saying which they had learnt in this fashion, or singing a patriotic song which had been impressed upon their memory on a like occasion. Encouraged by this success Diederich put his in-