The men who did choose to
work were forced to pass a picket line of strikers who with jeers and
threats and arguments sought to turn them from their purpose.
The death of Captain Charlie, by defining more clearly the two lines of
public sentiment, had increased Jake Vodell's strength materially, but
the Mill workers' union had not yet officially declared for the
sympathetic strike that would deliver the community wholly into the
hands of the agitator. The Mill men, who were still opposed to Jake
Vodell's leadership and coolly refused to hold the employers guilty of
the death of Captain Charlie upon the mere unsupported assertions of
the strike leader, were therefore free to continue their work. This
action of the members of the Mill workers' union who were loyal to
John, however, quite naturally increased the feeling of their comrades
who had accepted Vodell's version of the murder. Thus, the final crisis
of the industrial battle centered about the Mill.
Every hour that John Ward could keep the Mill running lessened Vodell's
chances of final victory. The strike leader knew that if these days
immediately following Captain Charlie's death passed without closing
the Mill, his cause was lost. The workmen were now aroused to the
highest pitch of excitement.
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