nt foreigners,
dissatisfied with the money in their pay envelopes, had marched out of
the Clarendon Mill and attacked the Chippering and behold, the revered
structure of American Government had quivered and tumbled down like a
pack of cards! Despite the feverish assurances in the Banner "extra" that
the disturbance was merely local and temporary, solid citizens became
panicky, vaguely apprehending the release of elemental forces hitherto
unrecognized and unknown. Who was to tell these solid, educated business
men that the crazy industrial Babel they had helped to rear, and in which
they unconsciously dwelt, was no longer the simple edifice they thought
it? that Authority, spelled with a capital, was a thing of the past? that
human instincts suppressed become explosives to displace the strata of
civilization and change the face of the world? that conventions and
institutions, laws and decrees crumble before the whirlwind of human
passions? that their city was not of special, but of universal
significance? And how were these, who still believed themselves to be
dwelling under the old dispensation, to comprehend that environments
change, and changing demand new and terrible Philosophies? When night
fell on that fateful Tuesday the voice of Syndicalism had been raised in
a temple dedicated to ordered, Anglo-Saxon liberty--the Hampton City
Hall.

Only for a night and a day did the rebellion lack both a leader and a
philosophy. Meanwhile, in obedience to the unerring instinct for drama
peculiar to great metropolitan dailies, newspaper correspondents were
alighting from every train, interviewing officials and members of labour
unions and mill agents: interviewing Claude Ditmar, the strongest man in
Hampton that day. He at least knew what ought to be done, and even before
his siren broke the silence of the morning hours in vigorous and emphatic
terms he had informed the Mayor and Council of their obvious duty. These
strikers were helots, unorganized scum; the regular unions--by
comparison respectable--held aloof from them. Here, in effect, was his
argument: a strong show of force was imperative; if the police and
deputies were inadequate, request the Governor to call out the local
militia; but above all, waste no time, arrest the ringleaders, the
plotters, break up all gatherings, keep the streets clear. He demanded
from the law protection of his property, protection for those whose right
to continue at work was inalienable. He