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Homestead

by Arthur Gordon Burgoyne · English · Gutenberg #42589 · 493,438 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: Homestead
        A complete history of the struggle of July, 1892, between the Carnegie-Steel Company, Limited, and the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers

Author: Arthur Gordon Burgoyne


        
Release date: April 24, 2013 [eBook #42589]
                Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOMESTEAD ***

PUBLISHERS' NOTE.


At the suggestion of many members of labor organizations, the publishers
of "HOMESTEAD" have decided to set apart five per cent. of the net
profits derived from the sale of the work as the nucleus of a fund for
the erection of a monument in commemoration of the battle of July 6,
1892. A suitable design shown in the engraving opposite page 288 has
been chosen, and it is hoped that the workingmen of the United States
will co-operate to secure the successful execution of the plan. Men and
events of prominence in almost all other fields of human activity are
immortalized by enduring testimonials; but organized labor has
practically nothing to mark its achievements and serve as a reminder to
future generations. A better beginning could not be made than with the
heroes of Homestead, and it is especially fitting that the first impetus
should be given in connection with this history. Such aid as it is in
their power to lend to the formation of a Homestead Monument Association
and the accomplishment of its object is cheerfully tendered by

        THE PUBLISHERS.




    HOMESTEAD.


    A Complete History of the Struggle of July, 1892, between
    the Carnegie·Steel Company, Limited, and the Amalgamated
    Association of Iron and Steel Workers.

    BY
    ARTHUR G. BURGOYNE.

    ILLUSTRATED.

    PITTSBURGH, PA.
    1893.




    ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, 1893,
    BY D. S. MITCHELL,
    IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON.

    PRESS OF
    RAWSTHORNE ENGRAVING AND PRINTING CO.
    PITTSBURGH.




INTRODUCTION.


The demand voiced by representative workingmen in the Pittsburgh
district, not only on their own account but on that of their brethren
the world over, for a correct and impartial history of the Homestead
trouble, sufficiently explains the appearance of this volume.

The importance of the theme requires no demonstration. Since labor first
organized for its own protection it has passed through no period more
prolific in soul-stirring events and significant developments than that
extending from July to November, 1892, and including the lock-out at the
Carnegie mills, the battle with 300 Pinkerton guards, the military
occupation of Homestead, the trial of labor leaders on capital charges
and the ultimate collapse of the Amalgamated lodges for lack of funds to
continue the struggle against non-unionism. This was a conflict of far
more than local interest. It was watched with anxiety by both friends
and foes of organized labor on both sides of the Atlantic; it claimed
the attention of leaders of thought in all departments of human
activity; it stirred up the British House of Parliament and the United
States Congress, agitated the newspaper press of both continents, became
an issue in the election for President and is said to have contributed
more largely to the defeat of Benjamin Harrison by Grover Cleveland than
any other influence.

The injection of partisan considerations into public discussion of the
Homestead affair led naturally to a vast amount of misrepresentation,
and even at this late day the causes and character of the struggle are
widely misunderstood. It has been the mission of the author of this
history to sift out the truth, to make clear the motives and methods of
the disputants on both sides, and to recount in detail the events of the
contest without sacrificing historic accuracy to romantic effect.

Personal observations in the course of visits to the "seat of war" while
hostilities were in progress, and subsequent conversations with the
leaders has made the task a comparatively easy one.

Little attempt is made to philosophize on the varying phases of the
labor question as presented at Homestead. It is left largely to the
reader to form his own deductions from the facts set forth and from the
opinions of recognized authorities, not forgetting Mr. Carnegie himself,
which are liberally cited.

That through the perusal of "Homestead" new light may be borne in upon
some of the many who persist in regarding the American workingman as a
mere piece of mechanism, deservedly at the mercy of his employer, is the
earnest hope of

        THE AUTHOR.

    PITTSBURGH, November 22, 1893.




CONTENTS.


    CHAPTER I. CAPITAL IN ITS STRONGHOLD.

    Homestead and Its Mills--The Rise and Progress of the
        Carnegie Firm--How The "Star Spangled Scotchman"
        Made His Fortune--He Labors For Years and Then
        Lapses Into Luxury--H. C. Frick's Career as Coke
        King and Iron Master--The Fine Art of Crushing
        Strikes--Carnegie and Frick Join Hands and the
        Latter Becomes the Master-Spirit--Condition of
        Organized Labor at Homestead                               3-14

    CHAPTER II. THE GATHERING OF THE STORM.

    History and Methods of the Amalgamated
        Association--Operation of the Sliding Scale at
        Homestead--Superintendent Potter Makes Amicable
        Suggestions _a la_ Carnegie--An Ultimatum From
        Frick--He Threatens Non-Unionism and Fortifies the
        Mills--Lodges Hold a Sunday Morning Meeting--Burgess
        McLuckie's Bold Speech--"High Fences, Pinkerton
        Detectives, Thugs and Militia"--Political Exigencies
        Give Hope to the Workmen                                  15-26

    CHAPTER III. LOCKED OUT.

    Frick's Allies--A Plan of General Assault on the
        Amalgamated Association Falls to the Ground--The
        Labor Question in Politics--Democrats Make Capital
        Out of Wage Reductions--Frick Confers With a
        Workmen's Committee and Rejects a Compromise--Mills
        Shut Down and Are Declared Non-Union--"Fort
        Frick"--Lodges Appoint an Advisory
        Committee--Guarding the Town                              27-40

    CHAPTER IV. THE PINKERTON GUARDS.

    Planning a Siege--History of the Pinkertons--Hatred of
        Organized Labor for Soldier Policemen--Frick's
        Cold-Blooded Letter--The Sheriff of Allegheny County
        is Enlisted in the Carnegie Forces--Millmen Dispose
        of a Sheriff's Posse--The Gathering of the
        Invaders--Departure of the Pinkerton Barges for
        Homestead                                                 41-51

    CHAPTER V. THE FIRST SHOT.

    On Board the Barges--Floating Barracks Equipped for
        Bloody Warfare--Up the Monongahela at
        Midnight--Homestead Gets Warning--Defenders at the
        Mill Landing--Frick's Army Repulsed With Heavy
        Loss--Hugh O'Donnell Takes Command of the
        Workmen--Sheriff McCleary's Appeal to the
        Governor--Frick Refuses to Interfere                      52-64

    CHAPTER VI. THE BOMBARDMENT.

    Cannonading the Barges--Silas Wain's Sad Death--The
        Little Bill Returns and Runs the Gauntlet--A Car of
        Fire Terrifies the Pinkertons and Drives Captain
        Rodgers to Flight--Amalgamated Officials
        Arrive--Dining Under Fire--Horrors in the
        Guardsmen's Quarters--The Killing of Detective
        Connors--Dynamite--Suicide on the Barges--Messages
        From Abroad--Congress Acts                                65-77

    CHAPTER VII. THE SURRENDER.

    Amalgamated Officials as Mediators--President Weihe
        Calls a Mass Meeting and Counsels Peace--Hugh
        O'Donnell's Speech--The Brave Young Leader Procures
        a Surrender--Pinkertons Run the Gauntlet--A Savage
        Mob Assails the Prisoners--Arrival of the
        Sheriff--The Frick Troop of Invaders Driven From the
        State                                                     78-88

    CHAPTER VIII. AFTER THE BATTLE.

    Carnegie's Property Protected--Confidence Still Strong
        Among the Men--Homestead as a News Center--The
        Death-Roll--Burial of the Dead--Anarchists Get a
        Short Shrift--The Sheriff Fails Again--Interviewing
        the Governor--Martial Law in Sight--Proceedings in
        Congress--Opinions of Newspapers and Publicists--A
        Press Censorship Established at Homestead                89-101

    CHAPTER IX. SOLDIERS TO THE FRONT.

    The Sheriff's Last Effort--Mr. Frick Issues a Statement
        and the Amalgamated Association Responds--Political
        and Industrial Organizations Indorse the Homestead
        Men--Interviewing Carnegie--Censorship of the
        Press--Governor Pattison Orders Out the National
        Guard--Strength of the Militia--Locked-Out Men
        Prepare to Welcome the Blue Coats--A Speech That
        Burgess McLuckie Never Delivered                        102-115

    CHAPTER X. CAMP McCLELLAN.

    Snowden's Sharp Tactics--The Taking of Homestead--Troops
        in Possession--Soldiers Repel Advances and the
        Fraternal Reception is Declared Off--O'Donnell's
        Committee at Headquarters--Suspicion and Resentment
        Abroad--The Little Bill Returns--Congressmen Hold an
        Investigation--Capital and Labor in Conflict on the
        Witness Stand--The Cost of Producing Steel Remains a
        Riddle                                                  116-132

    CHAPTER XI. THE FIRST ARRESTS.

    Bringing in the "Blacksheep"--Pittsburgh, Beaver Falls
        and Duquesne Men Come Out--An Alarm in Camp--The
        Governor Arrives--The Boycott as a
        Persuader--Politics to the Rescue--Murder Charged
        and Warrants Issued--McLuckie, O'Donnell and Ross
        Surrender and are Released on Bail--General
        Snowden's Disheartening Announcement                    133-145

    CHAPTER XII. THE SHOOTING OF FRICK.

    Berkman, a Russian Autonomist, Attempts the Life of the
        Carnegie Chairman--Mr. Frick's Bravery--"The
        Shooting Will in no Way Affect the Homestead
        Strike"--Militiaman Iams Cheers the Assassin and is
        Drummed Out of Camp--Public Indignation over the
        Iams Affair--Snowden, Hawkins, Streator and Neff
        Indicted--Workingmen Prosecute Carnegie Officials
        for Murder                                              146-158

    CHAPTER XIII. BERKMAN AND IAMS.

    Frick's Assailant Railroaded to the Penitentiary--The
        Iams Trial--Hanging by the Thumbs Approved by a
        Jury--The Mills Filling Up--Sermons to
        Non-Unionists--Strikers Go Through the Plant--The
        Relief Fund--Gompers Arrives and Makes an Incendiary
        Speech--Pittsburgh and Mahoning Manufacturers
        Capitulate--William and Robert Pinkerton on the
        Defensive                                               159-173

    CHAPTER XIV. POLITICIANS AT WORK.

    A Suppressed Congressional Report--Sympathy Strikes
        Prove a Failure--Gompers as a Boycott Wielder--The
        Slavs Weaken--Plans of the Republican National
        Committee--Smooth Mr. Milholland Enlists Hugh
        O'Donnell--Honest John McLuckie Refuses to be
        Muzzled--The Milholland Scheme Falls
        Through--Outbreaks at Homestead--The Search for
        Pinkerton Guns--Mr. Frick Revisits the Mill             174-188

    CHAPTER XV. TREASON.

    Progress in the Mill--A Quartette of Aristocratic
        Non-Unionists--Sickness Breaks Out--More
        Arrests--Jack Clifford Suspected of Treachery, but
        is Held Without Bail for Murder--167 True Bills
        Returned--Supreme Justice Paxson in the Saddle--He
        Orders Arrests for Treason and is Generally
        Condemned--Snowden Favors the Gallows for
        Homesteaders--Judge Agnew on Treason--Paxson
        Instructs the Grand Jury and Pronounces the
        Homestead men Traitors--Carnegie in Scotland            189-208

    CHAPTER XVI. THE FIRST BREAK.

