Page:Autobiography of Mother Jones (1925).djvu/238

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CHAPTER XXV
Struggle and Lose: Struggle and Win

The steel strike was over. That is, the men were forced back to work. Only in bible stories can David conquer the giant Goliath. But the strike in the steel workers' hearts is not over. Back to the forges, to the great caldrons, to the ovens, to the flame and the smoke go the "hands." But their hearts and their minds are outside the high fences—fences that shut in the worker and shut out justice.

The strike is not over. Injustice boils in men's hearts as does steel in its caldron, ready to pour, white hot, in the fullness of time.

Meanwhile in Kansas, legislators, subservient to the money powers, were busy making laws. They wanted the workers to be life serfs of the old days, attached to their job, and penalized when they left or struck. Governor Allen signed the bill of slavery. The law was called by a fancy name and given a fair face. It forbade the workers striking. It made striking a punishable offense.

A coal strike was coming on. Governor Allen said Kansas should have coal even if the workers did not have justice. Coal was more