ers,
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 was liste