e. It
seemed to me like calling a doctor after the patient is dead. "Men,"
I said, "I'm a newcomer here and I never made a speech in my life. I
wouldn't try to now, only I've been asked to by others--by somebody
that's been here a long time. He thinks there ought to be a little more
said before we ballot. It's a hot day and I don't want to keep you here
if you don't want to listen to me. What I've got to say probably don't
amount to much."

"Go ahead," somebody said.

"We've decided to strike, and I don't know how it will turn out. I've
been out of work for several months and you fellows haven't, so I can
tell you what it's like. The country is thronging with idle men. If we
lose this strike we can roam all over the country before we find another
job. I came all the way here from Alabama, where they drove a bunch of
iron workers into the peonage camps, and I was glad to get out alive.
Conditions are awful bad in this country and I have been trying to study
'em. Money is scarcer now than it's ever been before. They tell us that
the bosses are keeping our wages in their pockets. That's a mistake.
They haven't got anything in their pockets. They've mortgaged their
homes and pledged everything they own. They're having a devil of a time
to rake up the money every month to meet the pay-roll when it's due.
They aren't taking in the money as fast as they're paying it out. Their
salesmen are on the road trying to sell tin plate, but the tinners are
so hard up that few of them can buy.

"I believe we ought to get our pay every week, but how can we get it if
the boss hasn't got it? We've got to look at this thing in the light of
facts. The facts are that we have our jobs and are sure of our pay once
a month. There are a million men who would like to have what we have.
Those men will swarm in and take our jobs. You can't stop them. A hungry
man can't be stopped by the cry of 'scab.' You all know that there are
so many union men now idle that we have to pass around our jobs to keep
the men in this town from starving. When word goes out that we have
struck, you'll see the workers swarm in here like locusts. They'll be
glad to take their pay by the month. What's the use of a strike that
hasn't got a chance to win? We joined the union to make our jobs secure
and to get good pay. We're getting good pay. Our jobs are secure unless
we lose them in this strike.

"I don't believe we've looked at both sides of the case. I don't believe