    More Prosecutions--The Soldiers Withdraw--A Non-Union
        Hotel Dynamited--Homestead Figures in Parades and
        Gives a Democratic Majority--Slavs Weakening--The
        _Local News_ Predicts Defeat--Gompers Again--Sheriff
        McCleary is Harassed and Increases His Corps of
        Deputies--Lawyer Jones in Trouble--Schwab Succeeds
        Potter as Superintendent--Homestead's Last
        Riot--Striker Roberts Hints at Defeat--Mechanics and
        Laborers Go Back to Work                                209-225

    CHAPTER XVII. CAPITULATION.

    The Last Mass Meeting--Strikers Surrender
        Unconditionally--Cost of the Homestead Dispute to
        Capital, Labor and the State--Few Old Hands Get Work
        and Poverty Stalks Abroad--Noble Service of Relief
        Committees--The Coming of Santa Claus--Congressional
        Investigations Wind Up Without Accomplishing
        anything--A Batch of Useless Reports--The Kearns
        Anti-Pinkerton Bill Becomes a Law in Pennsylvania       226-240

    CHAPTER XVIII. THE FIRST TRIAL.

    Sylvester Critchlow Arraigned--Pinkertons on the
        Stand--The Prosecution Makes a Strong Showing--A
        Suspicious Carnegie Banquet--Attorneys Erwin and
        Argo to the Rescue--An Alibi for the Defense--John
        S. Robb Attacks Mr. Erwin--The "Northwestern
        Whirlwind's" Magnificent Oration--He Captures the
        Court and Confounds the Prosecution--"Not
        Guilty"--The Backbone of the Murder Charges Broken      241-260

    CHAPTER XIX. WEAVING NEW TOILS.

    An Epidemic Investigated--Detectives Charge Poisoning
        and Arrests are Made--Gallagher and Davidson Turn
        Informers--Dempsey and Beatty are Indicted--Hearings
        and Trials--A Tangled Mass of Medical Testimony--Mr.
        Brennen's Little Hibernicism--Defendants are
        Convicted and Heavy Sentences Imposed--Gallagher
        Recants and Then Reconsiders--Clemency Refused by
        the Pardon Board                                        261-279

    CHAPTER XX. THE DENOUEMENT.

    Clifford Tried For His Life--Alibi Testimony--Attorneys
        Erwin and Anderson Win New Laurels--"Not
        Guilty"--Hugh O'Donnell at the Bar--The Homestead
        Leader as a Reporter and Peacemaker--Weak Testimony
        for the Prosecution--Major Montooth Ridicules the
        District Attorney's Substitute--O'Donnell
        Acquitted--The Carnegie Lawyers Abandon the
        Field--Berkman's Accomplices Disposed Of                280-295

    CONCLUSION                                                  296-298

[Illustration: ANDREW CARNEGIE.]




CHAPTER I.

[Illustration: CAPITAL IN ITS STRONGHOLD]

    HOMESTEAD AND ITS MILLS--THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE CARNEGIE
      FIRM--HOW THE "STAR-SPANGLED SCOTCHMAN" MADE HIS FORTUNE--HE
      LABORS FOR YEARS AND THEN LAPSES INTO LUXURY--H. C. FRICK'S
      CAREER AS COKE KING AND IRON MASTER--THE FINE ART OF CRUSHING
      STRIKES--CARNEGIE AND FRICK JOIN HANDS AND THE LATTER BECOMES
      THE MASTER-SPIRIT--CONDITION OF ORGANIZED LABOR AT HOMESTEAD.


In a bend of the south bank of the Monongahela River, eight miles from
Pittsburgh, nestles the thriving town of Homestead, a place of about
12,000 inhabitants, built up by the wealth and enterprise of the
Carnegie Steel Company and the thrift of the artisans employed by that
great manufacturing corporation.

Without the Carnegie mills there would be no Homestead. Like the
mushroom towns that sprang up along the Northern Pacific Railroad while
the line was in process of construction and that died out as fast as the
base of operations was shifted, so Homestead sprang into being when the
site now occupied by the town was picked out by Andrew Carnegie as a
producing center, and so, too, if the Carnegie firm were to move its
works to-morrow, would Homestead be blotted off the map, or, at best,
reduced to the rank of an insignificant village.

The interdependence of the works and the town is absolute.

The mill property covers 600 acres, bordering on the river, and includes
thirty-seven acres under roof. The products comprise boiler and armor
plates, beams and structural iron of various kinds. The manufacture of
armor-plate for the United States Navy is conducted on a scale of
unparalleled magnitude. From the huge hydraulic cranes lifting and
carrying from place to place a weight of 200 tons, yet operated easily
by one man, down to the delicate machinery in the finishing department,
the equipment of the armor-plate mill is a marvel of mechanical
perfection. The great beam and structural mills, the Bessemer department
and the bloom and billet mills are also magnificently equipped and are
conducted on a mammoth scale, in comparison with which the operations of
other American steel mills are almost insignificant.

[Illustration]

Railroad tracks gridiron the yards and nineteen locomotives are required
for the transportation of material. The repair shops cut an important
figure and an army of blacksmiths, roll-turners, carpenters, tinners
and other mechanics is employed to keep every detail of the working
equipment in perfect order.

The plant is lighted throughout with electricity.

Within easy reach of the mills are the offices of the mill
superintendent and his corps of clerks, draughtsmen and engineers. Eight
handsome residences, farther back from the yard, are occupied by the
assistant managers. There is also a club house for the use of guests and
officers.

The foundation of this immense concern, representing a capital of
many millions of dollars, and employing nearly 4,000 men, was laid in
1880, when, according to the census report, Homestead had a population
of less than 600. The firm which has made all this possible, which,
by virtue of intelligent effort and phenomenal accumulation and
utilization of capital has called into being a full-fledged American
town, with schools, churches, prosperous mercantile establishments,
independent minor industries and a well-organized municipal government,
is controlled by two men, whose names have, through the events to be
recorded in this volume, been made familiar as household words the world
over--Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick.

Andrew Carnegie is a self-made man, the son of a poor weaver of
Dunfermline, Scotland. In 1845, the lad, then 12 years old, emigrated
to the United States with his parents and settled in Pittsburgh. He was
put to work tending a small stationary engine, and afterwards became
a telegraph messenger boy and, in course of time, an operator. The
Pennsylvania Railroad Company made him clerk to the superintendent of
its Pittsburgh office and manager of its telegraph lines. About this
time he met Woodruff, the inventor of the sleeping-car, and took a share
in his venture. The enterprise was profitable and yielded what may be
considered the nucleus of Mr. Carnegie's wealth. Again the young man was
promoted, securing the superintendency of the Pittsburgh division of the
Pennsylvania road. His future was now assured if he chose to continue
in the railroad business; but his tastes, or rather his keen foresight
led him in another direction. In company with his brother Thomas and
others he purchased an established rolling mill, and from this grew the
most extensive and profitable system of iron and steel industries in the
world.

Mr. Carnegie has frequently challenged public notice by acts of
philanthropy. He has given free baths and a free library to his native
town of Dunfermline, a histological annex, known as the Carnegie
laboratory to Bellevue Hospital, New York; a free library and music hall
to Allegheny City; a free library and music hall, costing more than
$1,000,000, to Pittsburgh; a free library to Edinburgh, Scotland, and
similar donations to Braddock and other places where he has business
interests. He has a fondness for literature, has written several books,
of which "Triumphant Democracy; or Fifty Years' March of the Republic"
is the most pretentious, and at one time controlled eighteen English
newspapers in the Radical interest. Mr. Carnegie married late in life
and has since maintained establishments in New York and at Cluny Castle,
Scotland, rarely visiting his mills.

Estimates of Andrew Carnegie's character vary widely. To those
associated with him in business he is known as a firm and considerate
friend, quick to discern ability and generous in rewarding it. As
an employer of labor he bore a high reputation for liberality and
sympathetic regard for the well-being of his employees until the
occurrence of the trouble at Homestead in 1892. How far he was
personally chargeable with responsibility for Mr. Frick's iron-handed
policy in that affair has never been positively determined; but it is
certain that the relentless spirit shown by Mr. Frick cost Mr. Carnegie
much of his popularity.

The connection of Henry Clay Frick with the Carnegie iron and steel
industries, did not begin until Andrew Carnegie had reached the zenith
of his success. Mr. Frick, however, had already carved his way to wealth
along a different line, and was himself a millionaire. His success
was gained in coke, and he came to be known as "the Coke King." Coke
is indispensable to the manufacture of steel, but for a long time its
production remained a separate industry. The Connellsville region, lying
about fifty miles south of Pittsburgh, was occupied by a number of small
producers, whose cut-throat mode of competition was highly advantageous
to the steel men. Starting with small holdings, Mr. Frick gradually
increased his territory and the number of his ovens until he obtained
a practical monopoly of the Connellsville production and was able to
dictate terms to consumers. He further strengthened his grip on the
trade by investing heavily in coal lands and thus acquiring an unlimited
source of supply for his ovens.

Mr. Carnegie perceived the rich possibilities of a union between the
steel and coke industries, and, in 1882, bought a half interest in the
Frick Coke Company for $1,500,000. Six years later, on the death of
one of his partners, he induced the coke king to enter the Carnegie
Company, and the interests thus combined have since been, to all intents
and purposes, a unit.

The details of Mr. Frick's early career may be recited in very few
words. He is the son of a farmer and was born at West Overton, Pa., in
1850. After gaining the rudiments of an education in the common schools
of Fayette County, he began business life as a dry goods clerk in Mount
Pleasant. Leaving the dry goods business he became book-keeper in his
grandfather's distillery at Bradford. He lived economically and with the
money which he saved out of his salary he embarked in the coke business
with A. O. Tintsman and Joseph Rist. Although barely 21 years old, he
was the senior partner of the firm, which began with an equipment of 300
acres of land and 50 ovens. The opening of the Mt. Pleasant and Broad
Ford railroad imparted new life to the coke trade about this period
and young Frick took advantage of the boom to add to his firm's plant.
The firm also built the Henry Clay works of one hundred ovens on the
Youghiogheny River near Broad Ford.

In 1876 Mr. Frick bought out his partners and continued the business on
his own account. In the following year a depression of trade placed the
lease of the Valley coke works at his disposal. The young operator put
Thomas Lynch in charge, and despite the dullness of the market, kept the
works going every day in the year.

In the fall of 1877 Mr. Frick took into partnership E. M. Ferguson, the
owner of a plant of 70 ovens, and the new firm operated as H. C. Frick &
Co. A year later the firm leased the Anchor works and the Mullen works
near Mt. Pleasant and admitted Walton Ferguson as a partner.

In 1879 the coke trade revived amazingly, prices advancing from a
maximum of $1.15 a ton to $4 and $5 a ton. The Frick Company continued
to extend its business until, in 1882, it controlled 3,000 acres of coal
land and 1,026 coke ovens. Meanwhile Mr. Frick organized the Morewood
Coke Company, limited, and built the Morewood works of 470 ovens,
the largest works in the region. Carnegie Bros. & Co., Limited, were
admitted into the firm in January, 1882.

