They all recalled those unfilled orders which they were straining every nerve to complete before the market should break, or cancellation should come.

It added not a little to their rage that they knew themselves to be held in the grip of circumstances over which they had little control.
After much angry deliberation it was finally agreed that they should appoint a committee to consider the whole situation and to prepare a plan of action.

Meantime the committee were instructed to temporise with the enemy.
The evening papers announced the imminence of a strike the extent and magnitude of which had never been experienced in the history of Blackwater.

Everywhere the citizens of the industrial town were discussing the disturbing news anxiously, angrily, indifferently, according as they were variously affected.

But there was a general agreement among all classes of citizens that a strike in the present industrial and financial situation which was already serious enough, would be nothing short of a calamity, because no matter what the issue would be, no matter which of the parties won in the conflict, a fight meant serious loss not only to the two parties immediately concerned, but to the whole community as well.