Download the full version of the ebook at

https://ebookgate.com

Labour in Turkey 1st Edition Abreg Çelem

https://ebookgate.com/product/labour-in-
turkey-1st-edition-abreg-celem/

Explore and download more ebook at https://ebookgate.com

 Recommended digital products (PDF, EPUB, MOBI) that
you can download immediately if you are interested.

Advances in Agronomy 80 1st Edition Donald L. Sparks

https://ebookgate.com/product/advances-in-agronomy-80-1st-edition-
donald-l-sparks/

ebookgate.com

Warships in the War of the Pacific 1879 83 1st Edition

Angus Konstam

https://ebookgate.com/product/warships-in-the-war-of-the-
pacific-1879-83-1st-edition-angus-konstam/

ebookgate.com

Political Parties in Turkey 1st Edition Barry Rubin

https://ebookgate.com/product/political-parties-in-turkey-1st-edition-
barry-rubin/

ebookgate.com

Commercial Electrical Inspector ICC E2 Exam Prep 2018th

Edition Cliff Burger

https://ebookgate.com/product/commercial-electrical-inspector-
icc-e2-exam-prep-2018th-edition-cliff-burger/

ebookgate.com
Advances in Cancer Research 80 1st Edition George F. Vande
Woude (Editor)

https://ebookgate.com/product/advances-in-cancer-research-80-1st-
edition-george-f-vande-woude-editor/

ebookgate.com

Islamic Schools in Modern Turkey Iren Ozgur

https://ebookgate.com/product/islamic-schools-in-modern-turkey-iren-
ozgur/

ebookgate.com

Labour Law in Namibia 1st Edition Collins Parker

https://ebookgate.com/product/labour-law-in-namibia-1st-edition-
collins-parker/

ebookgate.com

Labour Law and Industrial Relations in Recessionary Times

The Italian Labour Relations in a Global Economy 1st
Edition Michele Tiraboschi
https://ebookgate.com/product/labour-law-and-industrial-relations-in-
recessionary-times-the-italian-labour-relations-in-a-global-
economy-1st-edition-michele-tiraboschi/
ebookgate.com

A Slow Death 83 Days of Radiation Sickness Nhk Tv Crew

https://ebookgate.com/product/a-slow-death-83-days-of-radiation-
sickness-nhk-tv-crew/

ebookgate.com
 A. S. ÇELEM & P. AKÇAGÜN (Eds.)
Abreg S. ÇELEM & Pelin AKÇAGÜN (Eds.)
Abreg S. ÇELEM & Pelin AKÇAGÜN (Eds.)
Labour in Turkey: Economic, Political and Social Perspectives

Turkey’s neoliberal transformation in the early 1980s drastically changed the

structure of the work life and the issues of the labour differentiated since then.
The book uses a multi-dimensional approach by considering the economic, poli-
Labour in Turkey
tical and social aspects of labour in Turkey. It addresses diversified problems
including jobless growth, regional segregation, immigrant workers, rural labour
relations, gender discrimination and precarity. It also analyses the transforma-
Economic, Political and Social Perspectives
tion from past to present and questions its future potentials by discussing the
effects of new technologies on working regimes. Contributions by researchers
from various disciplines enabled a comprehensive examination and paved the
way for a critical thinking on the future challenges of labour in Turkey.

Abreg S. Çelem received his Ph.D. in Econometrics with his dissertation entitled
“New Open Economy Macroeconomics; Exchange Rates and Current Account: An
Empirical Analysis” from Gazi University, Ankara in 2011. His fields of expertise

Labour in Turkey
are time series analysis, panel data analysis and microeconometrics.

Pelin Akçagün obtained her B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Middle East Technical
University Department of Economics. As a visiting research scholar, she studied
at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and worked on spatial econo-
metrics. Her Ph.D. thesis received Middle East Technical University Best Ph.D.
Thesis Award and Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey Academic Encourage-
ment Award. Her research interests include theoretical econometrics and applied
econometrics with special focus on regional development and labour economics.

9783631815977_cvr_eu.indd All Pages 19-May-20 19:50:25

 Bibliographic Information published by the
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available online at
http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the
Library of Congress.

Cover illustration by Majid Rangraz (unsplash.com).

Printed by CPI books GmbH, Leck

ISBN 978-3-631-81597-7 (Print)

E-ISBN 978-3-631-83058-1 (E-PDF)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-83059-8 (EPUB)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-83060-4 (MOBI)
DOI 10.3726/b17451

© Peter Lang GmbH

Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Berlin 2020
All rights reserved.
Peter Lang – Berlin ∙ Bern ∙ Bruxelles ∙ New York ∙ Oxford ∙ Warszawa ∙ Wien
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any
utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without
the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to
prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions,
translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in
electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
www.peterlang.com
 Contributors

Abreg S. Çelem received his Ph.D. in Econometrics with his dissertation enti-
tled “New Open Economy Macroeconomics; Exchange Rates and Current
Account: An Empirical Analysis” from Gazi University, Ankara, in 2011. His fields
of expertise are time series analysis, panel data analysis and microeconometrics.
He works at the Department of Economics, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun,
since 2005. E-mail: [email protected]
Pelin Akçagün is Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at
Ondokuz Mayis University. She received her B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Middle
East Technical University, Department of Economics. As a visiting research
scholar, she studied at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign during 2013–
2014. Her Ph.D. thesis on Spatial Econometric Analysis of Regional Growth and
Employment Convergence in Turkey received Middle East Technical University
Best Ph.D. Thesis Award and Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey Academic
Encouragement Award. Her research interests include theoretical economet-
rics and applied econometrics with special focus on regional development and
labour economics. E-mail: [email protected]
Nihan Ciğerci Ulukan is Assistant Professor in Labour Economics and
Industrial Relations Department at Ordu University in Turkey. She has a B.A.,
M.A and Ph.D. in Labour Economics and Industrial Relations from Marmara
University, Istanbul, Turkey. Her Ph.D. dissertation is entitled “Migrants and
Labour Market: Bulgarian Migrants in Bursa”. Throughout her academic career,
she has been mainly concentrating on the migration and labour relations in
Turkey. Her current research focuses on circular migration and seasonal migrant
labour. E-mail: [email protected]
Umut Ulukan is Assistant Professor in Labour Economics and Industrial
Relations Department at Ordu University in Turkey where he has been a faculty
member since 2009. He has a B.A. and M.A in Labour Economics and Industrial
Relations from Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey. He holds a Ph.D. in
Development Economics from the same university. His Ph.D. dissertation enti-
tled “Structural Change of Turkish Agriculture and Contract Farming” was
published in 2009 (in Turkish) and was also awarded by Turkish Social Sciences
Association. His current research focuses on the new patterns of social differ-
entiation among small-scale fishers in Turkey. E-mail: [email protected]
 Contributors 13

currently focuses on the history of public debt in Turkey. E-mail: akyuzferhat@

yahoo.co.uk, [email protected]
Polat S. Alpman works currently as Associate Professor in the Department
of Social Work at Yalova University, Turkey. He received a Ph.D. in Sociology
from Ankara University, Turkey, with the dissertation entitled “The Effects
of Ethnicity on Social Inequality”. Dr. Alpman’s main areas of interest are the
state, class, social inequality, discrimination, migration, citizenship and urban
issues. Alpman, in addition to several book chapters and articles, published
his book titled “Esmer Yakalılar: Kent, Sınıf, Kimlik ve Kürt Emeği” (Esmer
Collar: Urban, Class, Identity and Kurdish Labour) with İletişim Publishing in
2016. E-mail: [email protected]
Özkan Öztürk works currently as Assistant Professor in the Department of
Sociology at Karabük University, Turkey. He received a Ph.D. in Sociology from
Ankara University, Turkey, with the dissertation entitled “Environmentalism
and the Content of Environmental Discourses in Turkey”. Dr. Öztürk’s research
interests and recent articles published in several international and national
journals lie within the domains of environmental sociology, sociology of litera-
ture and modernization theories. E-mail: [email protected]
Yeliz Sarıöz Gökten is an economist. Dr. Gökten received Ph.D. degree from
the Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey. She is a lecturer in the Department of
Economics at Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University. Her research currently focuses
on international political economy, hegemonic transition and new international
institutions. Dr. Gökten’s doctoral dissertation was published by Notabene
Publications as “The Past and Future of Hegemony Relations, A Neo-Gramscian
Approach”. E-mail: [email protected]
Özgür Narin is Assistant Professor of Economics at Ordu University. He gradu-
ated from the Electrical & Electronics Engineering Department of Middle East
Technical University. His Ph.D. is from Development Economics Department
of Marmara University. He studied on the capitalist production of Science and
Technology, particularly innovation and the changing scientific labour process.
As a visiting scholar at New York University, he studied on changing labour
processes under crisis and technological development. His current research is
on Artificial Intelligence, “General Intellect” and the alternative reorganization
of social production and society. He is also a member of IstanbuLab (https://
stsistanbul.org), an independent platform engaged in the critical and constructive
studies of Science, Technology and Society (STS) in Turkey. E-mail: narinozgur@
yahoo.com
 Özgür NARİN

Industry 4.0: Brand New World or False

Promise? With a Note on the Evolution of
Machinery

Abstract: In this study, the implications and limits of Industry 4.0 project will be discussed.
Industry 4.0 is a European project that aims to integrate digital networks and manufacturing
process with the whole commodity-value chain by using sensors and cyber-physical sys-
tems, that is, the integration of computation, networking, and physical processes. In order
to understand the Digital Age, the study will first examine Marx’s analysis of evolution of
Machinery and the social relations that produce this machinery. This will pave the way for
conceptualizing automation and artificial intelligence as the key elements of Industry 4.0.
After analysing the origins and social context of Industry 4.0 project, the study will discuss
the implications and limits of the “Industry 4.0 initiative”. The discussion is built over some
crucial questions: If the whole process is digitalized and controlled by computer algorithms
as projected, can the industrial production as a whole be optimized and integrated? Do
the Big Data and analytics make “online capitalism” possible? On the condition of the
contradicting interests and profits in capitalist competition, is it possible to think optimi-
zation only as a technical problem? Does “the invisible hand” of the market become visible
by the Big Data gathered from cyber-physical systems? By discussing these questions,
the study will criticise the blackboxing of “algorithms”, “optimization” paradigms of the
Industry 4.0 discourse. It will argue that blackboxing the “algorithms”, “cyber-physical
systems” or “Big Data and Analytics” would not hide the problem of agency, the actors
seeking for profit particularly under real-time competition. In the end, the study will sug-
gest that the project would be a false promise for capitalism but an important possibility
for another world.
Keywords: Industry 4.0, Cybernetics, Babbage, capitalist competition