The Frick corporation now pushed its operations with such vigor that, in
1890, according to a semi-official statement, it "owned and controlled
35,000 acres of coal land and 43 of the 80 plants in the region,
aggregating 10,046 ovens, three water plants with a pumping capacity
of 5,000,000 gallons daily, and 35 miles of railroad track and 1,200
railroad cars. 11,000 men were then employed by the company, and for the
equipment of its plants it had 23 locomotives, 72 pairs of stationary
engines, 172 steam boilers and 816 horses and mules."

Mr. Frick had several serious strikes to contend with. His plan of
campaign was always the same--to crush the strikers by main force and
make no concessions. The Coal and Iron police, an organization of
watchmen maintained under a state law, the drilled and armed watchmen
of the Pinkerton detective agency, and the state militia were pressed
into service as the occasion demanded, and the shedding of blood and
sacrifice of human life resulted on more than one occasion.

Mr. Frick's character need not be analyzed at this point. It will be
illustrated clearly enough as our narrative progresses.

The Homestead mill and the Frick coke works, vast as they are,
constitute merely a fraction of the Carnegie Company's interests. In
addition to these the Company owns the Edgar Thompson furnaces and the
Edgar Thompson steel works at Bessemer, eleven miles from Pittsburgh on
the Pennsylvania railroad; the Duquesne steel works, on the same side
of the Monongahela river as the Homestead works; the Lucy Furnaces,
Pittsburgh; the Keystone Bridge Works, Pittsburgh; the Upper and Lower
Union Mills, Pittsburgh; the Beaver Falls mills at Beaver Falls, 32
miles from Pittsburgh on the P. & L. E. railroad; the Carnegie Natural
Gas Company; the Scotia ore mines in Center County, Pa.; the American
Manganese Company, and interests in several large ore companies in the
Lake Superior region. About 13,000 persons are employed in the various
concerns operated by the firm, and of these about 3,800 are engaged in
the works at Homestead.

In June 1892, Andrew Carnegie, while maintaining the controlling
financial interest in the firm, transferred the managing authority
to H. C. Frick. At that time the firm was reorganized, the separate
enterprises which had previously been conducted under the names
of Carnegie Bros. and Company, Carnegie, Phipps & Co., and other
independent titles, being merged under the control of a single
corporation known as the Carnegie Steel Company, Limited. H. C.
Frick was made chairman, the other partners being Andrew Carnegie,
Henry Phipps, Jr., George Lauder, H. M. Curry, W. L. Abbott, John
G. A. Leishman, F. T. F. Lovejoy, Otis H. Childs and sundry minor
stockholders whose interests were conferred upon them by Mr. Carnegie by
way of promotion.

The power of the firm in the iron and steel industries was now
dictatorial. On the fiat of the Carnegie Company depended almost
entirely the price of steel in the market. Rivalry was dwarfed and
competition nullified. Rarely in the industrial history of the world has
a similarly powerful monopoly been built up on no other foundation than
the combination of brains and capital, with such indirect aid as the
protective tariff system affords.

Against this tremendous power,--a power equal to the control of 13,000
men and more than $25,000,000 of capital, the men of Homestead were
destined to pit themselves in a life and death struggle; how destructive
and hopeless a struggle will appear from the story told in these pages.

The men of Homestead, on their side, had comparatively limited resources
to count upon in a battle against such fearful odds. They reckoned, to
begin with, upon that species of _esprit de corps_ which prevails among
workingmen, especially those of the more intelligent class, and which is
the solid ground under the feet of organized labor.

Not that the 3,800 workmen in the Homestead mills had a complete and
comprehensive organization. On the contrary, out of this number,
not more than one thousand were enrolled in the eight lodges of the
Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers maintained in the
town. These were the workers known as "tonnage men," because the nature
of their employment permitted the graduation of their wages on a scale
determined by the price of billets per ton. Outside the lodges were the
mechanics and laborers, working, for the most part, for daily wages.
At the same time, the joint influence of fraternity and of confidence
in the force of organization was deemed sufficient to inspire all the
Homestead workers, in and out of the lodges, to make common cause in
the event of a quarrel between the lodges and the Carnegie firm. Should
this emergency arise, it was argued, the firm could not find enough
non-union steelworkers in the United States to take the places of its
army of employees, and as a consequence, if the men went out on strike,
the mills would have to be shut down and the heavy loss resulting would
force the firm to come to terms.

With this impression ingrained in their minds, the men smiled
confidently at the suggestion of a cut in wages, and tacitly defied the
new chairman, Mr. Frick, to do his worst.

That the new chairman was liable to make some disagreeable departure
had to be admitted by the most confident. Dubious associations hung
around the name of this man H. C. Frick. He had acquired unpleasant
notoriety by reducing wages in the coke regions, and by crushing the
labor insurrections which followed by the employment of Pinkerton
detectives and even by calling in the state militia. There was no
dilettantism or liberally-advertised philanthropy of the Carnegie stripe
in Frick's composition. Everybody knew that. He was a man of blood and
iron like Bismarck, so the workmen said; cared not a penny whether his
underlings loved or hated him, and rather preferred an opportunity to
crush--crush--crush intractable working folk under his heel than not.

Was this man placed in power by Andrew Carnegie in order to carry out at
Homestead what he had carried out in the coke regions; to challenge
organized labor by the submission of conditions which it could not
accept and, on its refusal, try the old game of crushing the unions
under foot? Did Carnegie shrink from the task himself and pick out Frick
as a willing and capable instrument? Such were the questions discussed
in the lodge-room and in the privacy of the domestic circle at Homestead
during the time which intervened between the re-organization of the
Carnegie interests and the next annual signing of the wage scale.
Whatever conclusions might be reached, there was one thing certain at
all events, in the not too penetrating judgment of the unionists: Frick
might reduce wages, and Frick might fight, but Frick could not repeat in
conflict; with the 3,800 brawny and intelligent artisans at Homestead
the comparatively easy victories which he had gained over his poor coke
workers. So said they all, and they believed it, too, as firmly as if it
were Holy Writ.

The feeling of ownership had a place in the reasoning of these simple
people. Many of them had bought and paid for their homes and were
pillars of the borough government. Some were still paying for their
dwellings--paying off the mortgages held by the Carnegie Company, which
had been in the habit of helping those who cared to build, and which
even did a regular banking business for the advantage of its employees.
It was clearly impossible that men of substance, heads of families,
solid citizens of a prosperous municipality could be rooted up, as it
were, out of the soil in which they were so firmly planted and beaten to
earth by the creature of their labor--for without labor, it was argued,
capital would be impotent and valueless.

In this mood, with suspicions as to the mission of Chairman Frick, but
with impregnable confidence in themselves, the men prepared to settle
the scale of wages, which was to be agreed upon in the spring of 1892
and to go into effect on July 1.

They sought no advance in wages, but it was a foregone conclusion that,
if wages were to be depressed, they would offer implacable resistance.

There was calmness in all quarters at this time. No smoldering embers of
dissatisfaction; no long nourished grievances were in existence to
precipitate a sudden outbreak.

Mr. Potter, the superintendent of the Homestead mill, calmly discharged
his daily round of duties.

Mr. Frick sat in his comfortable office in Pittsburgh, and calmly mapped
out a plan of some, as yet, unheralded campaign.

Mr. Carnegie calmly continued to hob-nob with European celebrities and
to indulge his _penchant_ for the erection of free libraries.

There was not a cloud the size of a man's hand to mar the serenity of
the horizon that bounded the little world of the Carnegie interests.

The gathering of the storm had not yet begun.




CHAPTER II.

[Illustration: THE GATHERING OF THE STORM]

    HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE AMALGAMATED ASSOCIATION--OPERATION OF
      THE SLIDING SCALE AT HOMESTEAD--SUPERINTENDENT POTTER MAKES
      AMICABLE SUGGESTIONS _a la_ CARNEGIE--AN ULTIMATUM FROM
      FRICK--HE THREATENS NON-UNIONISM AND FORTIFIES THE
      MILLS--LODGES HOLD A SUNDAY MORNING MEETING--BURGESS
      McLUCKIE'S BOLD SPEECH--"HIGH FENCES, PINKERTON DETECTIVES,
      THUGS AND MILITIA"--POLITICAL EXIGENCIES GIVE HOPE TO THE
      WORKMEN.


The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers is, with the
possible exception of the Association of Window Glass Workers, the best
generaled and most substantially organized labor organization in the
United States. One of the fundamental principles in the doctrine of the
association is to avoid and discourage strikes; and so closely has this
article of faith been observed that the number of strikes officially
ordered in the iron and steel industries has been small in comparison
with the record of most other labor unions.

The adjustment of wage scales by the association is largely the affair
of the lodges. The equipment and requirements of different iron and
steel mills vary considerably, and hence, each mill or kindred group of
mills must have a separate scale, adjusted to its needs. It is incumbent
on the lodges to report their respective scales to the association at
large through the medium of an annual delegate convention. Should there
be a dispute in any district, the convention passes upon the merits of
the case and decides whether or not it shall be taken up by the
association as a whole. If not, the usual mode of procedure is to notify
the belligerent lodge or lodges to yield the disputed points. If, on the
other hand, the association decides to intervene, the chief executive
officers are authorized to act, and it becomes their duty to exhaust all
fair means of bringing the recalcitrant mill-owners to terms, before
countenancing a strike. An official order to strike commits the
association to the payment of weekly benefits to the strikers.

The president of the Amalgamated Association is always chosen with
special reference to his capacity for cool, stable, conservative
leadership. Mental brilliancy is not so much sought after in the man who
is called upon to fill this responsible position, as level-headedness
and inflexible nerve. William Weihe, who served as president during the
troublous days of 1892, fully met these requirements. A giant in
stature, slow and deliberate in speech and action, and never committing
himself without being perfectly sure of his ground, Weihe was just the
man to preserve the dignity and influence of the association when the
spectres of riot and anarchy stalked abroad and organized labor,
smarting from a thousand gaping wounds, threatened to break down the
bulwarks of law and order and to sacrifice the good-will of its
friends. At no time throughout a contest which set men's souls aflame
from one end of the land to the other did President Weihe lose his
self-possession or his ability to stand between the solid fabric of the
association and those of its friends, who, in the rashness of the hour,
would fain have involved it in the ruin which engulfed the lodges at
Homestead.

The Homestead scale was prepared early in the spring. In January, the
superintendent of the mill, Mr. Potter sent for the joint committee of
the local lodges and requested that the men prepare a scale. It was not
the policy of the Carnegie firm, Mr. Potter said, to leave the way open
for a strike. If there were differences of opinion between employer and
employees, the proper method of settlement was by arbitration, and it
was, therefore, advisable that the scale should be presented early, so
as to leave ample time for an amicable adjustment of disputed points.

For three years previous, the men had been working under what was known
as a sliding scale, an expedient which at the time of its adoption was
regarded as a sure preventive of strikes. This scale established as the
basis on which wages were to be determined, the market price of steel
billets, in the manufacture of which the Carnegie Company was
extensively engaged. When the price of billets went up, wages were to go
up correspondingly, and when the price of billets went down, wages were
to be correspondingly lowered. $25 a ton was agreed upon as the minimum.
If billets were quoted below that figure, there was to be no further
depression of wages. In other words, the men and the firm were
practically in partnership, increased profits to the latter meaning
increased earnings to the former, unless the bottom fell out of the
market, in which case it became the duty of the stronger partner to
protect the weaker.

