At first everyone predicted that it would be impossible to hold these divergent people together, but aside from the skilled men, some of whom belonged to craft unions, comparatively few went back to the mills. And as a whole, the strike was conducted with little violence.

It was extremely successful. A dormitory at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is named in honor of Baker but using his pen name David Grayson. A nearby dormitory Baker Hall is named after his brother Hugh Potter Baker who was the president of Massachusetts State College that later became the University of Massachusetts.