He knows for certain--because all his experience
has taught him so--that sooner or later a toll of human life will
be exacted in the working of that factory.
Rorlund: Yes, that is only too probable.
Bernick: Or, say a man embarks on a mining enterprise. He takes
into his service fathers of families and young men in the first
flush of their youth. Is it not quite safe to predict that all of
them will not come out of it alive?
Rorlund: Yes, unhappily that is quite true.
Bernick: Well--a man in that position will know beforehand that
the undertaking he proposes to start must undoubtedly, at some
time or other, mean a loss of human life. But the undertaking
itself is for the public good; for every man's life that it
costs, it will undoubtedly promote the welfare of many hundreds.
Rorlund: Ah, you are thinking of the railway--of all the
dangerous excavating and blasting, and that sort of thing--
Bernick: Yes--quite so--I am thinking of the railway. And,
besides, the coming of the railway will mean the starting of
factories and mines. But do not think, nevertheless--
Rorlund: My dear Mr. Bernick, you are almost over-conscientious.
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