The circumstances under which this equitable compact was made are of
interest in so far as they exhibit the very different temper of the
Carnegie Company towards its men in the past from that which marked its
line of conduct after Mr. Frick was placed at the helm. In January,
1889, the men, who had been working under a yearly scale, quarreled with
the firm over the terms proposed for the ensuing year and a strike was
declared. William L. Abbott, a man of comparatively mild and liberal
disposition, was then serving as chairman. Mr. Abbott undertook to break
the strike, and when the men resorted to riotous conduct, called upon
the sheriff of the county for aid. The sheriff, Dr. Alexander
McCandless, an official who enjoyed great popularity, and possessed the
courage and tact essential in such an emergency, went promptly to the
scene with a force of deputies recruited for the occasion. At the first
encounter with the mob, the deputies let their courage ooze out at their
fingers' ends and fled from the town.

The sheriff, nowise disheartened by the desertion of his forces, took
the best possible means of ending the trouble by constituting himself a
mediator between the Carnegie firm and the strikers. Through his efforts
a conference was arranged, and peace was restored through the adoption
of the famous sliding scale, with the understanding that it would hold
good until June 30, 1892. Mr. Carnegie, then absent in Europe, professed
to be much pleased with the amicable settlement arrived at and the
incidental guarantee of peace for three years to come, and for the time
being the names of Sheriff McCandless and William L. Abbott were
surrounded with a halo of glory.

When Superintendent Potter, in January, 1892, spoke to the men about a
new scale, he gave no hint of the prospect that the firm contemplated
sweeping away the beneficial arrangement which had so long governed
their earnings. As already noted, Mr. Potter touched upon the subject of
possible differences of opinion and of the firm's desire that such
differences should be settled in a friendly way.

The shadow of Mr. Frick loomed up gloomily in the background, it is
true, but there was really no occasion to think of shadows when the
genial Potter presented himself as the very embodiment of sunshine. The
ideas put forth by this gentleman bore the special brand of Mr.
Carnegie. Mr. Carnegie was on record as being opposed to the use of
force in settling disputes between capital and labor. In 1886, he had
written for the magazines on this question, and the liberality of his
views had elicited general commendation. Thus he said in the _Forum_:

"Peaceful settlement of differences should be reached through
arbitration. I would lay it down as a maxim that there is no excuse for
a strike or a lock-out until arbitration of differences has been offered
by one party and refused by the other."

Mr. Carnegie declared further, that "The right of the workingmen to
combine and to form trades unions is no less sacred than the right of
the manufacturer to enter into association and conference with his
fellows, and it must sooner or later be conceded." Manufacturers should
"meet the men _more than halfway_" and "To expect that one dependent
upon his daily wage for the necessaries of life will stand by peaceably
and see a new man employed in his stead is to expect much."

This was the gospel of Carnegie in 1886, and, the shadow of Frick to the
contrary, notwithstanding, it was not singular that it should have been
the gospel of Potter in January, 1892.

It was, then, with a feeling of reasonable security that the men went to
work upon their scale. This, when completed, differed little from that
of the previous three years. It was presented to Mr. Potter in February,
but, strange to say, did not seem to please that worthy exponent of the
Carnegie idea of harmony. The joint committee of the lodges waited
frequently upon the superintendent in the hope of reaching some definite
conclusion, but the conferences were barren of results.

At length, to the amazement of the men, the Carnegie firm officially
promulgated a new sliding scale, based on billets at $26.50 per ton as a
standard, but fixing as the minimum basis of wages, $22 per ton, instead
of $25 as formerly. As the billet market was now abnormally depressed--a
condition which, it was claimed by many, had been designedly brought
about in order to give the Carnegie Company a pretext for wage
reductions--it was apparent that a serious reduction in many departments
of the mill would follow the acceptance of the firm's propositions.

June 24 was fixed as the last day on which the men could accept as
members of the Amalgamated Association. After that date, the firm would
not consent to treat with them otherwise than as individuals. In short,
Mr. Frick wanted it to be understood, definitely and finally, that, if
his employees did not yield promptly and with a good grace, he would
non-unionize the mill and abolish the right of self-protective
organization, to which Mr. Carnegie, six years before, had feelingly
referred as "sacred."

[Illustration]

There was a flavor of coke region discipline about the Frick ultimatum
which was not calculated to promote good feeling at Homestead. Nor did
it. The men who drove the sheriff's deputies out of Homestead in 1889
might yield to milder measures, but the crack of the whip was
irritating. "Are we to be lashed into Mr. Frick's way of thinking?" men
asked one another, and the very thought bred insurrection.

If there was a calm now, it was the calm that preceded a hurricane.

As if to accentuate the sentiment of disaffection among the Homestead
people, Mr. Frick accompanied the issuance of his ultimatum with
preparations of a warlike character. A large force of men was employed
upon the construction of a solid board fence, three miles in extent,
surrounding the property of the firm between the Pittsburgh, Virginia &
Charleston railroad and the Monongahela river. All the workshops were
included within this enclosure. The offices and stables, situated on the
other side of the railroad, were similarly enclosed. An elevated wooden
bridge connected the two enclosures. The fence was surmounted with
strands of barbed wire, and perforated at intervals, as if for the
convenience of sharpshooters stationed within, although Mr. Frick, in
his testimony before a committee of Congress, averred that the holes
were simply for the purpose of observation. High in the air, at the ends
of the tall mill buildings, twelve-foot platforms were erected, on which
were placed electric search-lights, designed to enable sentinels to keep
watch at night over every part of the mill yard.

There was a cold and sanguinary determination about these provisions
which boded ill for the workmen. Clearly, the redoubtable tamer of the
coke-workers had made up his mind to force a bloody conflict with
organized labor, and the wage ultimatum was his defi. One of King John's
barons could not equip his feudal castle with more elaborate
offensiveness than this nineteenth century ironmaster displayed in
fortifying his mill, with the apparent intention of making war--actual
war with arms upon the men of Homestead. So it was that the men viewed
the preparations at the mill. The supposition that Mr. Frick might
regard their disposition as one of invincible stubbornness, sure to lead
to deeds of violence, and that his fences, barbed wire, loopholes,
platforms and search-lights might be pure measures of self-defense was
not entertained for an instant.

The fortification of the mill was a huge threat--a challenge--an insult.
With this exhibition of brute force held up before them, the workmen
deemed their manhood, as well as the life of their organization to be at
stake. Come what might, they must now burn their boats behind them, as
the firm had done, and refuse to recede an inch from their demands.

While affairs were taking this ominous turn at Homestead, the annual
convention of the Amalgamated Association met at Pittsburgh, the session
opening on June 7. Of the stormy conditions under which the delegates
came together and which caused their deliberations to be protracted for
an unusual period, mention is reserved for another chapter. Suffice it
to state here that the delegates from Homestead duly submitted their
scale; that it received the indorsement of the association, and that the
local lodges were empowered to persist in their demand for the retention
of the rate of $25 a ton on billets as the minimum basis of tonnage
men's wages. This made it optional with the local lodges to declare a
strike, although it followed by implication only, and not of necessity,
that the strike, if ordered, would receive the sanction and support of
the association.

Excitement in Homestead mounted rapidly to fever heat.

The first concerted public demonstration on the part of the men was on
Sunday, June 19, when the lodges held an open meeting in the opera
house. Some of the leading officials of the association and many
delegates to the Pittsburgh convention from other states were present.
The gathering included almost the entire working force of the Homestead
mill. William A. Carney, First Vice-President of the association acted
as chairman. The speechmakers, for the most part, while exhorting the
men to stand firm, counseled moderation and respect for the law.

A young vice-president of the association, Jere Doherty, touched upon
the place of the wage-worker in politics and the efficacy of the
Homestead struggle as a test of the protection guaranteed to labor by
the Republican party.

The crowning address of the day was made by John McLuckie, the burgess
of the town, a simple, earnest, straightforward man, whose rugged
eloquence told more forcibly with the brawny multitude who heard him
than if it had been couched in the language of a Cicero or a
Demosthenes. Burgess McLuckie said:

"What brings you here this morning? Is it idle curiosity, or is there a
real, tangible reason beyond? The cause of this wage trouble is not
generally understood. We were persuaded to vote the Republican ticket
four years ago in order that our wages might be maintained. As soon as
the election was over a widespread feeling on the part of the
manufacturers towards a reduction of wages was exhibited all over the
land. As soon as the McKinley bill was passed, the article in the
production of which we work was the only article that suffered a
reduction. It is Sunday morning, and we ought to be in church, but we
are here to-day to see if we are going to live as white men in the
future. The constitution of this country guarantees all men the right to
live, but in order to live we must keep up a continuous struggle. This
is the effect of legislation and nothing else. The McKinley bill reduced
the tariff on the four-inch billet, and the reduction of our wages is
the result. You men who voted the Republican ticket voted for high
tariff and you get high fences, Pinkerton detectives, thugs and
militia!"

There was politics in this speech, but almost every member of a labor
organization is a politician in a small way, and McLuckie's bill of
indictment against the Republican party struck fairly home. It had been
freely charged that, when the McKinley tariff bill was being prepared,
Andrew Carnegie had waited on the conference committee which put the
finishing touches to the measure and secured as a return for his
generous contributions to the Republican campaign funds, a reduction in
the duty on steel billets, this product being the single standard of
wages in his Homestead works. As the Carnegie firm controlled the billet
market, there was nothing to hinder a depression of prices, as a seeming
consequence of a lower duty, and this was to serve as a cover for the
new scale and the Frick ultimatum.

The plausibility of this story, and the bluntness with which McLuckie,
himself a poorly paid workman of the Carnegie Company, put the political
duplicity involved before his fellow workmen exercised a telling effect.
Particularly did the pointed allusion to "high fences, Pinkerton
detectives, thugs and militia" carry weight in the estimation of the
workingmen present at that Sunday morning meeting. Nor did it stop
there, for within the next twenty-four hours this, the first public
arraignment of the Republican party and the Carnegie Company jointly was
flashed over the telegraph wires to newspapers in all parts of the
United States, and the country at large began to realize that there were
two ways of looking at the doctrine of "protection to American labor,"
and that the difference between them was on the eve of receiving an
impressive demonstration.

The temper of the people of Homestead after the meeting of the lodges,
was, in spite of the scarcely concealed militant resolution harbored in
the breasts of the men as individuals, moderate and orderly. There was
still time, they reasoned, for Mr. Frick to withdraw his defiant
ultimatum. Nearly two weeks remained until the new wage scale would be
enforced. In the mean time there would be conferences. Possibly Mr.
Carnegie might be heard from over the cable. Perhaps even the great men
who were interested in proving that protection protects would use their
influence to obviate the astounding object lesson which would be
presented to the world if the Carnegie firm, at the noontide of its
prosperity, should reduce the wages of its employees. If there was hope
in this way of looking at the prospect, it was a forlorn hope, and the
most sanguine of the tonnage men, who were the first to be affected by a
change in the scale, could not consider it otherwise.

