The Fountainhead: Howard Roark: 15-16

Toohey has managed to get a denunciation of Roark published in his Banner column, "One Small Voice." Wynand fires Toohey and everyone involved in approving the column. (Scarret has been sick with laryngitis, so he's in the clear.) Wynand publishes an editorial apology for ever printing the words of that "contemptible blackguard," Ellsworth Toohey. Toohey stops by Wynand's office to proclaim, "I'll be back, bwa-ha-ha!"

At the Banner, the union goes on strike in support of Toohey and the fired editors. Wynand continues to publish with a skeleton staff, including Dominique; they take up residence in the Banner building. The paper's big advertisers pull out in favor of the strike; circulation plummets as the public supports the strike. The strikers engage in vandalism and murder. No violence is committed against the strikers—not even a threat of violence, or murmurs of retaliation.

Wow, this has to be the most realistic strike in fiction, ever.

After three weeks, Wynand slips out of the building to visit Roark, who tells him not to give in.

After a few more weeks, the paper's board of directors meets. The directors complain that Wynand is engaged in some sort of crusade which will destroy the paper. After much discussion, Scarret suggests a compromise with the strikers: Rehire everyone but Toohey, and take an anti-Roark editorial stance. Exhausted, Wynand agrees.

Leaving Scarret in charge of the paper, Wynand wanders the streets of New York. Eventually the morning edition of the Banner is published, including an editorial by Wynand, denouncing Roark. (It is from Roark's first trial, long ago.) Wynand realizes that as a publisher he had subverted any power he might have had by catering to the prejudices of the great unwashed. The mindless mobs were his boss. Wynand looks around and realizes he's in Hell's Kitchen. I never left, he thinks.

He sees a copy of the Banner on the ground. Roark's picture is on the front page. Someone has trod upon the paper; there is the mark of a rubber heel across Roark's face.

OH MY GOD HAVEN'T I SUFFERED ENOUGH?

Just four chapters to go.