From the beginning to the close of the strike there were many
difficulties to contend with, one of the most prominent of which was the
timidity of some contractors, who were constantly exhibiting their
weakness, and on the slightest pretext would have given up the battle
and sacrificed principle for the sake of making a few dollars. These men
were a constant care to the more earnest workers, who were compelled to
put forth efforts at all times to strengthen the weak brethren and keep
them in line. They believed in the correctness of the principles
involved, but were ever ready to say they could not be enforced against
the striking element, the strength of which at all times was made to
appear in the unanimity with which the workmen seemed to stand together.
If the strikers were weak they were so well drilled that they would not
admit it, or show it to the contractors, while the few weak members of
the Master Masons' association and material dealers who were disposed to
give up, were constantly parading their cowardice to not only their
associates, but to the strikers and to the public. But they were few in
number.
Another source of annoyance was the exhibition of selfishness by a few
owners of buildings which had been projected. They would not consider
the principle involved; but, looking at the dollar in sight, took their
contracts from members of the Association and gave them into the hands
of the strikers, thus furnishing aid and comfort to the enemy of
liberty, and creating a feeling of discouragement in the ranks of the
builders.
All honor to the brave men who stood firm in the fight from the
beginning to the end; who sacrificed everything but principle to sustain
the proposition of individual liberty; who were early and late in the
front to do battle alike for the strong and weak; who shirked no duty,
no responsibility, but floated the banner of freedom on all occasions.
Their names are enrolled on the books of the haters of free labor for a
boycott in the future, but they are also enrolled in the deepest
recesses of the memory of every good and true citizen, and their manly
efforts for the establishment of the principle of individual liberty
will never be forgotten.