So the armed caravan in broken down jalopies left our town and headed towards a nearby town where scabs worked the mine. When they arrived at the mine they found the entrance to the mine guarded by southern white women and teenagers armed with shotguns and rifles.

Instead of shooting it out right there on the spot, the union leaders wisely put their guns on the ground and approached the women and youth with outstretched hands. A spokesman said, "We mean you no harm. We don't want to shoot you. We know your men are working for low wages but in doing so they do harm to you and to us. Our children are hungry. All we want is for your men to come out with us. If we all stick together all of us will gain. Our children won't go hungry and neither will yours. We want you in our union so that together we can improve our wages.''

The women and youths listened, put down their guns and allowed a delegation of union miners to go into the mine and talk to the men who were scabbing. The delegation succeeded in getting the men to come out. Then the southerners who had been scabbing joined the caravan and they went from one scab-operated mine to another, only now it was white southerners who acted as spokesmen and convinced the others to come out. In one day the companies were defeated-no one scabbed and the strike was settled and the enmity between southern whites and the immigrants gradually wore itself out.