After the operators had refused to accept the President's terms for peace, the strike went on with its continued bitterness, suffering, patience. Strikers were killed. Gunmen were killed. John R. Lawson, an official of the Union, active in behalf of the rank and file, was arrested and charged with murder. It was an easy matter in the operator-owned state to secure a conviction. I took a train and went to Iowa to see President White.
"President Wilson said that this strike must be eventually settled by public opinion," said I. "It's about time we aroused a little. We've got to give this crime of convicting an innocent man of murder a little publicity."
"You're right, Mother," said he. "What do you think we ought to do?"
"I want to hold a series of meetings over the country and get the facts before the American people."
Our first meeting was in Kansas City. I told the great audience that packed the hall that when their coal glowed red in their fires, it was the blood of the workers, of men who went down into black holes to dig it, of women who suf-