JEL Codes: O14, O25, O30, L86, P16, N14

1. Introduction
The past decade has seen the rapid development of internet and the digitaliza-
tion of different aspects of the social production. The digital technologies called
the Internet of Things (IoT) collected our data, processed and accumulated it as
the Big Data. It was inevitable that the big data and data analytics would enter
248 Özgür NARİN

the manufacturing process. At the beginning, the industrial internet of things

had been an idea developed by Cisco and other private corporations in US but
later, the idea systematically developed in Germany as Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0
is a European project that aims to integrate digital networks and manufacturing
process with the whole commodity-value chain by using sensors and cyber-
physical systems, that is, the integration of computation, networking, and phys-
ical processes.
The claim of the project is that the Big Data collected by the cyber-physical
systems, kept and processed on The Cloud would help system to be integrated
and decentralized at the same time. The artificial intelligence and Big Data ana-
lytics can help the operation of the whole process, through which, the Industrial
Internet of Things (IoT) can spread across the whole value chain from suppliers
through manufacturing to consumption.
The study will first analyse the development of machines to servomechanisms
as the historical background of the Digital Age that paves the way for Industry 4.0
since it is necessary to understand the cybernetic transformation and the Digital
Age. Then it will describe the social and economic context of the “Industry 4.0”
project. Why it has originated from Germany and its place in the global competi-
tion will be analysed. And then the limits of the project as it is implied in its main
documents will be discussed. This section will answer these questions: If the
whole process is digitalized and controlled by computer algorithms as projected,
can the industrial production as a whole be optimized and integrated? Do the
Big Data and data analytics make “online capitalism” possible? On the condi-
tion of the contradicting interests and profits in capitalist competition, is it pos-
sible to think optimization only as a technical problem? Last but not least, does
“the invisible hand” of the market become visible by the Big Data gathered from
cyber-physical systems?
The last section will be a historical reminder that an idea similar to Industry
4.0 project had been suggested almost half a century ago. In conclusion, the
results of the analysis and our answer whether Industry 4.0 is a brand-new world
or a false promise will be discussed.
Let’s start with the historical background of the new machinery system of the
so-called fourth industrial revolution. It is the Smart Factories and Cyber-Physical
Systems “comprise smart machines, storage systems and production facilities
capable of autonomously exchanging information, triggering actions and control-
ling each other independently” (Kagermann et al., 2013). Smart machines, auton-
omously exchanging information, controlling each other are the most developed
machines of Digital Age.
 Industry 4.0: Brand New World or False Promise? 249

2. Setting the Scene: Understanding the Cybernetic

Transformation and the Digital Age
A weird coincidence of the history about automatic machinery and computers
occurred in London around the mid-nineteenth century. The early birth of
the Digital Age and its first promising social “analysis” happened around the
same years, in the same city. During the 1840s, Charles Babbage developed the
“Analytical Engine” that is called the first prototype of the computer and Ada
Lovelace “programmed” it by using the successive iterations of the arithmetic op-
erations.1 About two decades later, Karl Marx examined the history of technology,
focusing comprehensively on the development of machinery in his Manuscripts
of 1857–58 (Grundrisse), 1861–1863 and Notebooks on Technology. That means,
an important innovation in the development of Machinery, “Analytical Engine”
that would lead to computers and the most developed analysis of the Machinery
were born at the same place.

2.1. The “Analytical Engine” and the Analysis of the Engine

This section will start from the feedback mechanism and the “Analytical Engine”
and examine through self-acting machines to computers to understand the two
elementary components of the digital world: computer control and information,
communication systems.2 This chapter suggests to move in a double helix, while
examining the development of machinery in it is continuity and leaps, at the
same time relating this development to contradictory social relations of produc-
tion of technology. Babbage’s “Analytical Engine” coincides with Marx’s technical
and social analysis of the Machinery in both ways: While technically the engine
was a discovery illuminating the ground-breaking advance in the development
of machinery, Marx’s historical investigation of the development of machinery
system helps to understand the technical evolution, but at the same time, the
social analysis provides the way and limits of this development.

1 Note that the controversy about the originality of the idea of programming the analyt-
ical engine has some patriarchal echoes (Hollings, Martin et al., 2017, 2018).(Swade,
2001, pp. 168–170). Although Babbage designed and built the Analytical Engine,
Lovelace seems to have her originality about the table and the form of successive
iterations (Hollings, Martin et al., 2017, 2018).
2 Nick Dyer-Witheford suggested to start from Marx at the time of “Difference Engine”.
Although used the similar dual analysis, had a different emphasis on the development
of the components of machinery (Dyer-Witheford, 1999).
250 Özgür NARİN

In his comprehensive analysis of the capitalist production, Marx focused on

the laws and governing dynamics of the production itself. As well as his great dis-
covery of the concept of “surplus value” as a contradictory governing dynamic of
the capitalism in the Manuscripts of 1857–58, he was the one who first analysed
systematically the “technology”, development of machinery and “the science
enlisted by capitalist production” as a result of social relations. He was the one
who pointed out the commodity fetishism and so implicitly the technology
fetishism, that is technological development by itself determines the social re-
lations. The reason to suggest Marx’s perspective as a significant explanation of
social construction of technology will be discussed later, but first, his analysis of
the machinery will be considered. In order to build a consistent critique, the role
of the machinery and development of the machinery within this system was a
crucial component. So, he delved deeply into the history of machinery, reviewed
an extensive literature, and took notes and excerpts in the manuscripts of 1861–
63, that is called Notebooks on Technology (Marx, 1988), (Marx, 1991), (Marx,
1994).3
According to Marx, machinery was composed of three essentially different
parts: the motor mechanism, the transmitting mechanism, and the tool or
the working machine.4 The evolution of these three parts in themselves and
with respect to each other is important for understanding our Digital Age
and hence Industry 4.0. For example, the motor mechanism was the power
mechanism developed with the source of energy, whether it be human, horse-
power, rivers, wind or the steam. With the evolving contradictory social pro-
ductive usage of different energy sources (fossil fuels, nuclear and renewables)
the machinery system developed and interactively affected the usage of these
sources. In the same way, the transmission mechanism evolved into Information
and Communication Technologies and the development of working machine to
Control and Computer systems hence to Robots and Automation. So, this will
set the background for understanding the Industry 4.0 project. But the evolu-
tion of these last two parts were important and historically complex. In order to
understand this evolution, we should start from Marx’s comprehensive analysis
of the components and reconsider the development where Marx left.

3 For the details, c.f. Roth’s comprehensive article on Marx and technical change (Roth,
2010, p. 1237).
4 The distinction was as two parts in Babbage, “1) machines for the production of power;
2) Machines for power transmission and work machines. This subdivision -which
actually contains three categories, but formally only two- is a contradiction that Marx
later resolves in Capital” (Winkelmann, 1982, p. XCIII). c.f. (Roth, 2010, p. 1238).
 Industry 4.0: Brand New World or False Promise? 251

A retrospective analysis, having seen the importance of feedback mechanisms

for the development of servomechanisms and our contemporary automatic con-
trolled machines, would focus on Marx’s detailed analysis and look for the cru-
cial points like elementary feedback systems used in the machines.
Indeed, Marx (1991: 453) pointed out some important discoveries, like
Jacquard looms or Roberts’ self-acting spinning mule relied on primitive feed-
back systems. Quoting Marx:
“The history of mechanical development had just gone through a disruptive change with
the self-actors. The self-acting mule had really opened up a new epoch in the automatic
system” (Marx, 1976, p. 562).

All of these mechanisms had been considered important for Marx but appar-
ently, he thought them as automatic, just self-acting machines5 making qual-
ified workers superfluous which was and is still true (Marx, 1988, p. 346).
Nevertheless, those machines had the property of self-stopping or some kind
of self-control which meant that they had also the elementary forms of feedback
mechanism. “[T]he way forward towards a clear understanding and a mathemat-
ical formulation of the theory of feedback systems was through engineering: first
through mechanics — the regulation of prime movers led to an understanding of
stability, ... to the development of servomechanisms” (Bennett, 2008).
The self-actor and fly-ball governors used in mules and engines to regulate
the engine, either to stop or adapt to new conditions were the first elements of
feedback and servomechanisms (Rolt, 1965), (Ramtin, 1991, p. 45). Self-acting
machine was a machine “reflecting upon itself ” to control itself according to a
feedback. It is possible to trace back the elementary forms of the feedback up to
1700s (Bennett, 2008).6
As we will see later, feedback mechanism will be more important when
automatic machines gained the capabilities of regulating themselves according
to these feedback inputs and note that, transmitting mechanism and working

5 “Hence CONTINUITY OF PRODUCTION (i.e. there is no interruption in the

phases the production of the raw material passes through). Automatic (MAN ONLY
[required] TO REMOVE ACCIDENTAL DIFFICULTIES). RAPIDITY OF ACTION.
The simultaneity of the operations is also increased by the machinery” (Marx, 1991,
p. 416). cf. (Marx, 1976, p. 502).
6 The feedback has the analogies in different disciplines, such as Economics, Politics or
even theory of Evolution. Bennett rightly reminds us the dynamic balance mechanism
or cyclic mechanism of Economics, or feedback mechanism of the Political Theory
(Bennett, 2008).
252 Özgür NARİN

mechanism not just took part in all these different processes but also changed in
relation to these requirements. It is not hard intuitively to realize the transforma-
tion of these transmission process to information process.
When the great nineteenth-century tool-makers produced their machine tools and used
them to create a variety of new and complex special-purpose machines such as Roberts’
self-acting spinning mule, it speedily became obvious that the old system of power trans-
mission was totally inadequate to the demands which the new machines made upon it. The
best method of transmitting power to machines became the subject of great debate among
engineers. (Rolt, 1965, p. 123)

Every breakthrough in the development of machinery has come with debates,

discussions, and finally adaptations in the crucial components of the machine,
transmission, and working mechanisms. As the transmission mechanism
developed with the working machine (complex special-purpose machine), the
function developed from transmitting power to feedback motions by gears,
wheels, etc. The feedback was actually an information propagated backward to
the mechanism to correct itself. As the feedback systems developed, the mechan-
ical movements became information that is transferred as feedback mechanisms.
Theory of feedback systems developed “as difficulties of analysis of mechanical
systems began to hinder further progress, through electronics, and, in particular,
through the need to obtain low distortion in the amplification and transmis-
sion of telephone signals…. This phase occupied 150 years, a period extending
roughly from 1790 to 1940; progress was fitful” (Bennett, 2008).
But for this, there needs to be a bridge between mathematical description
of mechanics and mechanical simulation and calculation of mathematical
problems. That bridge was an advance in mechanic calculators, namely Babbage’s
Engine. Marx’s contemporary Babbage’s Engines were important steps although
they were not completed. We will briefly trace these steps evolving to contem-
porary digital technologies. The next step is Babbage’s “Analytical Engine”. As a
contemporary and fellow Londoner, Marx did not analyse Babbage’s Engine neither
in 1861–63 Notes on Technology nor in later works.
“Certainly, Marx was familiar with simple machines and heat engines, but he was unaware
of the importance of Charles Babbage’s work on the analytic engine, although he had
read Babbage’s texts on machinery in general, and they were contemporaries and fellow
Londoners” (Caffentzis, 2013, p. 5).7

7 As Caffentzis argued, along with the British Government and “venture capitalists”,
Marx also ignored Babbage’s engine. He draws our attention to the reasons (Caffentzis,
2013, pp. 193–194).
 Industry 4.0: Brand New World or False Promise? 253

Babbage’s most important work was the invention and construction of a com-
puting machine, which would contribute to the improvement of astronomical
calculations as well as the printing of logarithm tables (Winkellman, 1982, p. 63).
Back then, error-free calculation and printing of those large tables had been a
huge and toiling task, and it was better to compute and print by mechanical
tools, using steam power.8 From 1834 to 1843, Babbage improved his “difference
engine” by using punched cards to input numbers into his engine – a series of
cards with holes in them to represent the numbers. This procedure had been
invented in France by Jacquard, a hundred years earlier and, around 1800, it was
perfected for weaving complex patterns (Collier and McLachlan, 1998, p. 68).9
The new machine, “analytical engine” was not only a calculator. Ada Lovelace
wrote that it “weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves
flowers and leaves” (Fuegi and Francis, 2003, p. 16).
To weave algebraic patterns meant that it can calculate different functions as
coded in the punch cards. But as Ada Lovelace brilliantly realized, this meant
that with successive iterations and using variable punch cards, it was possible to
“weave” the algebraic patterns, that is to program the analytical engine.
[T]he Analytical Engine,’ as A.A.L. [Ada Lovelace] so clearly stressed, ‘does not occupy
common ground with mere ‘calculating machines’.’ This formulation, based on what only
existed as a virtual machine in 1843, went beyond any known statement of Babbage, and
beyond distinguished predecessors in mechanical calculation such as Blaise Pascal and
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. A.A.L. anticipated advanced work in the next century of Alan
Turing, Konrad Zuse, Howard Aiken, Grace Hopper, and John von Neumann. (Fuegi and
Francis, 2003, p. 24).