The cloud was plain to be seen, but of the silver lining not a vestige
was perceptible.

So the men went to bed on that Sunday night with McLuckie's bold words
ringing in their ears, and a strong conviction deep down in their hearts
that a crash was coming, that somebody was destined to go under, and
that, come what might, the victors of 1889 would not show the white
feather.




CHAPTER III.

[Illustration: LOCKED OUT]

    FRICK'S ALLIES--A PLAN OF GENERAL ASSAULT ON THE AMALGAMATED
      ASSOCIATION FALLS TO THE GROUND--THE LABOR QUESTION IN
      POLITICS--DEMOCRATS MAKE CAPITAL OUT OF WAGE REDUCTIONS--FRICK
      CONFERS WITH A WORKMEN'S COMMITTEE AND REJECTS A
      COMPROMISE--MILLS SHUT DOWN AND ARE DECLARED NON-UNION--"FORT
      FRICK"--LODGES APPOINT AN ADVISORY COMMITTEE. GUARDING THE
      TOWN.


About the time of the assembling of the delegates to the convention of
the Amalgamated Association, the Pittsburgh _Post_, a Democratic
newspaper, printed an article in which it was alleged that the impending
conflict at Homestead was to be precipitated not in the interest of the
Carnegie Company alone, but in that of all the iron and steel
manufacturers of Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio. Homestead, it
was said, was chosen as a battle ground, (1) because of the ease with
which the mill property could be equipped for offensive and defensive
purposes; (2) because the ruin wrought in that town by a disastrous
strike would be more sweeping and complete than could be effected
anywhere else, and (3) because the Carnegie Company had the largest
interests to serve and should, therefore, be willing to bear the brunt
of the battle. If war was declared, and the lodges at Homestead were
broken up, the other manufacturers were to follow the lead of the
Carnegie Company, defy the Amalgamated Association and reduce the wages
of their employees to an extent varying from 20 to 60 per cent.

The _Post's_ story received little credence when it appeared, but later
on the course of events gave it a strong coloring of probability. Mr.
Frick proceeded to fortify the Homestead mills with every evidence of
inviting a desperate conflict. At the same time, the other manufacturers
commenced to show their hand, those of the Mahoning and Shenango Valley,
a district located about fifty miles from Pittsburgh, taking the
initiative by announcing a general reduction of wages ranging from 20 to
60 per cent. The Pittsburgh manufacturers avoided taking a distinctly
aggressive stand, but gave out significant statements to the effect that
the condition of the iron and steel market rendered it impossible for
them to continue paying the rate of wages maintained during the previous
year.

These symptoms of depression in one of the most generously protected
industries within a short time after the passage of the McKinley tariff
bill afforded a prolific subject of commentary to the opponents of the
high tariff system. Both political parties made their nominations for
the presidency in the month of June, when the labor trouble was waxing
warm, and it became only too plainly perceptible that, since the
Republican party took its stand mainly on the benefit resulting to
American labor from the protective tariff, Republicanism would be held
answerable by the working classes for the proposed wage reductions in
Pennsylvania. As a matter of fact the efficacy of the tariff as a
wage-maintaining agency had been grossly overdrawn by stump orators and
over-zealous partisan newspapers. For years it had been dinned into the
ears of the workingman that it was his duty to vote for Republican
candidates because the Republicans in Congress maintained the high
protective tariff and the high protective tariff meant high wages.

But now, at the opening of a presidential contest, the workingman was
confronted with what seemed to be proof positive that the high tariff
had lost its virtue, and when the Democratic press pointed to the
astonishing spectacle of wage reductions ordered by the "pampered iron
barons" of Pennsylvania, as illustrating that the protective system was
a sham and a fraud, what wonder that organized labor was quick to accept
the indictment as a just one!

The Democratic national convention did not lose sight of the opportunity
thus offered, and in the platform on which Grover Cleveland was
nominated at Chicago perhaps the most telling plank was that which
denounced the protective system as fraudulent and referred to the
strikes in the iron trade as an immediate attestation of the failure of
"McKinleyism."

Meanwhile, newspapers friendly to President Harrison sought to dissuade
the iron and steel manufacturers from making the threatened cut in wages
and precipitating a general conflict with the operatives. In Pittsburgh,
especially, a bitter discussion was carried on, the papers controlled by
the manufacturers persistently asserting that the tariff has nothing to
do with the making of wage scales and that a general wage reduction and
consequent strikes during a presidential campaign could not be construed
as reflecting upon the efficacy of the McKinley bill and the Republican
party's pledges to American labor; while the Democratic and independent
press subjected the manufacturers to merciless criticism.

All this was full of encouragement to the workingmen. They felt that
their cause was expanding from the dimensions of a mere local trouble to
those of an affair of national importance, affecting the destinies of
the dominant political parties. At Homestead, which had previously been
a Republican stronghold, the Democratic propaganda found special favor.
"If all else should fail us," thought the men, "we can, at least, have
revenge at the polls in November."

And they kept their word.

It is not within the province of the writer of this narrative to analyze
the peculiar aspect put upon the case of the workingmen by political
agitators for campaign purposes. Merely the facts are stated here,
leaving it to the reader to make his own deductions as to the justice or
injustice of the assaults on the American system of protection to labor
provoked by the seeming selfishness of tariff-enriched manufacturers.
Suffice it to state that every shot told and that, if the whole truth
were known, it would be found that political considerations went a long
way to prevent the other manufacturers from joining Mr. Frick in a body
and using their combined resources to destroy the Amalgamated
Association and strip their employees of all means of self-defense.

It will be seen that the position of the Homestead workers was greatly
strengthened by the common danger. Homestead was not to be alone in its
fight. The entire Amalgamated Association was threatened, and the spirit
of mutual helpfulness was, therefore, powerfully stimulated at all
points. The good old unionist principle, "One for all, and all for one,"
was bound to receive a full and magnificent exemplification.

On June 15, the convention of the Amalgamated Association completed the
general wage scale for iron mills and presented it to the manufacturers'
committee. The manufacturers responded by producing a scale of their
own, embodying extensive reductions. This was the beginning of a
dispute, stubborn on both sides, which was kept up long after the final
adjournment of the convention, that body assigning the duty of
conferring with the manufacturers to a special wage committee.

The consideration of the scales for steel mills, including that prepared
by the Homestead lodges, was not completed by the convention until June
23. On that day, a committee, headed by William Roberts, one of the most
intelligent of the Homestead mill workers, appeared at the offices of
the Carnegie Company, on Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, and was escorted to
Mr. H. C. Frick's private room. Mr. Frick, General Manager Potter, H. L.
Childs and F. T. F. Lovejoy acted for the company in the conference
which followed. Mr. Roberts, acting as spokesman for his colleagues,
presented the Homestead scale as approved by the convention, and
explained that the employees were prepared to concede several points,
admitting, however, of no reduction exceeding 15 per cent, in any
department. The men were willing even to reduce the minimum selling
price of billets on which the rate of wages should be estimated to $24
per ton, but the firm insisted upon the $23 rate, which, as previously
explained, signified a serious depression in wages.

The conference, after a discussion lasting several hours, broke up
without accomplishing anything.

The following day, June 24, had been fixed by Mr. Frick as the last on
which the Carnegie firm would treat with its employees as members of the
Amalgamated Association. The day passed without a conference. It was
believed, however, that, in view of the concessions which the men had
stated their willingness to make, even though they refused to make the
complete surrender which Mr. Frick demanded, the firm would consent to
fresh conferences with the committee. Yet the fact that the firm, which
had sufficient orders on hand to keep the mill busy for many months, was
canceling these orders, coupled with the extraordinary preparations for
warfare which were being made at the mills, cast a damper on the hopes
of the men. There was hardly a ray of sunshine to brighten the gloomy
outlook.

[Illustration: HENRY CLAY FRICK.]

On June 25, Mr. Lovejoy, secretary of the Carnegie Company, stated
through the newspapers that the conferences were at an end, that the
firm had decided to make the rate of $23 a ton on billets the basis of
wages, and that this rate would be enforced without regard to the
opinion of the Amalgamated Association. It was also the intention to
change the time of fixing the wage schedule from June to January, so
that if a strike or lock-out should occur, the hardships of the winter
season would strengthen the company's hand. So, at least, the men
interpreted the proposed change.

Mr. Lovejoy's statement, although given out in an informal way, was
generally accepted as meaning that the ax was forthwith to be let fall
upon the neck of organized labor at Homestead, and that no human power
could stay the hand of the executioner.

Still all was quiet at Homestead. June 25 was Saturday and pay-day, but
the day was marked by less activity and bustle than usual. The stores
were not crowded, and little money was spent. In the face of trouble,
the end of which it was impossible to foresee, men carefully put away
the contents of their pay envelopes. The wolf might come to the door
before long and resources had to be husbanded. Few cared for the little
Saturday jollifications common at other times. Wherever a group of mill
men came together, the one theme of discussion was the ultimatum of the
firm, the prospect of a wholesale discharge of union men on July 1 and
the meaning of the warlike equipment of the mill property.

A new and significant name was devised for the Carnegie enclosure, with
its ramparts, watch towers, search-lights and other suggestions of war,
and flew from mouth to mouth with the rapidity of lightning.

"FORT FRICK."

An ill-omened name it was, bristling with offensive associations; but
its propriety as a descriptive epithet could not be questioned.

Who was to occupy the "fort?" Whose guns were to be used through those
loopholes?

"Pinkerton detectives," said some, and the rumor that an army of
"Pinkertons" had been hired and might already be on its way to garrison
the works and shed the blood of the men of Homestead found ready
credence and deepened the feeling of resentment abroad in the town. Many
were disposed to believe that Pinkerton scouts had arrived and were
making things ready for the coming of the main guard.

On Tuesday, June 28, the company ordered the armor-plate mill and the
open-hearth department shut down, throwing 800 men out of employment.

This was the beginning of the lock-out, for a lock-out it was, and not a
strike, as has been very generally represented.

A strike occurs when dissatisfied workingmen cease work of their own
accord and refuse to return until the cause of dissatisfaction is
removed.

A lock-out originates with the employing individual or corporation, and
consists in the refusal to let the employees work until they come to
terms with the employer.

As Mr. Frick took the initiative, the trouble at Homestead was
distinctively a lock-out, although, if Mr. Frick had chosen, he could
have permitted it to take the form of a strike.

It made little difference in the end which of the contestants took the
first aggressive step. Once the Frick ultimatum was promulgated, a
struggle was inevitable, and if the firm had not thrown down the
gauntlet, the men most assuredly would have forced the fighting on their
own account.

The night of June 28 witnessed strange scenes in Homestead. The pent-up
feelings of the men now found vent unrestrainedly. Effigies of Frick
and Potter were hung on telegraph poles. Denunciations of the firm and
its policy were heard on every hand. Knots of angry men gathered outside
the board fence that hedged the mill enclosure, peered through the
loopholes at the watchmen on duty within and talked defiantly of what
would happen if the methods that triumphed over the poor, disorganized
serfs in the coke regions were to be tried upon four thousand sturdy and
intelligent steelworkers. If an apostle of non-unionism had ventured
upon the streets of Homestead that night he would have fared badly.

