friends pressed through
the throng to the hall where the Valley Council was waiting. There Grant
stood and read what he had written. It ran thus:

"For the death by dynamite of the militiamen who perished at midnight in
shaft No. 7 of the Wahoo Fuel Company's mines, I take full
responsibility. I have assumed a leadership in a strike which caused
these deaths. I shirk no whit of my share in this outrage. Yet I
preached only peace. I pleaded for orderly conduct. I appealed to the
workers to take their own not by force of arms but by the tremendous
force of moral right. That ten thousand workers respected this appeal, I
am exceedingly proud. That one out of all the ten thousand was not
convinced of the justice of our cause and the ultimate triumph by the
force of righteousness I am sorry beyond words. I call upon my comrades
to witness what a blow to our cause this murder has been and to stand
firm in the faith that the strike must win by ways of peace.

"Yet, whoever did this deed was not entirely to blame--however it may
cripple his fellow-workers. A child mangled in the mines denied his
legal damages; men clubbed for telling of their wrongs to their
fellow-laborers who were asked to fill their places; women on the picket
line, herded like deer through the park by Cossacks whipping the fleeing
creatures mercilessly; these things inflamed the mind of the man who set
off the bomb; these things had their share in the murder.

"But I knew what strikes were. I know indeed what strikes still are and
what this strike may be. I sorrow with those families whose boys
perished by the bomb in shaft house No. 7. I grieve with the families of
those who have been beaten and broken in this strike. But by all this
innocent blood--blood shed by the working people--blood shed by those
who ignorantly misunderstand us, I now beg you, my comrades, to stand
firm in this strike. Let not this blood be shed in vain. It may be
indeed that the men of the master class here have not descended as
deeply as we may expect them to descend. They may feel that more blood
must be spilled before they let us come into our own. But if blood is
shed again, we must bleed, but let it not be upon our hands.

"Again, even in this breakdown of our high hopes for a strike without
violence, I lift my voice in faith, I hail the coming victory, I
proclaim that the day of the Democracy of Labor is at hand, and it shall
come in peace and good will to all."

When he h