This was not just an early step towards computers (Zuse, Aiken, Turing and von
Neumann) and the digital world that will flourish a century later but also a crucial
change in the development of the machinery system.10 The transmission mech-
anism and working mechanism gradually switched to the role of information

8 As Babbage, once said “I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam”
(Swade, 2001, p. 9).
9 “The first programmable machine was a loom, devised in 1805 by Joseph Marie
Jacquard (1752–1834), that used punched cards to store instructions for the pattern
to be woven” (Russell & Norvig, 2016, p. 14).
10 It is interesting that Babbage had also taken the idea of using electromechanical
switching instead of mechanical techniques for the Calculating Engines from his friend,
Wheatstone. “Considering the date, 1839, the idea is breathtaking, coming almost a
century ahead of Howard Aiken making his first advanced calculator proposals to
IBM” (Fuegi & Francis, 2003, p. 24).
254 Özgür NARİN

transfer, which had the clues of data processing, transfer or storage. That was
an early birth of digital world which would be completed in the next century.
Indeed, just a century later, first computers would be built with the same archi-
tecture (data storage, processor, and input/output).11 As Caffentzis argued: “a
new theory of machines was developed in the 1930s (associated with Turing,
von Neumann, Wiener, and Shannon) that could not have been known to Marx
and the classical Marxists (and its ideological impact began to be increasingly felt
in the years after the revolt of 1960s)” (2013, p. 157).
During World War II, anti-aircraft fire control posed a critical problem.
US military-industrial complex backed a set of research projects that brought
together diverse threads of control.12 From this work emerged new theories and
practices of feedback, control, and computing. Besides, the feedback and control,
or in a way transmitting mechanism and working mechanism had to be merged.
Hence engineers merged the communications and control in the integrated sys-
tems, that is servomechanisms (Mindell, 2002, p. 9). This was the beginning of
cybernetics and the digital age. Now the machinery system became a complex
totality of integrated systems of transmitting and working mechanisms.13
Norbert Wiener, in his 1948 book Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the
Animal and the Machine, articulated the marriage of communication and control for a
generation of engineers, systems theorists... Wiener declared the merger occurred instantly,
obviously and completely in the course of his work on anti-aircraft prediction devices. ‘I
think that I can claim credit,’ Wiener wrote in his memoir, ‘...for transferring the whole
theory of the servomechanism bodily to communication engineering’. (Mindell et al.,
2003, p. 68)

The discovery of electricity and particularly electronics, the vacuum tubes as

logic gates, transistors and then logic circuits, all digitized the information and
control systems. Norbert Wiener in servomechanisms and Claude Shannon in
information theory paved the way for control and communication theory for
machines. The transmission and working components that Marx emphasized
developed in their complex way into Communication and Control theory, i.e.
Digital Networks and Computers. Moreover, the perfection of a feedback control

11 Cf. On similarities with the major components of modern computer (Caffentzis, 2013,
p. 192). Alan Turing, Von Neumann admitted A.A.L’s contribution.
12 Just for the sake of simplicity and limits, a full discussion of cybernetics, so the USSR
counterpart of Cybernetics research (Kolmogorov, Andronov, Kitov, Glushkov etc.)
lies beyond the scope of this paper. Cf. (Gerovitch, 2002).
13 The integrated totality that the feedback mechanisms can’t be distinguished (Ashby,
1957, p. 54).
 Industry 4.0: Brand New World or False Promise? 255

mechanism had the potentiality of “learning sequence”14 that could adapt itself
to multiple conditions, which meant the clues of nowadays’ Artificial Intelligence
systems. Industry 4.0 is based on such developments in cybernetic and network
theory, includes evolution of the computers, data analytics, sensors, and artifi-
cial intelligence. For example, the main element of Industry 4.0, Cyber-Physical
Systems (CPS) is defined with feedback loops and networks. CPS are integrations
of computation with physical processes. Through sensors gathering data,
embedded computers and networks monitor and control the physical processes,
usually with feedback loops where physical processes affect computations and
vice versa. The analysis of the machinery in Industry 4.0 will be examined later,
but the technical analysis and social analysis of the Cybernetic age of machinery,
as well as the machinery system of Industry 4.0 will follow the same historical
and theoretical path.

2.2. Marx’s Social Analysis of the Machine: Trajectory and Limits

Since machine is a social construction, produced and limited by these social re-
lations, it is not possible to understand the development of automatic machines
in digital world just by examining the machine in itself, i.e. just by analysing the
technical history of its development. Marx’s analysis developed by overcoming
this contradiction. And in order to understand our “digital age” and Industry 4.0,
we should examine the social construction of machinery, that is the social rela-
tions producing this machinery, determining its particular trajectory of develop-
ment and also the limits of it.
While a variety of perspectives focusing on social shaping of technology have
been suggested, this chapter will use the perspective first suggested by Marx. For
Marx, capitalist production is production of surplus value, not just production
of commodities, nor goods. The point is to explain the “market” and “profit” as
a social construction. Machinery, technology, and inventions, all are produced
in this profit seeking, contradictory social relation, so have the limits in these
relations. Marx’s explanation of capital accumulation leads to comprehensive
explanation of crises because of the contradictory relation between the capital
and waged labour, that is profits vs. wages, or surplus labour vs. necessary labour.
Crises clearly emanate from basic aspects of the capitalist structure and growth
process. For Marx, however, the basic law of motion in capitalist development

14 “Such a designed structure can respond to multiple conditions affecting the output
or product being produced. It is, in an extremely simplified and ‘primitive’ sense, a
‘learning’ sequence” (Ramtin, 1991, p. 45).
256 Özgür NARİN

is dialectical. Expansion creates barriers to growth; barriers, in turn, serve as

stimuli to further expansion, if the limit (grenze) of capital relation, that is the
class conflict is not sublated, that is the capitalist power is not overthrown.
A barrier (schranke) does not necessarily constitute a fundamental boundary
condition or an ultimate, intrinsic limit to expansion; indeed, it is a goad to fur-
ther development (Lebowitz, 1976), (Eliott, 1979). During his research for the
critique of capitalist production, Marx discovered surplus value as a concept
and began to build the systematic sketch of various aspects of the capitalist pro-
duction in 1851–53 manuscripts (Grundrisse). What is interesting is his unpub-
lished manuscripts (known after late 20th century) contained insights about
science “enlisted by capital”15 and commodified; scientific labour that turns into
a profession rather than a “scholarship”; one could find the traces of dynamics
of innovations and even path dependency of technology in those manuscripts
(Marx, 1973), (Smith, 2002), (Smith, 2004), (Narin, 2010). When Schumpeter
(1955, 1962) pointed out the inventions and the role of technology in economic
growth, he used circuits and reproduction schemes similar to Marx, but he was
not aware of the 1857–1858 manuscripts nor the notebooks on Technology of
1861–63 manuscripts since manuscripts published later than 195416. Before the
discipline of Economics of Industrial Innovation appeared after Schumpeter,
the scientific production as a capitalist labour process, the innovations and by
using producing new “needs” or desires for new commodities had already been
analysed in Grundrisse. This broad view of technological change framed with
the governing dynamics of surplus value creation mechanism provides us the
trajectory of the development of machinery and the limits of it.
The drive towards mechanization is also a drive towards valorization, that is
creating more surplus value (Smith, 1997, p. 118). In order to understand the
social construction of machinery that is production of it under contradictory
relations of social production, we will classify the components of Marx’s analysis
of this drive in 3 parts: The class struggle shaping the machinery in historical

15 Sometimes translated as “all the sciences have been pressed into the service of capital”
(Marx, 1973).
16 As Roman Rosdolsky wrote, some facsimiles of Grundrisse (“Rohentwurf ”) were avail-
able but to a limited circle after 1939. The manuscript became lost in circumstances
was first effectively published, in the German original, in 1953. “it is clear that the
Grundrisse invites reexamination and possible revision of widely received comparisons
of Marx’s and Schumpeter’s respective visions of capitalism’s future” (Eliott, 1979,
p. 149).
 Industry 4.0: Brand New World or False Promise? 257

process, the relative surplus value and the cycles of “analysis” (science enlisted
by capital).
First part is known as labour-saving machinery. Both Babbage and Ure
pointed out this characteristic of mechanization. But Marx’s analysis is more
complex. Marx, frequently cited Ure’s well known example of invention of the
“Iron Man”, that is Roberts’ Self-acting mule. In one of the periods of growing
class struggle, the Manchester capitalists asked Roberts to design a machine that
would replace the rebel workers. He designed the self-acting spinning machine
called Iron Man. Machinery substituting labour had been discussed for a long
time. Marx’s analysis transcends labour saving characteristics since class struggle
in the process of production is a continuous process that needs not show itself
as only strikes or riots. As Braverman, the development and design trajectory of
machinery is shaped by class struggle in broad sense.17 Not just struggle amongst
the workers and employers or day-to-day resistances to the speed of production
or to the worsening conditions in the workplace but also inner struggle of the
capitalist class shapes this trajectory: competition between the capitalists. This is
related to the second part.
Second part is about the inner core of surplus value creating mechanism.
While Marx was analysing the forms of surplus value, he pointed out the dual
nature of it as absolute surplus value creation and relative surplus value creation.
These two alternative mechanisms are in fact different methods of increasing
surplus value. Former is to increase the working hours whereas the latter, relative
surplus value creation is to increase surplus value by mechanization of produc-
tion process (Heinrich, 2013), cheapening the commodities, hence decreasing
the time necessary to earn the wage. So relative surplus value creation is the
drive for mechanization of the production process. The inner motive for rela-
tive surplus value appears as external competition and leads to mechanization.
Machinery does not create surplus value or value. Its value is transferred to the
product over the economic lifetime of the machine. Marx corrected his argument
in the French edition of Capital: “C’est une méthode particulière pour fabriquer
de la plus-value relative” (Marx, 1989, p. 317). Mechanization is method to create
surplus value. For any given working day, the use of machinery increases the rate
of surplus value via cheapening commodities. This compulsion is at the heart of
the dynamics of capitalist production and has several social consequences that