[Illustration]

The next morning, at the call of the officers of the local lodges, 3,000
steelworkers met in the opera house. The chairman of the executive
committee stated to the meeting that, at a conference of committeemen
representing the eight lodges, held on the preceding evening, it had
been decided to submit the question of shutting down the mechanical
department of the mills to the steelworkers _en masse_, irrespective of
affiliation with the lodges, and that the decision thus arrived at
should be binding on all. This report was approved and a motion was made
that a committee be appointed to request the mechanics and day laborers
to quit work at once. A workman asked if the watchmen were to be
included, and another answered: "Three years ago the watchmen wanted to
come out and now they _must_ come."

The motion passed amid tremendous cheering.

The chairman of the executive committee, resuming his address, refuted
the report spread through the newspapers that six or seven hundred
mechanics and day laborers had signed a scale arranged by the firm. A
committee of this class of workmen, he said, had waited on General
Manager Potter and had been thrust aside pending the settlement of the
tonnage men's wages. After this, the mechanics and laborers had resolved
to cast their lot with the Amalgamated Association, and had signified
their decision to the lodges.

William Roberts, chairman of the conference committee, which had waited
on Mr. Frick by authority of the Amalgamated convention, took the
platform and detailed the action of his committee. Mr. Roberts told of
the committee's offer to concede a basis of $24 and of the firm's demand
that the scale terminate on the last day of the year. "We wouldn't agree
to this," he said, "and I now ask you had we any right to do so?"

"No! No! No!" shouted 3,000 voices.

The speaker described how, when the committee presented as its last and
only demands that a $24 basis be adopted and that the scale expire on
the last day of June, Mr. Frick jumped to his feet and exclaimed hotly:
"Gentlemen, that ends all conferences between you and this firm." "So
you see," Mr. Roberts went on to say, "This is not a strike. The firm
put a snag in our road.... We filled our contract. Now the firm has laid
the entire mill off one day ahead of time. Has it lived up to its
contract?"

Again 3,000 voices shouted "No," and the action of the wage conference
committee was ratified without a dissenting voice.

A resolution was offered providing that, in case any man left Homestead
during the coming trouble without permission from the lodge officials,
the men should refuse to work with him on his return. The chairman asked
all who were in favor of the resolution to rise. Instantly every man in
the hall sprang to his feet and the resolution was adopted with three
cheers and a tiger, followed with hisses for H. C. Frick.

A motion to appoint a press committee, consisting of one member from
each of the eight lodges, was carried after a discussion as to
unreliable reports. The membership of this committee was kept secret for
the time being.

A whirlwind of excitement was roused when a speaker told of a report
that 200 non-union workmen were coming to Homestead disguised in the
blue uniform of Pinkerton detectives. "Watch the depots," was the
unanimous cry that followed this alarmist statement.

When, after a session of two hours, the meeting adjourned, there
remained not the least doubt as to the unity of feeling among all
classes of workers in the town. Every man was ready to enter upon
relentless strife, and if there was a coward or malingerer in any
quarter, he wisely held his peace.

After the general meeting, the eight lodges held a secret session, at
which an advisory committee was appointed, with full power to direct the
workmen's campaign. This body, which played the most important part in
the tragic drama soon afterwards enacted, was composed of the following
members: David H. Shannon, John McLuckie, David Lynch, Thomas J.
Crawford, Hugh O'Donnell, Harry Bayne, Elmer E. Ball, Isaac Byers, Henry
Bayard, T. W. Brown, George W. Champene, Isaac Critchlow, Miller Colgan,
John Coyle, Jack Clifford, Dennis M. Cush, William McConeghy, Michael
Cummings, William Combs, John Durkes, Patrick Fagan, W. S. Gaches,
Nathan Harris, Reid Kennedy, John Miller, O. O. Searight, John Murray,
M. H. Thompson, Martin Murray, Hugh Ross, William T. Roberts, George
Rylands and George W. Sarver.

Special committees were appointed to patrol the river stations and all
entrances to the town. The patrols were directed to cover their beats
night and day and report to the advisory committee. Arrangements were
also made to have the river patrolled in skiffs, and the steamboat
"Edna" was secured to aid in this service.

Headquarters were established in a commodious public hall, with
accommodations for telegraph operators, the committee being expected to
maintain communication with all parts of the country, so as to obtain
instant information of any movement of non-union men designed for
service at Homestead. The liquor saloons were visited and the
proprietors requested to use special precautions against the promotion
of drunkenness and disorderly gatherings, under pain of being required
to close their establishments.

Eight effigies of Carnegie officials were cut down by the committee, and
notice was given that persons outraging decency in this manner in the
future would be disciplined.

The burgess of the town, John McLuckie, was informed that he might call
upon the Amalgamated Association for whatever number of men he might
deem necessary to assist him in preserving the peace.

In short, the government of Homestead had now passed absolutely into the
hands of the advisory committee of the Amalgamated lodges, and the
committee was determined to use its arbitrary authority for the
preservation of order and decency and the protection of life and
property as well as the exclusion from Homestead of non-union men,
better known to the unionist as "scabs" or "black sheep."

On July 2 the entire force of employees at the Carnegie mills was paid
off and served with notices of discharge.

With the exception of a slight altercation between General Manager
Potter and some of the men who were guarding one of the gates of the
mill there was no disorder.

Secretary Lovejoy now made his final statement on behalf of the firm
declaring the mill to be permanently non-unionized. "Hereafter," he
said, "the Homestead steel works will be operated as a non-union mill.
We shall not recognize the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel
Workers in our dealings with the men. The mill will be an open one where
all men may work regardless of their affiliation with a labor
organization. There will be, no doubt, a scale of wages; but we shall
deal with the men individually; not with any organization. Such a thing
as a union will not be recognized. There will be no further conferences
with the Amalgamated Association."

The mammoth steel plant was now deserted, except by a few watchmen and
the government steel inspectors, with whom the advisory committee did
not interfere.

The locked-out men were perfectly organized and ready to fight against
any odds at a moment's notice. A report that strangers were on the way
to Homestead along either of the railroads brought a battalion of
stalwart fellows to the stations on the outskirts.

Mr. Frick might as well have undertaken to storm Gibraltar as to
introduce a force of non-unionists into the town.

Meanwhile the convention of the Amalgamated Association had finished its
business, elected new officers, including a successor to President Weihe
in the person of Mahlon M. Garland, and left it to a committee to fight
it out with the manufacturers. This the committee was doing with
considerable success. The ominous turn which affairs were taking at
Homestead, together with the endless reproaches heaped upon the
graceless beneficiaries of the protective tariff by Mr. Harrison's
campaign managers had a most discouraging effect on the manufacturers'
committee and it was plain to be seen that the "fight all along the
line," inaugurated a month before, was to end in a compromise favorable
to the Amalgamated Association.

Mr. Frick was left to do his own fighting, single-handed and alone.




CHAPTER IV.

[Illustration: THE PINKERTON GUARDS]

    PLANNING A SIEGE--HISTORY OF THE PINKERTONS--HATRED OF ORGANIZED
      LABOR FOR SOLDIER POLICEMEN--FRICK'S COLD-BLOODED LETTER--THE
      SHERIFF OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY IS ENLISTED IN THE CARNEGIE
      FORCES--MILLMEN DISPOSE OF A SHERIFF'S POSSE--THE GATHERING OF
      THE INVADERS--DEPARTURE OF THE PINKERTON BARGES FOR HOMESTEAD.


While Mr. Frick's men were busily engaged in perfecting a martial
organization and putting the government of the town of Homestead on a
war footing, Mr. Frick himself was not idle. He did not waste any time
in considering projects for immediately introducing non-union men into
the mills, being well aware that, if men foolhardy enough to take the
risk of "blacksheeping" at Homestead could be found, it would still be
impracticable to get them past the picket lines of the locked-out
steelworkers, and that, even if a force of non-unionists could be
piloted into the mill their presence would be the signal for an attack
by the union men and possibly for the destruction of the firm's
property.

Mr. Frick had another plan--a plan suggested by his successful
encounters with the Connellsville coke-workers. He conceived the idea of
garrisoning "Fort Frick" with a sufficient number of armed and
disciplined Pinkerton guards to hold any attacking force at bay and
later on to bring in non-union workmen under cover of the Pinkerton
men's rifles.

How long this project had been maturing in the mind of the Carnegie
Company's chairman cannot be told. Certain it is that he had made up his
mind to carry it out long before he met the wage conference committee
for the last time, and that when, on June 23, he went through the form
of a discussion with Mr. Roberts and Mr. Roberts' confreres, he had not
the least notion of coming to any kind of an understanding other than
that which might be brought about by force.

Mr. Frick was too well acquainted with the estimation in which the
Pinkerton men are held by the labor unions to underrate the import of
his action, and can hardly have been ignorant of the fact that in
bringing on these myrmidons, he was making doubly sure of sanguinary
times at Homestead.

A sketch of the personnel and methods of the "Pinkerton National
Detective Agency," as it is styled by its chiefs, will make clear to the
reader the reasons for the hatred and contempt entertained for this body
by workingmen everywhere.

The agency was founded in 1850 by Allan Pinkerton, a young Scotchman,
who had been brought into public notice at Elgin, Ill., by his success
in ferreting out a counterfeiter. Allan Pinkerton's fame as a detective
became national. He organized a war secret service, was trusted by
Lincoln, whose life he once saved; by Grant and other national leaders
in war times, and aroused continual interest by his strokes of skill and
daring. The enterprise from which sprang the Pinkerton "standing army"
of to-day was set on foot in a shabby little office in La Salle Street,
Chicago, and there the headquarters of the agency still remain.

Pinkerton detectives came into great request and were soon engaged in
the unraveling of crimes and the hunting down of criminals all over the
continent. Allan Pinkerton meanwhile discerned a fresh source of profit
and turned it to account by hiring out his men as watchmen for banks and
great commercial houses. The "Pinkerton Preventive Watch," composed of
trained men, uniformed and armed, and acting independently of the
municipal police, was established.

The emblem adopted by the agency was a suggestive one. It consisted of
an eye and the motto, "We never sleep."

As old age came on Allan Pinkerton and his business kept growing, he
turned over the work of supervision to his sons, William A. and Robert
A. Robert was placed in charge of a branch bureau in New York and
William remained in Chicago. Agencies with regular forces of men were
established in Philadelphia, Boston, St. Paul, Kansas City and Denver.
By communication with these centres, the chiefs could control, at a few
days' notice, a force of 2,000 drilled men, and this could be expanded
by drawing on the reserves registered on the books of the agency for
service on demand, to 30,000, if necessary,--more men than are enrolled
in the standing army of the United States.

When a large number of recruits is needed, the Pinkertons usually
advertise in the newspapers asking for able-bodied men of courage, but
without stating for whose service. In New York, prospective recruits are
brought to a building on lower Broadway where the Pinkertons have an
armory, stocked with Winchester rifles, revolvers, policemen's clubs and
uniforms. After the number of men needed is secured, the addresses of
the eligible applicants for whom there are no places are taken and they
are notified to hold themselves in readiness for a future call. Men who
have served in the army or as policemen receive the preference.

