fter it is over, or interfere to prevent
the employment of such men elsewhere."

CHAPTER NINETEENTH

At last the agony was over--at least the agony of suspense. The poor
misguided men knew now that all hope had died. They would be re-employed
when the company needed them, but it was January--the dullest month in
the year. Every railroad in the West was laying men off. Hundreds of the
new men were standing in line waiting for business to pick up, and this
line must be exhausted before any of the old employees could be taken
back. The management considered that the first duty of the company was
to the men who had helped to win the strike. There was no disposition on
the part of the officials to make it harder for the vanquished army.
They admired the loyalty and self-sacrifice, though deploring the
judgment of the mismanaged men; but they were only officers in an
opposing army, and so fought the fight for the interest they
represented, and for the principles in which they believed.

Nothing in the history of the strike shows more conclusively that the
men were out-generalled than the manner in which the company handled the
press. It is not to be supposed for a moment that the daily papers of
Chicago, with possibly one exception, willfully misrepresented the men,
but the story of the strikers was never told. Mr. Paul, the accomplished
"bureau of information," stood faithfully at the 'phone and saw that the
public received no news that would embarrass the company or encourage
the men. The cold, tired reporter found a warm welcome and an easy chair
in Mr. Paul's private office, and while he smoked a fragrant cigar the
stenographer brought in the "news" all neatly type-written and ready for
the printer. Mr. Paul was a sunny soul, who, in the presence of the
reporter laughed the seemingly happy laugh of the actor-man, and when
alone sighed, suffered and swore as other men did. Mr. Paul was a
genius. By his careful manipulation of the press the public was in time
persuaded that the only question was whether the company, who owned the
road, should run it, or whether the brotherhoods, who did not own it,
should run it for them. Every statement given out by the company was
printed and accepted, generally, as the whole thing, while only two
papers in all the town pretended to print the reports issued by the
strikers. The others cut them and doctored them so that they lost their
point. But all is fair in love and war, and