17 “It would be possible to write a whole history of the inventions made since 1830,
for the sole purpose of providing capital with weapons against working class revolts”
(Marx, 1976).
258 Özgür NARİN

affects the class struggle, hence shapes and limits the development of machinery.
Reducing labour time means deskilling and domination of the constant cap-
ital (machinery) over living labour, unemployment and last but not least, the
“immanent contradiction” within the sphere of production. The dual antago-
nistic forces (tendencies and counter-tendencies) leading to crises and the fall of
rate of profit are unleashed. Mechanization is the rising technical composition
of production and general reduction in living labour time. This creates the ten-
dency of rate of profit to fall. This limits the investments in scientific produc-
tion hence mechanization. But there is also a counter tendency. Rising technical
composition means productivity and hence producing machinery cheaper. That
is value composition of technology decreases, i.e. counter-tendency to rate of
profit to fall. All these cyclic movements of production also form an arena of
class struggle so this contradictory class relations determine the production of
machinery and also more importantly, the innovation process of the machinery,
that is scientific production. This takes us to the complementing last part.
Third part is about the scientific production that is increasingly becoming cap-
italist labour process. As Marx had given the clue, invention has already become
a business, “and the application of science to direct production itself becomes
a prospect which determines and solicits” (Marx, 1973). Moreover, science has
become a sector of capitalist production although it has inner contradictions.
The cyclical processes that lead to crises also affects scientific production and
hence the innovation and development of the machinery. But it would be inter-
esting to reconsider one of Marx’s point as historically reoccurring. As Babbage,
he related the great inventions of machinery in the first half of 19th century with
the analysis of the labour process, division of labour. Analysis in both senses, sci-
entific analysis of the process and also the dissection of the production process.
It is, firstly, the analysis and application of mechanical and chemical laws, arising directly
out of science, which enables the machine to perform the same labour as that previously
performed by the worker. However, the development of machinery along this path occurs
only when large industry has already reached a higher stage, and all the sciences have
been pressed into the service of capital; … But this is not the road along which machinery,
by and large, arose, and even less the road on which it progresses in detail. This road is,
rather, dissection [Analyse] – through the division of labour, which gradually transforms
the workers’ operations into more and more mechanical ones, so that at a certain point a
mechanism can step into their places. (Marx, 1973)

Noting that dual sense, let us reconsider the epoch as epoch of scientific analysis,
that uses the dissection of the labour process and gradually transforms it. Then
it would be possible to see the post-war years of the 1950s as the new epoch of
analysis that leads to information theory, Cybernetic theory (Narin, 2017). This
 Industry 4.0: Brand New World or False Promise? 259

epoch of analysis led to new forms of “dissection”. Following era would be the
new analysis period of digital networks, internet, and computers. Maybe “Big
Data” and algorithms are the signals of another one?
All these epochs of “analysis” are actually phases of scientific production in the
process of real subsumption of scientific labour to capital. So, all these analysis
processes leading to new waves of mechanization have the same governing
dynamics, that is increasing surplus value and profit. But under the conditions of
the tendency of rate of profit to fall, scientific innovations, machinery, and auto-
mation have their inner cyclical movements, contradictions, and limits.
So, today’s new technologies have their origins at this continuity in the devel-
opment of machinery, but at the same time, limits in such social relations. Let us
now consider the Industry 4.0 project in the light of these arguments.

3. Industry 4.0: Why Now, Why Europe?

The mainstream discourse claims that technological innovations such as dig-
ital platforms, artificial intelligence (based on big data) and automation, ad-
ditive manufacturing (3D-printing), and smart materials are in the process of
“disrupting the world economy” (Naudé et al, 2019). This is already evident in
manufacturing. A “new” industrial revolution (Marsh, 2012), a “second machine
age” (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2015), or a “4th industrial revolution” (Schwab,
2016) has been diagnosed. This age or this 4th industrial revolution is called
Industry 4.0.
The name of the project first coined in Hannover Trade Fair in 2011 (Schwab,
2016, p. 12). The original name was “Industrie 4.0” in German. However, the
idea could be found at German government’s earlier documents such as High-
Tech Strategy document in 2006 or Industry Policy in 2010 (Bartodziej, 2017,
pp. 33–35). After the Hannover Fair, a group formed by some of the German
companies prepared a report addressed to the government. But its popularity
started at the World Economic Forum of 2016 (European Parliament, 2016).
Nowadays it has become a widely recognized catchword.
After the cybernetic transformation digital technologies developed rapidly
especially with the intersection of the two strong currents in machinery, the
communication systems evolved into internet and big data highways, and con-
trol systems to computer and robotics on the other side. The unification and
intersection of these two currents drastically changed the technological sphere
after 1990s. The digital age has gained a new pace with the developments in
data systems, data analytics, and new generations of machine learning systems.
Artificial intelligence researches and the huge “Big Data” helped the machine
260 Özgür NARİN

learning systems for gathering, evaluating, and analysing data. Hence new dis-
coveries in machine learning like deep learning. The implementation of these
developments in manufacturing was inevitable. On the manufacturing side, as
Naude et al. noted (2019), there are technological innovations such as digital
platforms, artificial intelligence (based on big data) and automation, additive
manufacturing (3D-printing), and smart materials. According to these writers,
this was a disruption and was already evident in manufacturing. That was a
“new” industrial revolution (Marsh, 2012), a “second machine age” (Brynjolfsson
& McAfee, 2015), or a “4th industrial revolution” (Schwab, 2016). As analysed in
the development of machinery, technology is a social construction, so whether it
is named as “second machine age” or “4th industrial revolution”, either way that
is technological determinism and neglects the social relations of production of
new technologies and new machinery.
What seems as if there is a “disruption” is the diffusion of recent digital
innovations in the manufacturing. There were already technological innovations
diffused in other parts of social production such as distribution, marketing, even
finance, etc. The capitalist competition was also evident in these developments.18
While the value chain in commodity production was actually a complex and
international one, the cycles of value chain were fragmented and were ever
expanding. Different parts of capitalist production did always grow unequally
both globally and locally: the distribution, circulation, advertisement, mar-
keting and purchase parts were always more visible in this development phase.
Internet of Things (IoT) was primarily for creating new products, new commod-
ities for the consumers, that is not for manufacturing. On the other hand, ac-
cording to OECD ranking of the 20 companies with the highest spending on
R&D in 2018, the first and second are a retail company and an internet (mainly)
company (OECD, 2019).19 They are definitely not manufacturing companies. As
of the artificial intelligence investments, OECD (2018) points out the dramatic
increase in Autonomous vehicles (AV) and AV start-ups. Those new technolo-
gies mostly implemented at the end-user side or consumer side. Most of the AI
innovations are used in marketing in either measuring the behaviour of con-
sumers, evaluating the consumer profile in order to market the commodities

18 “Many of these digital tools are most widely diffused in ICT-intensive and services
sectors; however, large potential also lies in their usage in manufacturing and industrial
production” (OECD, 2019: 51).
19 The former invested 22.6 billion USD for R&D, while the latter 16,2 billion USD.
Comparing these giant companies with the R&D expenditure of Turkey would be inter-
esting. In 2018, it was 2.5 billion USD, that is less than one-tenth of the first company.
 Industry 4.0: Brand New World or False Promise? 261

or in the health sector. It is important to note that the production of new tech-
nologies also belongs to manufacturing side but the role of implementing those
innovations to conventional manufacturing sector is still important. Making
robots or AI for consumers is something, but making robots that produce robots
is another thing. So, although digital technologies themselves are manufacturing
facilities, implementing those innovations in conventional manufacturing sector
has various consequences. Diffusion of these technologies in industry and
manufacturing is important (Hirsch-Kreinsen, 2014). From this point of view,
Industry 4.0 is related to our technical analysis of development of machinery
in the previous section. Automation, artificial intelligence, and data analytics
implemented in manufacturing means a new stage in the machinery system.
But technical analysis of the machinery is not enough and leads to technolog-
ical determinism if not accompanied by the social analysis of this development.
“Industry 4.0” might be important in this technical sense, but would it fulfil its
promises? This needs the social analysis in the previous section.
If the investigation is not completed with the social analysis of machinery, the
limits and inner contradictions will not be clear. This will end up in a highly opti-
mistic view of “fourth industrial revolution”: a brand-new world!
The limits of the project are actually inherent in its origination. The conditions
of its birth determine its development. So how did this project start and can it
fulfil its promises?
The project – at least as a discourse – that spread around the world is actu-
ally about “securing the future of German Industry” as written in one of the
main documents of the Initiative (Kagermann et al., 2013). Industry 4.0 was
actually another step in the global capitalist competition. The previous step
by Europe was as a part of the Lisbon Strategy, to catch up and overtake USA
in the development of digital technologies (Fuchs, 2018), (Schiller et al., 2017,
p. 76). EU tried it until 2010 and failed. But the competition was not “withering
on both sides of the Atlantic”. It was possible to see that in the steps toward
Industry 4.0 as suggested by Germany. While US capital had been the initiator
of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial Internet of Things as the imple-
mentation of it to manufacturing (Greengard, 2015), the response on the other
side of the Atlantic came from Germany. The United States did not adopt the
term as “Industry 4.0”. For example, General Electric used the term Industrial
Internet or Industrial Internet of Things and CISCO coined the term “Internet
of Everything” (Gilchrist, 2016), (Bartodziej, 2017).
After a failed step in the competition, instead of competing in the arena that
US is superior, Germany chose the digitalization of the manufacturing sector.
The country’s competitive advantage was to implement IoT to manufacturing
262 Özgür NARİN

40

30
China
Germany
European Union
20
OECD members
United States

10

0
1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017

Figure 1: Manufacturing, Value Added (%of GDP). Source: World Development

Indicators, World Bank, Last Updated Date: Dec. 20, 2019.

industry especially manufacturing of machinery, cars, chemical and pharma-

ceutical products, and electrical equipment which she exported to the world.
Manufacturing industry has always been the important part of German economy.
The project would also recover the decreasing relative share and strength of
manufacturing in Germany and in the world as well.
According to the report of European Parliament, “European industry has in
recent decades seen its share of world markets decline as many industrial activ-
ities where moved offshore and emerging countries – China in particular –
caught up” (2016, p. 65). The share of world production of emerging economies
increased, amounts to 40 % (€ 6€ 6,577 bn in 2013). At the same time Europe has
experienced widespread deindustrialization, as of 2016, the number of indus-
trial jobs since 1991 has decreased by 8 % in Germany, by 20 % in France and by
29 % in the UK (European Parliament, 2016, p. 65). Although Germany is better,
throughout all Europe, the share of manufacturing is declining.
For a comparative analysis of EU, USA, China, and Germany, we can review
Figure 1. As it shows China’s share of manufacturing is high, Germany’s share
first decreased and then stagnates around 20 %. The share of manufacturing
value added in the EU declined from about 16.8 % in 2000 to about 13.2 % in
2009 and then recovered to about 16 % in 2011 and stagnates around 14 % in
2018. Germany’s share of manufacturing in its economy remained the same over
the period 2000–2012, it was 17.7 % in 2009 and then recovered to about 20 %
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 CHAPTER XXI.

