Hal raised his arms as a signal for silence. “Boys,” he cried, “they've kidnapped our committee. They think they'll break our strike that way—but they'll find they've made a mistake!”
“They will! Right you are!” roared a score of voices.
“They forget that we've got a union. Hurrah for our North Valley union!”
“Hurrah! Hurrah!” The cry echoed to the canyon-walls.
“And hurrah for the big union that will back us—the United Mine-Workers of America!”
Again the yell rang out; again and again. “Hurrah for the union! Hurrah for the United Mine-Workers!” A big American miner, Ferris, was in the front of the throng, and his voice beat in Hal's ears like a steam-siren.
“Boys,” Hal resumed, when at last he could be heard, “use your brains a moment. I warned you they would try to provoke you! They would like nothing better than to start a scrap here, and get a chance to smash our union! Don't forget that, boys, if they can make you fight, they'll smash the union, and the union is our only hope!”
Again came the cry: “Hurrah for the union!” Hal let them shout it in twenty languages, until they were satisfied.
“Now, boys,” he went on, at last, “they've shipped out our committee. They may ship me out in the same way—”
“No, they won't!” shouted voices in the crowd. And there was a bellow of rage from Ferris. “Let them try it! We'll burn them in their beds!”
“But they can ship me out!” argued Hal. “You know they can beat us at that game! They can call on the sheriff, they can get the soldiers, if necessary! We can't oppose them by force—they can turn out every man, woman and child in the village, if they choose. What we have to get clear is that even that won't crush our union! Nor the big union outside, that will be backing us! We can hold out, and make them take us back in the end!”
Some of Hal's friends, seeing what he was trying to do, came to his support. “No fighting! No violence! Stand by the union!” And he went on to drive the lesson home; even though the company might evict them, the big union of the four hundred and fifty thousand mine-workers of the country would feed them, it would call out the rest of the workers in the district in sympathy. So the bosses, who thought to starve and cow them into submission, would find their mines lying permanently idle. They would be forced to give way, and the tactics of solidarity would triumph.
So Hal went on, recalling the things Olson had told him, and putting them into practice. He saw hope in their faces again, dispelling the mood of resentment and rage.
“Now, boys,” said he, “I'm going in to see the superintendent for you. I'll be your committee, since they've shipped out the rest.”
The steam-siren of Ferris bellowed again: “You're the boy! Joe Smith!”
“All right, men—now mind what I say! I'll see the super, and then I'll go down to Pedro, where there'll be some officers of the United Mine-workers this morning. I'll tell them the situation, and ask them to back you. That's what you want, is it?”
That was what they wanted. “Big union!”
“All right. I'll do the best I can for you, and I'll find some way to get word to you. And meantime you stand firm. The bosses will tell you lies, they'll try to deceive you, they'll sen............