That's what our union forgot when we went on strike, William knew now. We thought we'd win because we made good barrels and the merchants needed them. They needed them to sell their fish to Brazil. They needed them for all the seal oil and cod liver oil.

They needed our barrels too much, William thought now. The working man had too much power. So they hired outport coopers who were not in the union. Now the merchants are banding together. They want all the cooperages under a few big owners. They want new machines to replace the coopers, and new kinds of packing for fish. When they see the end of barrels they'll be happy. I see that now, as plainly as I see all our trades are dying...

These were things William Pender knew in the winter of 1904-1905. He also knew that winter was one of the worst anyone remembered for cold and snow. But there were things he did not know. He did not know he would never find work as a cooper again. He did not know this was to be his last winter.

We know it because newspapers said it. The Roman Catholic Archbishop, Archbishop Howley, gave a speech. The speech was reported in the Evening Herald and the Daily News. Howley asked people to give more money to the church. He said the new pews had cost $2,928. The new floor cost $6,257. Work on the organ cost $5,000, and the arch needed mending, another $500.

But he had more to say. He spoke out against strikes. Men and women were going on strike all over St. John's. First it was coopers, now it was iron workers, and tailors and tailoresses. Howley warned Roman Catholic workers. If they went on strike, he would cut them off from the sacrament of Holy Communion. He would cut them off from God.

Howley said he had already warned Catholic working people against "disturbing the social order of things." He told workers to fear the Lord, "from whom all social order and authority proceed."

He said murder had been done already over these strikes.