THE PURSUIT.

When John Hadley came to the basket-ball game on Saturday, he

brought with him some illuminating facts about Sam MacDonald’s
history for Marjorie’s consideration. But the absence of Queenie
Brazier from the team decided him in favor of silence—for the time
being at least.
It was after Marjorie had actually started to play that he concluded
that there might be a good reason for Queenie’s failure to put in an
appearance—a reason connected with the young man whose record
he had just traced, and which he had found to be so precarious.
Without giving much attention to the game, he went over the whole
situation in his own mind, deciding finally to take Mr. Richards into
his confidence.
“I have found out about MacDonald—that friend of Queenie’s,” he
whispered to the scout-master, “and know that he isn’t any good.
That’s an assumed name—his real one is George Hinds—and he has
served a term in an Ohio prison.”
Mr. Richards, however, was inclined to give the man the benefit of
the doubt.
“Maybe he’s reformed—you couldn’t blame him for changing his
name to get a clean start,” he suggested.
“But he hasn’t made a clean start—that’s just the difficulty. They
are after him now for a contemptible crime—and they have his
picture on record at City Hall. That’s how I identified him.”
“They haven’t caught him, then?”
“No; he’s sneaked out of the city, of course. Now, what worries
me, naturally, is that he may have tried to lure Queenie after him.
He does that sort of thing.”
 “Then we’ve got to locate Queenie!” cried Richards, alert for
action.
“Yes, for even supposing he were honest in his desire to marry
her, he’s no sort of man for her to throw herself away on.”
“Obviously not. What shall we do first?”
“Go to the girl’s home. I’ll give Lily an inkling of the situation, and
get Queenie’s address. Marjorie mustn’t hear a word about it until
the game is over—then Lily can use her own discretion.”
“Right!” agreed the other, in admiration of John’s direct reasoning
and well calculated plan.
They lost no time in securing the desired information and hurried
off in John’s car to the girl’s home. If only they might find her there
—and thus end all their fears!
But Mrs. Brazier’s reply immediately dashed all their hopes to the
ground.
“Why no—she ain’t here. She left about half-past seven for the
basket-ball game,” the woman told them cheerfully. She identified
Mr. Richards by his uniform, for she had often heard her daughter
speak of him. “Did you look in on the game?”
“Perhaps she is there by now,” answered the scout-master,
unwilling to arouse the mother’s suspicions. “Did she carry a suit-
case?”
“Yes, she always does—a bag for her shoes and bloomers. She
must ’ave went there, because I noticed the bag. I picks it up, and I
says to her, ‘It’s heavier than usual,’ and she says it had oranges in it
—they was goin’ to have eats after the game.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” said John, drawing his own conclusions.
“Well, I guess she’s there by now. We’ll go back. Thank you, Mrs.
Brazier.”
No sooner were they in the car than they both blurted out the
same solution.
“She’s going off to elope with Hinds!”
“Which station shall we go to first?” demanded Richards.
 “The Pennsylvania—I think it’s most likely he’d strike out for the
west. Probably a Pittsburg train.”
“If we can only catch her in time!” cried the other. “Speed up,
Hadley!”
“I’m feeding her to the limit, for the city traffic laws,” John assured
him. “And then some!”
They reached the station and dashed to the information booth. A
local for Pittsburg had just left, but there was an express due in
fifteen minutes.
“Think one of us better take that?” asked Richards.
“Seems sort of wild,” replied John. “Let’s search the station first.
You take the down-stairs, and the platform, and I’ll go upstairs.”
They separated; John going first to the Traveller’s Aid Agent, in
the hope that Queenie might have consulted her. After all the girl
was very young and inexperienced in travelling. In a few words he
described the girl to the woman, telling her that they feared she
might have eloped with a questionable man.
“I don’t recall any couple of that description during the last hour,”
she said.
“Oh, I don’t mean a couple—the girl was probably alone. The man
is not in the city, I’m sure of that.” Then he went on to give a minute
description of Queenie. Suddenly the woman recalled her.
“Yes—she did come ask me, about the difference between the
local and the express, and which she ought to take to get to
Wilmington at nine o’clock. I advised the express, but she didn’t
want to wait around the station, and took the local.”
“Wilmington!” repeated John. “So that’s where she went!”
“Yes; she showed me her ticket.”
John thanked her, and hurried off to the ticket booth. But the
express had already gone; there was not another train for over an
hour. Looking up, he saw Richards, still busily searching the station.
He called him over, and told him his news.
“The best thing we can do,” he said, “is to drive with all speed to
Wilmington, and catch her at the station, before she meets the man.
Luckily it’s a good road—we may be able to beat the train.”
In the meantime Marjorie and Lily had gone back to college, and
were making an attempt to sleep. So utterly weary was Marjorie that
her room-mate insisted upon undressing her, comforting her with the
assurance that all would be right on the morrow. For, she reminded
her, whenever Jack and John undertook anything, they succeeded.
The full reaction set in on Sunday; when Marjorie opened her eyes
the next morning she realized that something was vitally wrong with
her. Her head swam and her limbs ached; she wondered whether
she could ever summon sufficient courage to get up. The thought of
food was abhorrent to her; she absolutely refused to allow Lily to
bring her any breakfast, and turned back on her pillow again in
despair.
Neither she nor her room-mate mentioned the name of Queenie,
yet Lily knew that in spite of her own aches and pains, Marjorie must
be worrying about her. It was only when Daisy Gravers came in to
congratulate her upon the winning of the championship, that the
episode was mentioned.
“What’s the matter, Marj?” inquired Daisy, with concern. “You
ought to be the happiest, gayest girl in the world, and instead you
look all in.”
“I’m afraid that I over-did it,” replied Marjorie, sitting up in bed,
and wearily brushing her hair. “I had no business to play last night
——”
“Then why did you?”
“One of our girls didn’t show up, and we hadn’t any other
substitute. So I had to—or forfeit the game.”
“Why can’t those girls take responsibility?” exclaimed Daisy,
irritably. “You never seem able to count on them! What happened to
her—who was it?”
“Queenie Brazier,” Marjorie admitted, reluctantly. “I don’t know
what happened to her. We haven’t heard yet.”
“Well, I’m sorry that I ever got you into it, Marj, especially since
you’re so tired out. Please don’t go and get sick.”
 “I don’t feel very well, but it isn’t your fault, Dais, or the Girl
Scouts, either. It’s just everything, all at once. But spring vacation
will be here a day after tomorrow!”
“Drop the old troop!” urged the other.
“The troop may drop me—for Queenie’s the leader, you know. And
I’m not sure just how secure my hold on the others would be
without her.”
Against the advice of both girls, she insisted upon making the
attempt to dress. She had not progressed very far, when she was
summoned to the telephone in the hall.
“Let me answer for you, Marj!” begged Daisy.
“No—it might be about Queenie—I better go,” she said, slipping on
her kimona. “But you can come with me.”
She was correct in her surmise. “Sis, this is Jack,” came the
welcome voice over the wire. “John and Richards have succeeded in
waylaying Queenie. John is bringing her to college this afternoon.
Can you look after her?”
“Of course,” answered Marjorie, forgetting her own weakened
condition for the time being. “Is she all right?”
“Absolutely!” her brother assured her. “She’ll tell you the whole
story when she comes.”
“Thank heavens!” cried the girl leaning back upon Daisy. “Now I
know I will soon feel better.”
Obedient to Lily’s request she consented to go back to bed and to
attempt to eat some of the dinner which was brought to her on a
tray from the infirmary. At last Queenie arrived and, leaving John in
his car, came right up to Marjorie’s room.
Both Lily and Marjorie were startled at her appearance; never had
Queenie looked so pathetic, so crest-fallen, so utterly dejected.
Instinctively Marjorie forgot her anger, and felt only sympathy
towards the sufferer.
“Miss Wilkinson!” exclaimed the girl, bursting into tears as soon as
she was inside the door. “I’ve run away from home!”
 “Sit down, Queenie,” said Marjorie, in a soft voice; “and tell us all
about it.”
“To begin with, I’m almost afraid to come to you, because I guess
I got in like a burglar when I stood you up at the big game.”
“We were rather put out about it,” Marjorie admitted. “But I
supposed there was some good reason——”
“There was. I was elopin’!”
Marjorie gasped; it was, then, as bad as she had feared. Although
Lily had told her of Queenie’s disappearance, she never mentioned
the fact that they thought she was joining MacDonald. But Marjorie
had kept it at the back of her mind, yet not caring to speak of it.
“But I take it that you didn’t succeed!”
“No, I didn’t—and I guess I was lucky at that. Just as I was
steppin’ off the train at Wilmington, and lookin’ about for Sam—and
by the way, his name ain’t Sam at all—two men rushed up to me.
Maybe I wasn’t surprised to see Mr. Hadley and Mr. Richards!”
“But how did they know where to find you?” asked Marjorie
incredulously.
“Search me! I never told anybody but Sam—and the ticket agent—
wait, I did ask the Traveller’s Aid woman a question—maybe they
found out from her.”
“Didn’t your mother know?”
Queenie laughed. “Much chance of me going if she’d found out!”
she remarked.
“But what about Mr. MacDonald—didn’t you meet him?”
“No; he must have given those men one look, and sneaked off in
the other direction. Then they told me about him being a criminal,
and I believed every word of it. You know I always had a soft spot in
my heart for Mr. Richards, and I’m sure Mr. Hadley wouldn’t tell
anything but the truth. So I just got into their car as they told me,
and we drove home.”
“What did your mother say?” asked Marjorie.
“What didn’t she say? The fellows didn’t go in, and I was just fool
enough to blurt out the whole song and dance. It might have been
all right, if Aunt Tillie hadn’t been in the room. It just seemed like
she couldn’t keep her hand out of the pie.”
“Did she scold you?”
Queenie’s eyes flashed with anger.
“She sure did butt in with her say. ‘The city’s no place for a wild
’un like her,’ she says, lookin’ daggers at me. ‘But I tell you what ’ud
fix her—let me take her back to the country with me. I’ll keep her
away from the fellows!’”
“Then you can believe I flared up. ‘Be buried on that farm, in the
wilds of nowhere!’ I yells. ‘I should say not!’”
“Well, the family kep’ on arguin’ for a while, and at last I went to
bed. And today before they were up, I slipped out. I went straight to
Mr. Hadley—he gave me his address last night. His mother made me
eat a nice breakfast, and pretty soon your brother showed up. Then
he said he’d call you.”
She paused, hardly daring to look at Marjorie. She expected to
receive another scolding, milder perhaps than the one her parents
had given her but just as serious. But Marjorie merely asked her
what she intended to do.
“I don’t know—I only make ten dollars a week at my job, and
there’s not much chance of a raise. I’ll have to get along somehow
till I can get a better job.”
“Suppose you stay here until I go home,” suggested Marjorie,
laying her head wearily against the pillow, “and then go home with
me for a vacation. You can find a new position when you come
back.”
“You really mean it, Miss Wilkinson?” cried Queenie, gratefully.
“Yes, of course. Now will you go down and tell Mr. Hadley that I’m
sick, and can’t see him. And ask him to stop and tell your mother
you’re with me for several days?”
Queenie obeyed immediately, thankful to find forgiveness so
easily.
 CHAPTER XXII.