Pinkerton detectives have no real authority to make arrests. They are
rarely sworn in as special constables or as deputy sheriffs and the
uniform which they wear is merely for show.

Of late years they have been employed very frequently to protect the
property of great manufacturing corporations during strikes or
lock-outs. This is, without exception, the most trying and perilous
service which they have to undergo. The pay is good, however, the rate
agreed upon for duty at Homestead, for example, being $5 a day for each
man.

In the great strike on the New York Central railroad, which cost the
Vanderbilt corporation $2,000,000, the item for Pinkerton service was
about $15,000. The guards were posted at danger points all along the
line. Conflicts with the strikers were frequent, and, in many cases, the
guards used their rifles with deadly effect. On August 17, 1890, they
killed five persons, one a woman. So freely were the Pinkerton rifles
brought into play during this trouble that the people of New York state
became thoroughly aroused and forced the legislature to pass an
anti-Pinkerton bill.

The agency was responsible for the killing of a boy during a
longshoremen's strike in Jersey and at Chicago during the Lake Shore
railroad strike a man named Bagley fell a victim to Pinkerton lead. The
guard who shot Bagley was spirited away and never brought to justice.

Pinkerton guards have done duty in the miners' strikes in the Hocking
Valley, at the H. C. Frick Company's mines in the Connellsville region
and at Braidwood, Ill., as well as in all the great railroad strikes
since 1877.

In recent years, the conversion of the guards into an irresponsible
military organization, with self-constituted authority to overawe
striking workmen has provoked a feeling of intense hatred on the part of
organized labor towards these soldier-policemen. Attempts to abolish the
Pinkerton system by legislation have succeeded in only a few states, New
York and New Jersey among the number, for the reason that the
corporations which find use for armed mercenaries have sufficient wealth
and influence to control legislative action.

Congressman Thomas Watson, of Alabama, a representative of the Farmers'
Alliance, introduced a bill in Congress making it illegal for private
persons to maintain a "standing army" to usurp the police powers of the
states, and made a strong plea for its passage, but the measure failed.
The great industrial corporations have a hold upon the federal
legislature too strong to be broken by the insistence of common people.

As has already been told, the men of Homestead entertained a profound
abhorrence of the Pinkertons and were resolved to push resistance to any
extreme rather than permit themselves to be whipped into submission by
armed hirelings. They had no knowledge of Mr. Frick's dealings with the
agency, although their familiarity with the Frick policy in the coke
regions, coupled with the equipment of the mill property for occupation
by a garrison excited a well-defined suspicion of what was coming.

Mr. Frick gave the final order for a supply of guards in a letter
written to Robert A. Pinkerton, of New York, on June 25, the day after
his meeting with the wage committee from the Amalgamated convention. The
order was given in as matter-of-fact a manner as if the Carnegie
chairman were bespeaking a supply of coke or pig-iron.

"We will want 300 guards," he wrote, "for service at our Homestead mills
as a measure of precaution against interference with our plan to start
the operation of the works again on July 6, 1892."

"These guards," Mr. Frick went on to direct, "should be assembled at
Ashtabula, O., not later than the morning of July 5, when they may be
taken by train to McKees Rocks, or some other point on the Ohio River
below Pittsburgh, where they can be transferred to boats and landed
within the enclosures of our premises at Homestead. We think absolute
secresy essential in the movement of these men, so that no demonstration
can be made while they are en route."

As Mr. Frick acknowledged in his letter the receipt of "your favor of
the 22d," it was evident that the negotiations with the Pinkerton agency
had been pending for some time.

Immediately after having despatched his order for a Pinkerton battalion,
Mr. Frick sent for Captain Rodgers, of the towboat Little Bill, and
directed him to fit up two barges with sleeping accommodations and
provisions for 300 men, who were to be taken on board at some point not
then determined, brought to the works at Homestead, and subsequently
lodged and boarded on the barges.

He also notified the sheriff of Allegheny county, William H. McCleary,
through Messrs. Knox & Reed, attorneys for the Carnegie Company, that
there would be a strike at Homestead and that 300 Pinkerton watchmen had
been engaged, and requested the sheriff to deputize the entire force;
that is to say, to appoint them police agents of the county. The sheriff
maintained afterwards that, on the advice of his attorney, he had
declined to deputize the Pinkerton men until they should be installed in
the mill and had reserved the right to act at his discretion when that
time came. Mr. Frick, on the other hand, declared on the witness stand
that the sheriff consented to deputize the men and assigned his chief
deputy to swear them in.

The train was now laid; the fuse was lit, and all that remained to be
done in the Carnegie camp was to wait for the explosion.

To disarm suspicion on the other side, however, Mr. Frick, as the crisis
approached, gave out information leading the public in general and the
locked-out men in particular to believe that he meant to rely on the
ordinary processes of law to protect him in the non-unionizing of his
works. On the evening of July 4, after a conference with the other chief
officers of the firm, he furnished a statement to the newspapers
alleging that there was no trouble to be feared, that the men were
weakening, a large number of them being anxious to get back to work, and
that the plant would be placed in the hands of the county, the sheriff
being requested to furnish enough deputies to ensure adequate
protection.

With all his firmness, the doughty chairman of the Carnegie Company
dared not make a clean breast of his program. The way for the _coup de
grace_ had to be cleared by strategy and dissimulation.

The locked-out men celebrated Independence Day with due patriotic
fervor. The force of guards was increased from 350 to 1,000, the picket
system being expanded so as to form an outline five miles in extent,
covering both sides of the river.

In the afternoon an alarm was sent in to headquarters. Two men had been
seen landing from a boat near the works and were taken for spies. Quick
as a flash a thousand men rushed to the river bank and inclosed within a
semi-circle of stalwart forms the place where the suspects had landed.
It proved that the latter were merely honest citizens of the town
returning from a picnic across the river, but the incident showed how
effectually the men kept themselves on the _qui vive_, precluding the
entry of an enemy at any point.

When Sheriff McCleary reached his office in the Allegheny County
court-house, on the morning of July 5, he found awaiting him a formal
application from the Carnegie Company for the services of one hundred
deputies at Homestead. The Sheriff was discomfited by the demand. His
predecessor in office, Dr. McCandless, had been forced to engage in a
long and irksome legal battle in order to recover from the Carnegie
Company the money due for the service of deputies at Homestead in 1889,
and the prospect of a fresh dispute over the pay of special officers
was not inviting. So Mr. McCleary, who was gifted by nature with a
strong tendency to evasiveness, returned an evasive answer, and
conceived the idea of going to Homestead with his own office force of
twelve men and making some sort of dignified showing pending the arrival
of that army of Pinkertons, which he already knew to be moving on the
devoted town.

The Sheriff and his little posse proceeded accordingly to Homestead and
were received by the men, if not with cordiality, at all events with
decent consideration. A proclamation was issued embodying the usual
warning against breaches of the peace. Then a phalanx of strong-limbed
steel workers escorted the officers to the mill and pointed out that
nobody was trespassing upon or damaging the Carnegie Company's fortified
territory.

The sheriff stated that, under the law, the company should be permitted
to bring in whatever men it chose and to operate its own works.

The men responded that neither the county authorities nor anyone else
would be permitted to bring non-union men into the mill, and, having
thus emphatically signified their purposes, escorted the sheriff and his
followers--all of them more or less afflicted with nervousness--to the
railroad station and saw the little party safely out of town.

Had the sheriff been less evasive, less nervous, less of a politician
and more of a man, there was still time for him to avert disaster. He,
as chief police officer of the county, had been informed of the coming
of Mr. Frick's hired army. He could not fail to be aware that a
collision between the Pinkerton men and the 4,000 steelworkers was
bound to come, that blood would run like water at Homestead, that
demoralization and disgrace, and perhaps even heavy financial loss to
the county would follow, and that, therefore, to remain supine in the
face of all this, to let the crash come and not lift a finger to prevent
it was literally a dereliction of duty.

There was no obligation resting on this official to keep Mr. Frick's
operations secret. On the contrary, he was under a strong moral
obligation to prevent the execution of those operations at all hazards
by giving them prompt publicity and enabling the exhaustion of all
available legal means of stopping an invasion of the county by armed
mercenaries of a class condemned by law in two neighboring states and
bitterly hated by workingmen in every state of the Union.

It did not appear to occur to the sheriff that the hiring of Pinkerton
detectives was an offensive arraignment of himself as the county's chief
executive officer. The one idea uppermost in his mind seemed to be to
steer clear of the whole unpleasant business as far as he conveniently
could and to trust to luck and the Pinkertons to pull Frick through
somehow.

Decidedly a weak and inefficient man, this sheriff. For the time being,
he had abdicated in favor of Frick and the Pinkertons and it would not
be his fault if the devil were not unchained.

And now from a score of cities came the Pinkerton myrmidons to the
headquarters at Chicago, few among them knowing or caring on what
mission they were bound, as long as they got their daily rations and
their daily pay, but all comprehending that blind obedience was the
watchword. Captain F. H. Heinde had been detailed to take charge of the
expedition, and under his guidance the men proceeded from Chicago to
Youngstown, and thence to Bellevue, on the Fort Wayne railroad, opposite
the Davis Island dam, arriving at this point at 10:30 o'clock on the
evening of July 5.

Early in the day, Mr. Frick had issued final orders to Captain Rodgers,
directing him to tow his two barges down the Ohio River to the dam in
time to meet the battalion of Pinkerton guards. Captain Rodgers duly
carried out his orders. With the boats Little Bill and Tide, each having
a barge in tow, he arrived at the dam at 10 P. M. There he was met by
Colonel Joseph H. Gray, Sheriff McCleary's chief deputy, who had been
dispatched by the sheriff to "keep the peace," if his own testimony and
that of the sheriff are to be accepted, whereas, according to Mr.
Frick's story, his real mission was to deputize the Pinkerton guards and
thus render the county liable for the acts of these strangers.

At 10:30 P. M., the trainload of guards arrived; the men embarked in the
barges; the Little Bill and the Tide puffed away as cheerfully as if
they were towing a pleasure party, and in the stillness of the beautiful
July night the expedition moved slowly in the direction of Homestead.




CHAPTER V.

[Illustration: THE FIRST SHOT]

    ON BOARD THE BARGES--FLOATING BARRACKS EQUIPPED FOR BLOODY
      WARFARE--UP THE MONONGAHELA AT MIDNIGHT--HOMESTEAD GETS
      WARNING--DEFENDERS AT THE MILL LANDING--FRICK'S ARMY REPULSED
      WITH HEAVY LOSS--HUGH O'DONNEL TAKES COMMAND OF THE
      WORKMEN--SHERIFF McCLEARY'S APPEAL TO THE GOVERNOR--FRICK
      REFUSES TO INTERFERE.


