A "Mining Gazette" reporter termed Moyer's speech a refreshing change from the "radical . . . viciously inflammatory" oratory of Miller and Mahoney. Were there "a few more conservative talkers such as Moyer there might be a chance, many people believe, for the federation to accomplish something, for the other class of verbal bombs is reacting against the organization," the reporter stated. Moyer was long-winded and not an effective orator, he continued, but he really made "a nice little argument from the WFM point of view." Moyer said that he favored having the militia in the district but that "the governor should order them to disarm all these thugs and gunmen, load them on trains and dump them without the confines of the state." The reporter commented that "in this statement Moyer has the approval of a great many people on both sides of the strike question."