“Ill-luck followed me and I have gone down, down, until I can scarce make a living as a draughtsman in a shop.  The curse of monopoly has caused my ruin.  I did not succumb to fair competition.  I am now enlisted in a fight against the usurpers of the free rights of the people, and I declare to you all, that I am in this fight in dead earnest.  By an appeal to justice we can gain nothing.

“I was one of the sixty miners who were attacked on the highway at Hazleton by the High Sheriff of Luzerne County.  I witnessed the mock trial in Wilkes-Barre.  I have thought of all the possible means the Trusts have left to us, and find that there is but one available.

“They have all the money and all the agencies of the law; they have intimidated the humble and ignorant workingmen until these poor creatures are no better than serfs, and to be assured of bread, they work as voluntary slaves.

“What is there for us to do but to fight the magnates with their own weapons?  Intimidation is their deadliest method.  The horrible picture of a starving family is held up before the wage-earner, and he is asked if he will vote to put his wife and children on the street.  He is told that if he will accept starvation wages, the Trust will let him make such wages.  In desperation he accepts the terms.

“What I propose is to intimidate the criminal aggressors so that they will fear to make their fortunes at the expense of the honest, hard working and credulous people.

“How shall it be done?  Ah! it is a simple matter.”

Here the voice of the speaker becomes husky, and he turns to face the chairman of the committee.  In almost a whisper he exclaims:  “I propose to give them an object lesson.  They have given many to us.”  Again he resumes his normal voice.

“Have you not seen mills closed before election time so as to coerce men to vote as the mill owners directed?  Has not this suspension of work brought distress, starvation, death, to thousands of homes?  Is it not murder for men of wealth to resort to such means to win an election in a free country?

“Well, I now propose to form a syndicate—­a Syndicate of Annihilation!”

“Mr. Chairman,” cry half a dozen voices.  “Mr. Chairman, Point of order!  Point of order!”

Before the chair can recognize any of the speakers a general commotion ensues.  Men begin discussing with one another excitedly; there is a perfect bedlam.

All the while Nevins remains standing as if awaiting an opportunity to resume his speech.

At the expiration of some minutes order is restored so that his voice can be heard.  “Permit me to explain,” he cries.

The committeemen, as if acting by a common impulse, cease to squabble, and are attentive again.

“I propose to hear the circumstances under which each of you has been brought to the condition that leads you to combine against the Trust; and if there is sufficient ground for belief that you will be zealous workers in my syndicate, I will admit you to membership.  No man who has not had a more serious grievance against the Robber Barons than I have outlined, will be eligible. I have told you but one incident of my case.