QUEENIE’S CALLER.

Marjorie realized at last that her strength was completely

exhausted; she was only too willing to remain in bed, and to allow
Lily to call up her parents and inform them of her condition. She
even promised to go home as soon as her family sent for her.
A change came over Queenie as she grew fully aware of the
seriousness of Marjorie’s condition. Now that she herself was safe,
her own troubles were forgotten; all her anxiety was directed
towards her captain.
“Your father is going to drive out for you tomorrow, Marj,” Lily
informed her as she returned from the telephone booth. “And Miss
Hawes is coming right away to take you to the infirmary.”
“Then I can’t be with you?” asked Queenie, almost pathetically.
“I’m afraid not,” replied Lily. “But I’ll look out for you. I’ll take you
down to dinner with me tonight.”
“Oh, I couldn’t! I have nuthin’ to wear that’s decent. I’d disgrace
you sure!”
“Wear one of my dresses,” murmured Marjorie languidly as if the
effort to talk were too much for her.
Lily beckoned to her visitor to follow her out of the room.
“We won’t bother her, Queenie. I’m sure she’ll be all right if we
leave her alone.”
“I’m afraid she’s going to be sick!” wailed Queenie stifling her
sobs.
All during dinner she was very quiet, as she sat beside Lily in
Marjorie’s demure little gray dress, no one would have thought her
to be any different from the college girls about her—only younger.
Except for a short walk after the meal was over, she remained in the
girls’ sitting room all evening, anxiously awaiting news of her
captain.
The next morning she learned to her relief that Marjorie was
better, that the fever with which she had been afflicted during the
night had subsided, and that the doctor thought it would be safe for
her to go home in a closed car. This news brought Queenie not only
hope but occupation; for the next hour she busied herself by packing
Marjorie’s things. At eleven o’clock the machine arrived.
In a few words Lily explained the situation about Queenie to Mrs.
Wilkinson, and the latter gladly consented to take her along. Then
she gave her attention to Marjorie.
The girl lay listlessly against her mother during the long ride, her
head pillowed on her shoulder, her eyes closed. Mrs. Wilkinson was
more worried than she would admit even to herself.
She found Queenie very useful when they reached home; the girl
did not spare herself in any way when she found that she could
really help. She knew, too, that Marjorie’s mother was grateful; as
long as she could be of service to her captain she was content.
Yet, after the patient had been put to bed, and a doctor
summoned, she found time suddenly very heavy on her hands. Jack
was not at home; Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson were too pre-occupied to
talk to her, and she began to feel lonely. Dinner had been gloomy
and tiring; she wondered how she would get through the evening.
She tiptoed into Marjorie’s room, and sat down by her bedside.
The sick girl looked up and smiled, assuring her that she felt better.
“You ought to go out somewhere this evening, Queenie,” she
whispered. “Put on my violet-gray voile that you like so much, and
go to the movies.”
“Oh, Miss Wilkinson, I couldn’t enjoy a show with you home here
sick!” she protested.
“But if I insist?” asked Marjorie.
Before she could reply, Mrs. Wilkinson entered the room softly,
making sure that her daughter was awake before she ventured to
speak.
 “Mr. Richards is here, Marjorie, asking for you. I told him Queenie
was with you, and that she would come down if he liked. He seemed
very much pleased—so run along, dear. You need a change!”
“Why, I’d love to,” admitted Queenie, trying not to appear too
eager. “If—if—Miss Wilkinson wants me to.”
“By all means,” replied Marjorie. “And slip on my dress, Queenie—
and take my gray cloak, so you can go out if you want to.”
“Thanks ever so much!” said Queenie, stooping to kiss Marjorie’s
finger tips. “If anybody sees me, they’ll think it’s you—revived in
short order.”
Within five minutes she was down in the living room greeting her
caller.
“Mrs. Wilkinson suggested that I come down and see you—if you
can stand me!” she blurted out.
Mr. Richards beamed; he had always admired Queenie’s frankness.
“Maybe that is the very reason I came,” he retorted. “You know I
could have inquired Miss Wilkinson’s condition over the telephone.”
The girl’s eyes lighted up with happiness; once more she was glad
that she had been rescued from her silly adventure. If she were to
see more of him—and of men like him——
But he was asking her to go to the movies.
“No, don’t let’s go yet,” she aroused herself to reply. “I want to
talk to you for a while——” She hesitated, as if she did not know
exactly how to begin. “It’s this, Mr. Richards: I sort of want to take a
new start. Your rescuing me from that lemon made me wake up. My,
wasn’t it funny the way Sam ran when he seen—saw—you two?
Guilty conscience, I bet!”
“We certainly were lucky to beat that train,” remarked the young
man. “Hadley’s a good driver.”
Queenie was silent for a moment; she wanted to express her
gratitude and yet she could not find the right words.
“I guess I’ll be thankful to you two for the rest of my life—and
Miss Wilkinson, too,” she said finally. “And there’s one thing I want to
ask, did you and Mr. Hadley think of it yourself, or did she put you up
to it?”
“No, we did. But the credit of most of it goes to Mr. Hadley.”
“But you were interested enough to help him. I wonder why?”
“Because,” answered the scout-master seriously, “I think you are
too fine a girl to waste her life on such a fellow as that man is. I
believe you could make something worth while of your life.”
“What?” demanded Queenie eagerly. “That’s just what I want to
talk about. You know I quit my old job, to come here with Miss
Wilkinson.”
“What do you think you would like to do?” he inquired.
“I don’t know yet. But not sell stockings at a basement counter.”
“Would you like to study stenography?”
“I don’t think so. Clara Abrams is doin’ that—don’t let on to Miss
Wilkinson, for she’s plannin’ to surprise her when she lands her first
job—but it doesn’t look good to me. I’d like to do somethin’ with
people. I’m awful sociable.”
“Yet you don’t like selling?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Well, I’d like to think about it, if you are willing to take me on as
an advisor. I can keep my eyes open and try to hunt up something
for you.”
“Will you really?” Queenie beamed in appreciation.
“I will—if you’ll let me come to see you and tell you all about
anything I find.”
She blushed in genuine surprise.
“You mean you actually want to see me, when you could be
spending your time with girls like Miss Wilkinson?”
The young man laughed heartily.
“I can like you both, can’t I?” he suggested.
“Of course, unless you was—I mean were—plannin’ to go steady
with her.”
Again he laughed.
 “I’m not planning to go steady as you say with anybody at
present. I’m too busy and too poor!”
Queenie looked at him timidly. “I want to ask you something,” she
faltered, “What would you say instead of ‘goin’ steady’ with a girl? It
seemed to strike you funny.”
“I guess I’d say ‘engaged’—become engaged, I mean. Why?”
“Because I want to get to talk like Miss Wilkinson—and you. Will
you correct me?”
“Certainly,” he agreed. Then, rising, “Now let’s go to a show—I
think you need an outing.”
“All right—only—one thing more. Will you make me out a list of
books to read?”
“Yes, I’ll send you one. I’ll write to you tomorrow. Now, run and
get your coat.”
He put the gray cloak around her shoulders and they descended
the steps together, arm in arm. At the same moment a car drew up
in front of the house, and its occupant gazed at the couple in
amazement. Could it be possible, thought John Hadley, that Marjorie
was well enough to go out with Walter Richards?
“There’s no reason why I should be angry,” he mused, “for she
hadn’t any engagement with me. But it does seem funny. Guess I’ll
stop in and ask about her, as if I hadn’t seen a thing.”
Stepping out of his car, he assumed an air of indifference as he
mounted the steps and rang the door-bell.
“Is Miss Marjorie in?” he asked of the maid.
“Yes, sir, but she’s ill,” came the surprising, the unbelievable reply,
for had he not just seen her, in her gray cloak and dress, that he
liked so well?
He forgot to say that he was sorry; he only bit his lip in chagrin.
“Will you come in?” invited the maid.
“Is Mr. Jack home?”
“No, sir.”
“Then I won’t come in, thank you,” he replied.
“Shall I tell Miss Marjorie that you called, Mr. Hadley?”
“Yes, I wish you would,” he answered grimly.
 CHAPTER XXIII.

THE CRISIS.

