The jailing of Haywood, especially, one of the most aggressive and influential organizers of the I. W. W., deeply affected the members of that body and really subtracted much from their strength. It was generally felt among laboring men and women that Moyer and Haywood were jailed because they were members of the Industrial Workers of the World, or because they were Socialists. A letter written by Haywood in the Ada County jail on the day that the second convention opened in Chicago indicates the active interest he continued to take in the organization even during his imprisonment. It is here given in part: ADA COUNTY JAIL, BOISE, IDAHO, SEPT. 17, 1906. TO THE OFFICERS AND DELEGATES OF THE SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD. _Comrades and Fellow Workers_: While you have been in convention today, I have devoted the hours to a careful review of the proceedings of the initial convention of the I. W. W. and of the conference that issued the Manifesto leading up to the formation of the organization which has ... rekindled the smouldering fire of ambition and hope in the breasts of the working class of this continent.... [Quoting here from his own letter to the fourteenth convention of the Western Federation of Miners] organized industrially, united politically, labor will assume grace and dignity, horny hand and busy brain will be the badge of distinction and honor, all humanity will be free from bondage, a fraternal brotherhood imbued with the spirit of independence and freedom, tempered with the sentiment of justice and love of order; such will be ... the goal [and] aspiration of the Industrial Workers of the World.[299] The message was received with boundless enthusiasm. It stimulated all to more determined efforts in behalf of the accused. It doubtless had some share in influencing the minds of that group amongst the delegates, who were inclined to favor the general-strike idea. At any rate, they now urged that that idea be applied in the Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone case. They succeeded in having this resolution presented to the convention: Resolved, That it is the sense of this convention that in the event of a new delay in the trial of our brothers, Moyer, Haywood, and Pettibone, or in the event of an unjust sentence in their case, the national headquarters of the I. W. W. shall immediately proceed to call a general strike and use every possible means and all the funds at its command in order to warrant the working class to resist and overcome the violence of the masters.[300]