“Sons of brutish Force and Darkness,” who have “drenched the earth with
blood,” chuckle over their victories. They point to the blacklisted
heroes of the American Railway Union, idle and poor, and count upon
their surrender. Their hope is that our order will disband; that
persecution, poverty and prison will do the work. These gory-handed
enemies of our order expect to put out our lodge fires, silence our
battle cries, disrobe ourselves of courage and manhood, permit them to
place their ironshod hoofs on our neck and sink us to fathomless depths
of degradation and make the American Railway Union the synonym of all
things the most detestable.