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At 3 o'clock in the afternoon a meeting of the strikers was assembled in the hall and called to order by the Town Supervisor, Mr. McCarthy. Before the meeting opened two Deputy Sheriffs who had sneaked in were requested to get out. All capitalistic reporters were excluded, the only reporter who was permitted to be present being the reporter for the Alarm and Arbeiter-Zeitung. The men seemed afraid to speak, and after the Chairman had called on the audience several times without any response, the audience in turn called upon Mr. A. R. Parsons to speak. Mr. Parsons declined, but they insisted, when he had made a few remarks upon the necessity of organization, at the conclusion of which several of the men objected to taking such action. One of the men spoke up and said: "We are assembled here to consider what to do. We have got the military in our town; we are under intimidation. We want the military to leave our town and let us alone. If we organize now it will be the means of losing our bread forever, and probably our lives besides."
Another speaker said: "We can't organize. The bosses would break it up; they did it before. It would not be allowed. They would starve us and break it up."
Mr. Parsons answered and said: "Then you are slaves."
The men hung their heads, and with tears in their eyes several of them replied: "Alas, sir, it is too true."
Another speaker then said: "As we have started and have lived so far without bread, we must keep on with our struggle against the bosses. We don't want those blue-jackets on the hill to kill the people for nothing." (Great cheering.)
There were such expressions as "We will stick for our rights," "Let us keep out until we get our wages," etc. The meeting was unanimous in staying out until the wages demanded were paid.
A committee of eight, composed of two persons each from the Polish, Swedish, German, and Irish nationalities, was appointed to wait upon the quarry-owners and tell them what they want, and report back to a meeting to be held for that purpose. The meeting resolved to stand by the committee and help them to the last if the
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