Q. If the soldiers undertook to disperse the crowd assembled there, did the strikers intend to resist?
A. I did for one, undoubtedly. I would rather have died right there, before I would have budged an inch.
Q. Was it talked of—was it understood that you, as a body, would resist?
A. I don't think there was a man there but what would have gone to just what I led him to.
By Senator Reyburn:
Q. What do you mean by saying if the commanding officer had his orders from a railroad magnate, you intended to do thus and so?
A. What do you mean?
Q. To resist, I understood you to say?
A. No; we proposed if General Huidekoper came to Allegheny, to go and interview him and explain the situation. We were going to ask him the question as citizens of the Commonwealth, for we looked upon it we had that right; if he had his orders from the chief executive or from Governor Hartranft; if he had, we would recognize him, if he had not, we did not propose to recognize him any more than anybody else. We proposed to treat him as a rioter, for we did not count ourselves as rioters, for if the mob had come we would have given the mob the best we had.
Q. Then you would have resisted in that case?