"fact" =....

[Jonathan Lighter]

Dr. Les Standiford is a well-known writer of fiction and nonfiction, besides being Professor of English at Florida International University.  Speaking of the unsuccessful negotiations leading up to the Homestead Strike of 1892, Standiford said (on the History Channel's  _10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America : The Homestead Strike_) :

  "There was never any intention [on the part of Frick and Carnegie] to compromise....And that was that.  Carnegie and Frick were two hardheaded, powerful businessmen, and they hated the fact that anything could be dictated to them by some union, some association of working men whom they did not essentially respect or see as their equals."

  The _notion_ or the _idea_ or the _thought_, not the "fact," was that something could be dictated to them.  Since there was "never any intention of compromise," the most the union could have done (even from the perspective of Frick and Carnegie) was to _attempt_ to dictate.

  (Contrast Standiford's correct use of "whom.")

  JL


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