Superintendent Potter now claimed openly that the strike was broken, that about forty of the firm's old employees had quietly returned to work and that a majority of the rest were ready and anxious to return. The advisory board met these assertions with an emphatic denial, crediting Mr. Potter with making a "gigantic bluff," as Vice Chairman Thomas Crawford put it, for the purpose of discouraging the strikers.[B] Mr. Potter, however, invited the advisory board to send a committee to inspect the mill and verify his representations. The invitation was accepted and four skilled steelworkers went through the plant and narrowly inspected the work going on in every department. At a mass meeting of the strikers, held on August 2, this committee reported that, while it was true that a large number of men were at work in the mill, little actual progress was being made, and that the consequent loss to the firm was heavy enough to justify the most sanguine expectations on the side of the Amalgamated Association. The chief officers of the Association were present when the report was made, and delivered speeches full of enthusiasm and confidence. Every man at the meeting pledged himself to stay out to the bitter end. [B] The term "strikers" is used here because, when the firm invited its employees to return to work, the lock-out ceased, and the union men were placed in the position of being on a strike. An attempt to "evangelize" the non-unionists was made by the distribution of circulars appealing to their manhood in the name of organized labor. These bills were dropped into the mill yard from trains passing over the Pemickey bridge and seemed to produce some effect, inasmuch as several of the non-unionists left the mill and accepted money from the Amalgamated Association to take them to their homes. Unfortunately the ease with which funds were obtained in this way led many of the worst characters in the mill, after being dismissed for laziness or misconduct, to make descents on the Association's treasury, backing up their demands with amazing tales of the difficulties experienced in trying to operate the mills with green hands, including accidents of the most appalling description. Many of these fictions crept into the newspapers and produced a sensation. The relief fund established for the benefit of the strikers was swelled daily by contributions from all parts of the United States and Canada, ranging in amount from one to twelve hundred dollars. Soliciting committees were sent into the coal and coke regions and elsewhere and met on every hand with a generous reception. An immense sum was needed to meet the daily demands of the army of the unemployed. The disbursing officers, however, husbanded their resources by refusing to give out cash. To those in need of assistance orders on the grocery stores for provisions were issued. The amounts given out in this way aggregated about $3,000 a day.