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Show •127- even wives of the two men, they were Tenderloin hookers, girls such as he had seen walking on lower Mason Street? as irrelavent to the purpose of the meeting as the signs lying atop the nearby tables. When the large man was introduced, the President of the local said he had been a teacher in the New Jersey school system? from which he had resigned to become a union organizer? His talk, which was brief, was designed to sound toughi but to the Professor It sounded like an elementary school teacher reprimanding a recalcitrant class. "You were outmaneuvered today," he told them. "You should never have allowed that resolution to reach the floor? Your strategy was all wrong." He went on to say that they were young in such matters, but that they would learn. "Dom't give up hope? You have genuine grievances? Enlist support. The time will come again? and when it does? act!" When the man had finished talking? the Professor told his friend he had to leave to pick up his wife. This xgasn't exactly so? He could have stayed longer? but the union leader's talk had depressed him, as had the whole atmosphere of the gathering? Walking through the restaurant and out into the parking lot? he asked himself if there were not some other solution. Perhaps he should retire, then seek another position elsewhere? He was old enough to retire, and he could put his retirement pay into savings. He could |