son Manufacturing Company. There was little in the report that was new to the men. Mr. Malleson had refused to open his mills to his former employees, on any terms, whether they came singly or in a body. He would not treat with them on any questions or under any conditions. He had said that they were dupes and fools to listen to the counsel of designing and self-seeking leaders who had nothing to lose and everything to gain by prolonging the strike. Finally, he had practically ordered the members of the committee from his room, and had warned them not to intrude again upon his privacy with their childish demands nor with their terms of surrender.
At the conclusion of the report there were mutterings and hisses, and not a few bitter denunciations of the president and his policy, and these denunciations were not entirely unaccompanied by threats.
A resolution was offered to the effect that the strike be declared off, and that the union officials and the officers of the company be notified at once of the action. The motion to adopt the resolution was duly seconded, and then the contention began anew. There were strong and passionate arguments both for and against the prolongation of the strike. Men with haggard faces told of the suffering that they and their families had endured, and begged that they might be permitted, without infraction of the union rules, and without the ignominy of being hailed and treated as scabs, to seek their old jobs. Others arose and appealed to their fellow-workmen, declaring that while they too had suffered, they were nevertheless ready to die in the last ditch in order that the dignity of labor might be maintained, and their rights as human beings upheld. It was crude oratory, but it had its effect. The tide of sentiment swung away from those who would bring the strike to a speedy end by surrender, and turned strongly toward those who would prolong it for the general and ultimate good.
