1946-01 Introduction to What Means This Strike? [Petersen] More
than four decades have passed since Daniel De Leon delivered his
great speech before the striking textile workers of New Bedford,
Massachusetts. When it appeared in print it was instantly
recognized as one of the great speeches of our times. It
contains all the elements that combine to make a speech a great
classic. It measures up to Daniel Webster’s claim as to the
requirements of a great speech: The Man; the Subject; the
Occasion. The Man: eloquent, gifted, fully informed, fearless,
uncompromising, and the very soul of integrity. The Subject: a
great, irrepressible issue, and the need of stating it in
simple, yet withal correct and scientific terms. The Occasion: a
supremely important manifestation of that fundamental,
irrepressible issue — a typical and illuminating effect of the
basic cause of the universal conflict of our times, the STRIKE.
And presently the merging of Subject and Occasion into the Man,
the speaker, who (tirelessly and patie