We had made up our minds that we must not fight fire with fire, that on the contrary the way to win out was to equal our foes in practical efficiency and yet to stand at the opposite plane from them in applied morality.
It was not always easy to keep the just middle, especially when it happened that on one side there were corrupt and unscrupulous demagogues, and on the other side corrupt and unscrupulous reactionaries.

Our effort was to hold the scales even between both.

We tried to stand with the cause of righteousness even though its advocates were anything but righteous.

We endeavored to cut out the abuses of property, even though good men of property were misled into upholding those abuses.

We refused to be frightened into sanctioning improper assaults upon property, although we knew that the champions of property themselves did things that were wicked and corrupt.