Marjorie, however, did not hear of John’s visit the next day, for all
night long she tossed in a fever, and towards morning she relaxed
into a sort of stupor. The whole family were seriously alarmed; Jack
was sent for, and the physician summoned earlier than he was
expected.
The man, an old friend of the family, re-examined her most
thoroughly, and noted the symptoms again. Mrs. Wilkinson watched
anxiously at the bedside, and Queenie, in the doorway, was very
near to tears.
“Pleurisy!” he muttered finally. “I feared it yesterday.” Then he
gave Mrs. Wilkinson some directions, and went down stairs in search
of her husband. Stealthily Queenie followed, pausing in the hall, to
hear if possible the real verdict.
“It looks pretty serious to me, Wilkinson,” she heard the doctor
say; “Marjorie’s condition is poor—she is completely run down. I
should advise a nurse.”
Queenie stifled a sob, not only at the gravity of her illness, but at
the idea of bringing in some one strange to do for her what Queenie
herself longed to do. If she were only a nurse!
“Certainly—by all means,” Mr. Wilkinson was saying. “Will you
arrange for it, Doctor?”
“Yes; I’ll get the most capable one I know of—and hope to have
her here by noon. In the meantime, Mrs. Wilkinson has directions.”
Queenie could restrain herself no longer; she burst into the room
and took hold of the doctor’s coat lapels.
“You—you don’t think that she will die, do you?” she blurted out
hysterically.
 “Oh, no,” answered the doctor gravely; “she has a good chance.
Marjorie has always been healthy.”
“It’s her first real sickness since childhood,” supplied Mr. Wilkinson,
with an effort towards cheerfulness. “And that ought to help.”
“No doubt it will,” came the doctor’s reassuring reply.
“But please tell me what I can do!” begged the girl tremulously.
“Just whatever Mrs. Wilkinson tells you,” answered the physician.
“And try to keep your spirits up,” he added, as he picked up his case.
After he had gone, Queenie looked desperately at Mr. Wilkinson,
and repeated her question.
“Well, I should think that you could wait on Mrs. Wilkinson, as the
doctor said, and answer the telephone when friends inquire about
Marjorie, and write notes if she receives flowers, and help with the
housework and marketing——”
“Oh, I can! I’m sure I can!” she cried, in relief to find that she
could actually be of some service.
The hours dragged wearily by; Marjorie almost a ghost of her
former self, lay on the bed, motionless and almost lifeless while the
hideous disease worked its calamity in her system. Queenie tiptoed
in and out of the room at Mrs. Wilkinson’s call, but Marjorie was
totally unaware of her presence. At noon the nurse, a splendidly
capable young woman, arrived and relieved the tired mother, who
consented to go to bed. Queenie was thankful to go out and do the
marketing; for a while at least she would be too busy to think.
Early in the evening Mr. Richards came to inquire after Marjorie,
and, seeing how tired and nervous Queenie was, offered to take her
out for a ride in the car. Queenie assented indifferently, unable to
find much interest in anything.
“Isn’t she the least bit better?” he asked, as they started. “Not the
tiniest bit?”
“No,” returned Queenie dismally. “If anything, she’s worse. The
doctor’s afraid of pneumonia now. A night-nurse is coming on to-
morrow.”
“I wish that I could do something,” said Mr. Richards.
 To his amazement, Queenie suddenly burst out crying.
“That’s the dreadful thing, Mr. Richards—we can’t do anything!
Those strange nurses, who mean nothing to her, can do everything,
and all we can do is sit back and hope. Oh, it makes me feel terrible!
Suppose she dies!—I can’t help thinkin’ of all the mean things I’ve
done to her, and said to her—Oh!—Oh!——” Suddenly she drooped
her head upon the back of the seat and sobbed miserably.
“Don’t—please don’t take it so hard, little girl,” the young man
pleaded, surprised and affected by the depth of the girl’s feeling. “I
don’t think Miss Wilkinson ever thinks of anything like that.”
“Yes, yes, she must!” Queenie protested. “The first night she saw
us we were so awful, made fun of her, and laughed at her—and then
that hike, when we picked up those fellows—Gee! How I wish I’d
never seen them! And then the time I left her in the lurch at the
game on account of that worthless Sam MacDonald and forced her
to play! Oh, Mr. Richards, do you s’pose that’s what made her sick?
If it’s my fault—and she dies——” She ended in another volley of
weeping.
Mr. Richards slowed down and laid a sympathetic hand upon her
shoulder.
“Please don’t blame yourself so, Queenie,” he said softly. “Of
course it wasn’t your fault. And you were young and thoughtless
then—and didn’t know any better. Now you’re a young woman—and
a very admirable young woman; Miss Wilkinson must be proud and
happy to know how splendidly you have developed. Six months ago
you didn’t have the capacity to feel in this way. And surely your
captain isn’t going to die; she’s going to live, and rejoice in your
friendship. Your duty is not to dwell on the past, and what you have
been but to think of what you can still do to make her proud of you!”
Queenie grew calmer at these reassuring words and the
sympathetic manner and sat up and dried her eyes. At that moment,
Mr. Richards seemed like the most wonderful man in the world to
her.
“I’m going to live in that belief,” she announced resolutely. “Now
drive me home, so that I can write some notes to the scouts. All of
the girls in the troop will want to hear just how Miss Wilkinson is.”
“All right, and I’ll help you if I may,” he rejoined. “I can drop your
notes into the post office tonight.”
As soon as he was gone she crept noiselessly to bed—half happy
and half sad. This new friendship seemed wonderful to her, yet if she
was to have it at the cost of Marjorie’s illness, it was not worth it.
The next day brought little change in the patient’s condition.
Flowers and notes and messages continued to arrive, but Marjorie
was oblivious to all that was going on. Queenie took charge of
everything, and presently fell into a routine of duties which at least
kept her calm.
To her surprise, however, she found no word from John Hadley, no
expression of concern from the one person who she expected would
be most solicitous. This seemed so strange to her that she
mentioned the fact to Jack at dinner, and he replied that he had
heard that he had gone out of town.
“But he knows she is sick,” continued Queenie; “because I told
him the day he brought me to college.”
“I believe he was here that first night to inquire,” remarked Jack.
“Are you sure he hasn’t telephoned?”
“Not when I was at home,” answered the girl.
The day nurse entered the room softly and stood in the doorway,
a mute appeal in her eyes. Mrs. Wilkinson rose anxiously.
“I’m afraid Miss Marjorie’s worse,” she whispered. “I think we had
better call the doctor—and suggest a consultation. I expect the crisis
tonight.”
“Oh!” gasped Queenie, choking over the food she had put into her
mouth, but with a great effort summoning her control. She had
already learned the necessity of self-restraint.
Mr. Wilkinson went to the telephone, and Mrs. Wilkinson returned
to the sick room with the nurse. Queenie turned to her supper and
tried to eat.
In half an hour the doctors were there, and the young people
retired to the library, to await the result of the consultation. The
minutes dragged by; neither Jack nor Queenie made any attempt to
talk; both sat listlessly staring at the newspapers in their hands,
without making any pretense at reading them. At last the doctors
left, but it was some time before they could get any information.
Finally the nurse came down to telephone a prescription and Jack
seized upon her eagerly.
“We don’t know anything more,” she replied quietly; “only that if
your sister lives through tonight, she is likely to get well.”
Jack swallowed hard and Queenie began to sob.
“Do—you expect her to?” he finally managed to inquire.
“We hope so,” was the unassuring reply. “She is asleep now, under
a drug. When she wakens up——”
“About what time?” demanded Queenie.
“Probably about midnight. The doctor is coming back to spend the
night here.”
Queenie watched the nurse go back to the sick room and she sat
still, pondering.
“I tell you what I’m going to do, Jack,” she said slowly: “I’m going
to bed now and set my alarm for about two o’clock.” She began to
weep again. “Oh, Jack! She must live!”
“Sure—she’s going to!” he managed to say, with forced
cheerfulness.
Queenie went sound asleep the minute her head touched the
pillow, fortified by the belief that she would be awake at the crucial
moment. But so tired was she from the exhaustion and strain of the
last three or four days, that she slept more soundly than she had
expected. The alarm went off unheeded; it was not until the
morning sun streamed into the room that she finally opened her
eyes. Then she jumped up in horror and remorse at her error.
Suppose—suppose—that Marjorie had died!
She rushed out into the hall, flinging a kimona around her
shoulders as she went, and almost bumped into Mrs. Wilkinson in
the passageway. The mother’s face was haggard, but a great look of
peace flooded it.
“Tell me! Tell me!” whispered the girl, clutching her arm.
 “The crisis is past—and Marjorie’s alive!” replied Mrs. Wilkinson.
“But so weak! She spoke once to me—calling ‘Mother,’ but she
doesn’t seem to know anybody else.”
“Thank God!” breathed Queenie devoutly.
She went back into her room, and dressed. A deep feeling of
thankfulness filled her heart; she made tremendous resolves as she
went about her task, pledging herself to a veritable life of service.
She would do anything, anything at all, that Marjorie asked, in the
future.
The morning brought many visitors, inquiring for the sick girl, and
many boxes of flowers. Queenie received them all, happier than she
had ever been in her life before.
In the evening Mr. Richards came again, and took her for a ride.
To him, too, she seemed like a totally different girl.
“You are ready to think about your own future now?” he asked,
smiling at her gaiety.
“I guess so—when I’m sure Miss Wilkinson’s better. Oh, Mr.
Richards, do you think she will be able to graduate?”
“I should think so. Spring vacation isn’t over yet—she really hasn’t
been ill long.”
“No, it only seems long.”
Again he made an effort to induce Queenie to talk about herself.
“I have something in mind for you, Queenie,” he said. “Are you
interested?”
“Yes, if it will wait until next week. I have a lot to do here, now.”
He saw that it was indeed useless, for when they returned to the
house, they found that the night nurse had been called away and
Queenie was swift to offer her services.
“Please try me tonight, Mrs. Wilkinson!” she urged. “I’ll be ever so
careful!”
“You are sure you want to?” asked the mother. “I will sleep in the
next room, and the day nurse on the other side.”
“Oh, yes, please!” She put her whole soul into her pleading.
“All right then—and promise to call me if anything happens.”
 “I promise!” breathed Queenie, thankful to be considered so
responsible.
 CHAPTER XXIV.

QUEENIE’S DAY OFF.

