It was a terrible responsibility to have such men count him popular, and he prayed that wisdom might be given him in the approaching crisis, especially as he seemed to have some real influence.
He had not spoken ten words when some one by the door cried, "Come outside! Big crowd out here want to get in." It was moonlight and not very cold, so every one moved out of the hall, and Philip mounted the steps of a storehouse near by and spoke to a crowd that filled up the street in front and for a long distance right and left.

His speech was very brief, but it was fortified with telling figures, and at the close he stood and answered a perfect torrent of questions.

His main counsel was against a strike in the present situation.

He had made himself familiar with the facts on both sides.

Strikes, he argued, except in very rare cases, were demoralizing--an unhealthy, disastrous method of getting justice done.