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He had the Spargo Wire Company. He made wires, bedsprings, copper wire and so forth. He was a man from away. He was not of Rome. Where he came from, I don't know; or how he happened to come to Rome, I don't know. But he was there and one of the big manufacturers. He was a man of very rough personality and very loose habits - drinking a good deal, a wild liver. He made lots of money. He had a very disagreeable personality apparently, or so the best people in Rome told me. The local minister of the Presbyterian Church told me that, and other good people - a very disagreeable man.
He owned this large factory and he was terribly incensed that the workers should go on strike. Everything was closed and everything was struck. Every factory was struck. His own factory had been one of the first ones to be struck. He was very angry.
Packy Downey told me this and he was an eyewitness. He said that a committee of the workers had been brought together. Mr. Spargo said he would not receive a committee. He would not receive anybody. It was none of their business. He had nothing to say to them and he would not receive a committee from the union - not on your life. Packy Downey suggested that a nice man like Johnny Flynn who didn't work
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