The bright morning sunlight streamed into Marjorie’s room, as she

sat up in bed, a week later, finishing her dainty breakfast, and
watching expectantly for Queenie. The girl’s first visit in the morning
was the most pleasant event of her quiet days during her
convalescence; Queenie always seemed radiant as she entered,
bearing interesting news of the outside world.
This morning she ran up the stairs two steps at a time, her hands
filled with letters and flowers. Darting over to the bed, she piled
them all on top of Marjorie, while she stooped over to kiss her hair.
“Just look how much everybody loves you, Cap!” she exclaimed. “I
think there must be a dozen letters—and two new boxes of flowers!”
Marjorie’s eyes shone with happiness; it was worth while to be ill,
to find out how much every one cared.
“You open the flowers, Queenie,” she said, “and I’ll begin on the
letters. Let’s go slowly—I like to make them last as long as I can.”
“Maybe you’ll have some real visitors today,” observed the younger
girl. “The doctor said you might have two, you know.”
“I wonder,” mused Marjorie. She was thinking of John, and trying
to understand why he had sent no message.
“Which two would you choose, if you could have anybody you
wanted, Cap?” ventured Queenie.
“Lil, of course, first of all!” she answered emphatically.
“Lilies of the valley from her!” cried Queenie, delighted at the
coincidence of the donor’s name with the flowers she had just
opened. “Why, she sends you flowers every other day, doesn’t she?”
“I guess she has—even when I was too ill to realize it. Her roses
are still fresh.”
 Marjorie turned to her mail, and read three lively letters from
college friends. Then she could restrain her curiosity no longer
concerning the other box of flowers.
“It’s a man’s card,” observed Queenie, as she handed Marjorie the
tiny envelope accompanying a huge bunch of snapdragon. “I can tell
by the shape.”
Marjorie’s fingers trembled as she pulled open the flap; but upon
reading the name a sharp look of disappointment spread over her
countenance.
“Walter Richards,” she repeated mechanically. “How very nice.”
Queenie raised her eyes quickly, recalling her own jealousy on a
former occasion when she had thought the scout master infatuated
with her pretty captain. But there could be no doubt now that if the
young man did entertain any such hopes, they would not be
encouraged. Marjorie could not conceal her disappointment.
“Now read the rest of your letters,” Queenie advised her tenderly.
“They’re all from college girls,” she said, “except one—from Ethel
Todd, one of our old scouts. I recognize their handwriting.”
Queenie busied herself with the flowers, changing the water in the
old ones, filling other vases for the new bouquets that had just
arrived. When she had finished, Marjorie tossed her letters aside and
settled back in her pillows.
“Queenie, here’s one for you—I found it under the quilt,” she
remarked. “Looks like a man’s handwriting!”
The girl blushed and took the letter with feigned indifference.
“It’s from Mr. Richards,” she said calmly. “He often sends me lists
of books—and things like that.”
“Oh, I see!” nodded the other girl, restraining a smile.
Queenie opened the letter deliberately, but as she started to read
it, a look of happiness crept over her face.
“He wants me to meet him in town tomorrow,” she announced, as
she read on, “and take lunch with him—and—and——Miss Wilkinson,
may I go?”
 “You certainly may! And what’s more, you can pick out the best
looking suit and hat I own to wear! Why, it’ll be almost like going out
myself to have my clothes get an airing.”
Queenie threw her arms about Marjorie, overcome by her sense of
gratitude.
“I don’t deserve that you should be so good to me, Cap! I don’t—
really!”
“You certainly do! Nobody needs a holiday more than you. Just
look how you sat up with me those nights after the night nurse was
called away! I want you to go and have the best time ever!”
For the next half hour both girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves
while Queenie tried on all of Marjorie’s street costumes. At last they
both agreed upon a trim little dark blue serge, made with straight
lines and a cunning taffeta toque to match.
“I’m going to pull the hat way down over my eyes,” she remarked,
“and see if I can fool any of your friends, if I meet them. It would be
such fun to have somebody rush up and kiss me, and call me
‘Marjorie.’”
“You flatter me, Queenie. You know I’m a lot older than you.”
“But you don’t look it!” flashed the other immediately.
She was not to leave for the city until the eleven o’clock train the
following morning, so the girls had plenty of time for their hour
together after breakfast. Queenie had a share in the excitement this
time, for the florist’s messenger brought her a box of flowers in
addition to Marjorie’s gifts.
“Violets!” she exclaimed, “from Mr. Richards. He wants me to wear
them today.”
Marjorie looked on a trifle enviously; she was missing her violets
more each day. For somehow, with her, violets were always
associated with John Hadley.
Queenie was off at last, looking sweeter than Marjorie had ever
seen her look. Perhaps the girl herself was aware of it, or perhaps it
was merely the beauty of the April day and the flowers in her belt;
but whatever it was she smiled quietly to herself all the way into the
city. She found Mr. Richards on the platform, watching for her amid
the stream of people that poured out of the suburban train.
“My, it’s good to see you!” he cried recognizing her from a distance
by the violets, rather than by her general appearance. “You didn’t
breathe a word of it to Miss Wilkinson?”
“Not a word—though I almost made a slip the very first thing. I
was reading your letter in her room, and told her you wanted to
meet me in town—and I almost told her why!”
“You’re sure you didn’t?” he inquired, searchingly. Like most men
he did not believe that girls could keep secrets.
“No—honor bright! Besides, it may all come to nothing. And I
wouldn’t want to disappoint Miss Wilkinson.”
“I think it’s going to pan out all right,” the young man replied with
assurance. “Your consent was all that was needed and since you
think you’ll like it——”
“Sh!” warned Queenie. “Don’t even let’s talk about it in public, till
it’s a sure thing. We might see somebody we know.”
They were making their way along a crowded street now, so
crowded that Richards felt obliged to take Queenie’s arm, to keep
from being separated. Neither had been paying much attention to
the passers-by, but hardly were the words out of the girl’s mouth,
than they came face to face with John Hadley!
“Marjor—I beg your pardon,” he stammered, realizing his mistake,
“I am very sorry, but I thought——”
Queenie’s laugh rang out clearly, in spite of the publicity of the
place.
“Mr. Hadley!” she exclaimed, seizing his hand, and dragging him
aside from the crowd. “It’s Miss Wilkinson’s clothes, that’s why you
thought it was her. But now I’ve got you, I want to ask you why
you’ve been such a quitter? You, of all people!”
John tried to be angry, but he felt his resentment melting at the
girl’s earnestness.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
 “What do I mean? Miss Wilkinson at death’s door, so hundreds of
her friends were telephonin’ and sendin’ flowers day and night, and
not even the price of a two-cent stamp would you spend to find out
how she was! Even if you had been mad at her, common decency
ought to have made you ask after her, when she’s been that sick!”
In spite of the force of her words, Queenie kept her voice lowered,
so soft, indeed, that Mr. Richards did not catch the portent of the
conversation. Instead of being angry now, John was intensely
alarmed. Had Marjorie really been ill, then, and he had not taken the
trouble to find out! His face turned deathly pale at the thought of
what might have happened.
It was his turn to clutch Queenie’s arm.
“Is she all right now? Tell me quick, Queenie!”
“She’s sitting up in bed,” replied the girl stiffly. “But far from well.”
“Do you suppose I could see her?”
“Yes, if your ‘business’ lets you,” she replied sarcastically. “I
understand it took you out of town the very day she was the worst!”
“I didn’t know it. I swear I didn’t!”
“But you called at the house the night before—and the hired girl
told you.”
“I didn’t believe her,” John admitted sheepishly. “I was sure I saw
her go out with—Richards.”
The corners of Queenie’s mouth drooped in a smirk, as she
suddenly understood the cause of John’s absence. He must have
mistaken her for Marjorie, the night that she wore her gray dress
and cloak! In a word she explained the situation.
“But you’re a big boob, just the same, Mr. Hadley, and you ought
to be ashamed of yourself for havin’ so little faith. Now run along,
and make up for lost time. We got a date ourselves.”
They hurried off to their mysterious engagement, which resulted
entirely to their satisfaction, and proceeded leisurely to a hotel for
luncheon. They lingered over it as long as they could, Richards
expressing his regret that he could not devote the rest of the
afternoon to Queenie’s amusement.
 “You’ve done enough for me today, Mr. Richards,” she replied
appreciatively. “It’s been the happiest day of my life.”
“You deserve it,” he returned, “you spent a good part of it in
making three other people happy.”
“Three?” she repeated in perplexity.
“John Hadley, Marjorie Wilkinson—and——” he helped her into the
train—“and me!”
The next moment he had disappeared.
 CHAPTER XXV.

CONCLUSION.

Another week had passed by, and Marjorie was to be allowed to

come down stairs for dinner. Gradually she was growing stronger;
the color was returning to her cheeks, the vivacity to her voice.
Perhaps it was John’s visit, with its apologies and explanations that
had given her a renewed interest in life, or perhaps it was the bunch
of violets that arrived each day from the florist, or the letter that
came punctually with each morning’s mail. At any rate, it seemed so
to Queenie, for the very day after her trip to the city, the doctor
pronounced Marjorie able to get up for a while, and to repeat this
program for an increasing length of time each day, until he
considered her strong enough to go down stairs. The added exertion
seemed not to hurt her in the least; indeed, after three days he
agreed that the nurse’s services were no longer necessary.
All this time Queenie had safely guarded her secret, going about
her duties with a smile on her lips and a suppressed light in her
eyes. Half the pleasure would be lost if she divulged it before the
appointed moment.
Marjorie, however, was not too deeply engrossed in her own
affairs to notice that Queenie was unusually happy, and she longed
to be able to share her joy with her. Once or twice she ventured to
ask her about it, but Queenie had only laughed, and replied that it
was only because Marjorie was getting better that she felt like
dancing with every step.
On the very morning that Marjorie was to celebrate her recovery
by a little dinner party down stairs, she made one more attempt to
fathom the younger girl’s secret.
“Queenie,” she began, as she folded John’s letter and replaced it in
the envelope, “You’re keeping something from me. Please tell me!
You’re not engaged, or anything, are you?”
The other girl burst out laughing.
“Miss Wilkinson! Of course I’m not! Why, who would I be engaged
to? You know I haven’t seen any of my old fellows—or heard from
them, either——”
“Well, you might be engaged to Jack, or Mr. Richards. You’ve
certainly seen a good deal of both of them.”
“You can put your mind at rest on that point, Cap! Neither one has
asked me—and I wouldn’t have them if they did. I’m not ready to
get married yet—I’m mighty thankful to be single. Besides—don’t
forget I’m only seventeen!”
“Yes, I know—and I’m glad you feel that way about it. You’re
much too young.”
“I know it,” answered Queenie decisively. “Besides—I’ve got other
plans.”
“What, Queenie?” demanded Marjorie eagerly, believing that she
was getting at the reason at last. “Did you go and get a job?”
“I’m not tellin’ yet. My job is right here—till you’re well enough to
go back to college.”
“Yes, but what then?” asked Marjorie anxiously. “I meant to help
you to find something during spring vacation, and here I went and
got sick.”
“Don’t you bother your head about that, Miss Wilkinson. I’ll be all
right.”
“Will you go back home? Have you heard from your mother?”
“Yes, I’ve heard from her and she’s still pretty mad, but she says I
can come back whenever I want and she won’t send me off to Aunt
Tillie. But I’m not goin’ to stay—maybe once in a while to visit.”
“Where are you going to live, then?” persisted Marjorie. “Not at
some cheap room——”
“Oh, no! But really you needn’t worry, Cap. Your mother has
invited me to stay here till I get settled, and I promise you I will if
you don’t approve of where I will be living. Now, your mother wants
you please to tell me what you’d most rather have for dinner tonight.
It’s your party, you know.”
“Anything but chicken,” returned Marjorie laughingly. “I’m so tired
of chicken broth, and spring chicken, that I feel as if I never wanted
to taste another. Let’s see. Roast beef, I guess—and a real fancy
salad!”
“Ice cream and birthday cake for dessert?” concluded Queenie.
“Birthday cake? It isn’t my birthday!”
“It’s just like it, though.”
It seemed indeed to Marjorie that Queenie’s words were true, for
all day long she continued to be treated as if it were her birthday.
Her wishes were consulted upon every detail of the dinner, and her
comfort looked out for. She received more flowers than she usually
did on her real birthday, and, when John Hadley arrived just before
dinner, he capped the climax by presenting her with a tiny jeweler’s
box.
“Marjorie,” he began, “I ventured to bring you a pin—a friendship
pin, in honor of the occasion. Will you accept it?”
“Of course I will, John!” she replied radiantly, taking the box and
opening it. It was a narrow circle, bordered on both edges with the
finest, the daintiest, carving.
“It’s beautiful!” she exclaimed, pinning it upon her dress. “And,”
she added softly, “I will always wear it.”
Before the young man could express just how much this promise
meant to him, Lily and Dick entered the room. The former had been
out to see Marjorie several times during her illness, but not since
college had re-opened, and she had a great deal to tell her.
“When are you really coming back, Marj?” she inquired finally, as
they went into the dining room. “I’ll die of loneliness if you don’t
come soon.”
“I don’t know,” replied her roommate, casting meek glances at
Queenie and her mother. “Those two are such tyrants.”
“The last day of April, I believe—if she is strong enough,”
answered Mrs. Wilkinson for her, with a sidelong look at Queenie.
 “Yes, that’s right,” nodded the younger girl.
“I’m beginning to be worried about my lessons—the classes I’m
missing,” said Marjorie. “And my troop, too. But Queenie says that
will be all right——”
“Yes, she and I will take care of that, won’t we, Queenie?” Lily
assured her.
“But suppose the girls are all scattered by this time—it’s been so
long——”
“You’ll see them soon, Miss Wilkinson,” put in Queenie, with
another meaning glance at her captain’s mother. “Just mark my
words.”
“Yes, I think so,” smiled the older woman.
Marjorie shrugged her shoulders, and turned to John in the hope
of gaining some explanation of the mysterious messages that
seemed to be flashing between Queenie and her mother, but was
not rewarded with any information. So she gave it up, and entered
light heartedly into the joyousness of the occasion.
When they had finished the salad course, Mrs. Wilkinson surprised
Marjorie by announcing that dessert would be served in the living
room.
“How funny, Mother!” commented Marjorie. “I know it’s quite the
thing to serve coffee in another room, but I never heard of doing it
with dessert. Has that become the fashion, since I was sick?”
“We’re starting the fashion tonight!” came the joking reply. “You
lead the way, Marjorie.”
“But it’s all dark!” she exclaimed as she peeped through the
curtains.
“Oh, so it is! Jack, run and make a light!”
He flashed on the electricity; to Marjorie’s amazement she beheld
her whole scout troop, with the exception of Queenie, standing to
receive her. An exclamation of delight and surprise burst from her
lips; but before she could say anything Stella stepped forward and
presented her with a huge bunch of American Beauty roses.