"Behold labor," he said, "stripped to the waist, perspiring at every pore
in the blinding heat of molten iron, shooting out hissing sparks.
Pleasures for you laborers are banished; your wives and children are
dressed in cheap calicoes; no linen or good food on your tables, and most
of you are in debt."
This and more Captain O'Connor said in excited language. Finally he
shouted, "Slaves, will you tamely submit to all this indignity and not
resent it? The managers of the Harrisville Iron & Steel Co. are tyrants
of the worst sort. They are fencing you out to-day from the only field on
which you can gain bread for your starving wives and children.
"Reuben Harris cares more for his gold than for your souls. Since you
refuse him your labor on his own terms, he purposes by aid of the high
fence and bayonets to forbid every one of you union men from earning an
honest living."
The strike committee decided to call a public meeting of all the
employees of the steel works on the base-ball grounds at 7 o'clock
the next morning. All the saloons that night were crowded, and loud
denunciation of capital was indulged in by the strike leaders. Early the
next morning a band of music marched up and down the streets where the
employees resided, and by 7 o'clock nearly four thousand men had
gathered.
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