The barges on which Captain Heinde and his 300 men embarked were
primitive specimens of the boat builders' art, previously used for the
transportation of freight. Unlike the ordinary coal barge, these were
roofed in, and, were it not for the flat roof, would have exactly
resembled Noah's ark. They measured 125 feet long and 20 feet wide. One
was known as the Iron Mountain; the other as the Monongahela. These
floating barracks had been purchased a week before the time of the
Pinkerton expedition by an agent of Mr. Frick's, and quietly fitted up
at the landing-place of the Tide Coal Company, in Allegheny City. The
Iron Mountain was equipped as a dormitory, several tiers of berths being
constructed on both sides and furnished with bed clothes. Two rows of
cots occupied the middle of the floor. The Monongahela was converted
into a vast dining-room. Two rows of tables were placed in the middle
and board seats were provided. In the stern was a commodious kitchen,
with a full outfit of stoves and cooking utensils. An experienced
steward and a corps of twenty waiters were employed. At the last moment
a number of mysterious looking cases were put on board. These contained
Winchester rifles and had been forwarded to the Carnegie Company by
Adams Express. Watchmen at the landing met all inquiries with the
explanation that the barges were intended for the transportation of
laborers to the Beaver dam on the Ohio River.

It has been said that most of the Pinkerton men had no idea of the
nature of their mission. The fact is that only the officers of the
expedition comprehended the gravity of the work in hand. However, when
the men found themselves being conveyed up the river in the close
quarters which the barges afforded to so large a number, many of them
became uneasy, and, weary as they were after their long trip by rail,
but few were able to close an eye.

As the barges approached the mouth of the Monongahela River, the lights
of the two great cities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny illuminated the
surface of the waters; but no midnight wayfarer who saw the Little Bill
and the Tide, with their odd-looking tows, dreamt for an instant that
within those coffin-like craft was the Frick army of invasion and that,
within a few hours, those same craft would harbor terror, bloodshed and
death. The two cities slept on, unconscious of the thunderbolt that was
to fall at the dawning of the day.

When the boats drew near the Smithfield Street bridge, which connects
South Pittsburgh with the city proper, there were, however, keen eyes to
note their coming. A scout from Homestead, who was one of a detail
appointed to look out for suspicious movements along the Pittsburgh
wharves under the cover of night, detected the ominous procession and,
hurrying to a telegraph office, wired the warning to Homestead: "Watch
the river. Steamer with barges left here." On receipt of this news, the
advisory committee prepared to issue a general alarm at five minutes'
notice. The belief at headquarters was that 100 special deputies were on
the way to take charge of the mill under orders from the sheriff.

With the exception of the disabling of the Tide, nothing occurred to mar
the serenity of the invading force until near daylight. Up the
Monongahela steamed the little tugs, the barges gliding stealthily in
their wake. Captain Rodgers, somewhat inflated with the idea of his
dignity as commodore of a war fleet, stood on the deck of the Little
Bill and chatted with Pinkerton Detective J. H. Robinson, of Chicago.
The Tide being disabled, the Little Bill had to "lock" both barges
through at Lock No. 1, where a dam crosses the river.

At 3 A. M. the barges reached the B. & O. railroad bridge at Glenwood.
Day was breaking, but a heavy fog overhung the water, so that the barges
were not visible from the shore; nor could the watchers on deck
perceive what was going on a few hundred yards away on the Homestead
side of the river.

Yet, while the signs of danger were hidden from the eye, there were
manifestations, the significance of which could not be misunderstood.

The voices of men, women and children were heard breaking in harshly
upon the stillness of the early morning. Scout called to scout almost
loudly enough for their words to be caught by the listeners on the
water.

Captain Heinde, although a brave man, and used to dangerous situations,
felt a sinking of the heart at this unmistakable proof that the secret
of the expedition was no longer a secret and that if a landing was to be
made at Homestead, it would have to be gained by fighting for it.

A feeling of alarm seized upon the green hands among the guards. There
was danger in the air, and numerous as they were, what chance was there
for self-defense as long as they were cooped up within four walls? It
took the utmost tact and firmness on the part of the experienced guards,
who served as officers, to calm the anxious ones and lead them to
believe that they would soon reach safe quarters on _terra firma_.

About this time, a horseman riding at breakneck speed, dashed into the
streets of Homestead giving the alarm as he sped along. In a few minutes
the news that barges, supposed to be filled with deputies, were nearing
the town had spread far and near and, with one accord, the people rushed
to the river bank. Here, for two hours that seemed like weeks, thousands
of men and women waited for the arrival of the enemy--a dangerous enemy,
they felt sure, judging by the manner of his coming.

As the barges drew nearer to Homestead, the noise on the shore grew
louder and louder and soon the sharp crack of rifles rang out, giving a
foretaste of what was in store for the unwelcome visitors. Whether these
shots, which were fired before the Pinkertons attempted to land, were
intended as signals or were aimed, in a random way, at the barges has
never been determined. There is no doubt, however, that the firing from
the bank stopped as soon as the Little Bill and its tow drew up opposite
the mill landing.

This landing was on the beach within the mill enclosure, Mr. Frick
having had the wire-topped fence carried down to low-water mark, so as
to shut off all access by land. Above the landing-place frowned a steep
eminence largely composed of slag and other refuse from the mill. At
this point, also, rise the piers of an iron bridge, over which the P.,
McK. & Y. railroad runs into the mill yard. This bridge is familiarly
known at Homestead as the "Pemickey."

No sooner did the waiting multitude on the river bank perceive that the
occupants of the barges meant to put in at the Carnegie Company's
landing-place than, with a roar of anger, strong men tore down the fence
that barred their path, and ran to the spot where, had they delayed five
minutes longer, the Pinkerton men would have disembarked in safety.

Prior to this time the workmen had religiously refrained from
trespassing upon the company's property. It had been their set purpose
to avoid the odium which would attach to any act suggesting vandalism or
arbitrary assaults upon property rights.

But now was not the time to think of conservative methods. Who could
tell what kind of invaders were in those ugly-looking barges?

Were they deputies whom the sheriff sought to bring in like a thief in
the night? Were they--and at this thought every man's blood boiled--a
regiment of Pinkertons brought there to repeat the Pinkerton exploits of
a few years before in the coke regions?

[Illustration: RIVER ENTRANCE TO THE WORKS.]

What were the odds, one way or the other? Whoever the visitors were,
they came with every manifestation of an evil purpose, and was not
self-preservation the first law of nature, applying as such to a
Homestead steelworker in danger of losing his job and, perhaps, his
home?

So the fence went down, and the straight road from the river to the mill
was blockaded by a band of resolute fellows that neither Pinkerton men
nor sheriff's deputies could hope to overcome.

The scene at this time within the barge Iron Mountain, which had been
towed close to the shore, was one of wild confusion. The plan of a
secret landing had been frustrated, and there was nothing for it now but
a hand-to-hand conflict against terrible odds.

The cases of rifles were broken open and these weapons and revolvers
were hastily distributed among the men. About fifty men were armed with
clubs. Captain John W. Cooper, of the New York and Philadelphia
division, Captain Charles Norton, of the Chicago division, and Captain
Heinde, who had general charge of the expedition, supervised these
arrangements. When all were in readiness for battle, a gang-plank was
shoved out and the three captains stepped forward, with Heinde in the
van. Twenty of the rank and file appeared behind them on the bow of the
boat.

At this offensive move, the Homestead men, most of whom were armed,
shouted a fierce warning.

"Go back," they cried, "go back, or we'll not answer for your lives."

There were blue uniforms among the group on the bow of the Iron
Mountain, and these told their own story to the excited people on the
shore.

For a moment the Pinkerton men stood at bay. The scene before them was
one to appal the bravest. On the beach several hundred men and
women--for mothers, wives and sisters had joined in the mad rush to the
landing-place--some of them half dressed, some carrying loaded guns,
some with stones or clubs in their hands; in the distance hundreds more
rushing to the defense; in the background a huge embankment intercepting
the passage to the mills; behind them the river and the chance of saving
themselves by flight. Retreat, however, would have been ruinous to the
prestige of the Pinkerton agency besides resulting probably in throwing
upon the agency the entire cost of the fruitless expedition, for Mr.
Frick would hardly be willing to pay for services not even fairly begun.

So the warning of the workmen was disregarded, and, with a word of
command to his men, Captain Heinde pressed forward.

Suddenly a shot was fired--whether from the barges or from the shore has
always been a mystery.

Captain Cooper turned instantly towards the barges and in a loud voice
gave the order: "Fire!"

A score of Winchester rifles were discharged into the crowd on the bank
with deadly effect. Several of the workmen were seen to fall. The first
blood had been shed and now the one thought of the men of Homestead was
_vengeance_, merciless and complete, on the strangers who had come to
shoot them down.

The volley fired from the barges was repaid with interest, and when the
smoke from the answering discharge cleared away it was seen that havoc
had been wrought on the barges. Captain Heinde had been shot through the
leg; J. W. Kline and another detective were mortally wounded and perhaps
a dozen others on the Pinkerton side were wounded more or less severely.
The Little Bill was fairly riddled with bullets, and Captain Rodgers,
having taken the injured men off the barges, lost no time in steaming
away from his uncomfortable quarters, leaving the Pinkertons to land, if
they could, and if not, to remain where they were and make the best of a
desperate situation.

Both sides now withdrew, the workmen abandoning their exposed position,
where they offered an easy target to the marksmen on the barges, and
establishing themselves on the heights, while the Pinkertons retired
into the barges and proceeded to prepare for renewed action by cutting
loopholes in the sides of the craft. It would have been suicidal to
attempt another sally.

One of the last of the workingmen to leave was an intrepid fellow who
had thrown himself, face down, upon the gang-plank just as Captain
Heinde came out, and waited, with revolver cocked for the advance of the
enemy. If the guards had landed, they would have done so over his body.

The leadership of the Homestead defenders in this crisis devolved, by
common consent, upon Hugh O'Donnell, a man who, in outward appearance,
showed none of the customary attributes of a labor leader. A young,
handsome individual he was, pale-faced and black-moustached, and rather
slight of build. His attire suggested rather the man of fashion than the
horny-handed individual generally accepted as the correct type of
mill-worker. O'Donnell, however, was one of the superior class of
workmen; enjoyed a comfortable income, and owned his own well-appointed
residence, over which one of the plumpest and prettiest little wives in
Homestead presided. Of the great influence exercised by this man over
his fellow-workmen there could be no question. "Hughey," as they called
him, was admired and looked up to. Fluent of speech and quick of action,
he was the right man to take control on an occasion such as this.
Associated with him in the government of the crowd that had come
together haphazard to repel the Pinkertons were Hugh Ross and Jack
Clifford, both pugnacious and the latter with a strong trace of the
daredevil in his disposition.

O'Donnell's first design was to drive the Pinkertons away without firing
a shot, and if the latter had heeded his advice and desisted from the
attempt to land, there would have been no sacrifice of life and limb.
But once the attack was made, the young leader saw that it was useless
to plead for peace, and devoted himself accordingly to the task of
getting the women and children out of the way and removing the wounded,
among whom were William Foy, Michael Murray, Andrew Soulier, John Kane
and Harry Hughes.

The workmen now occupied themselves with the construction of ramparts
out of pig and scrap iron. Enough of these were piled up to accommodate
scores of sharpshooters. Men armed with rifles also took positions at
various points of vantage in the mill buildings and a desultory fire was
kept up. At the same time armed men appeared on the other side of the
river and began a fusillade on the barges. The non-combatants--men,
women and children to the number of about 5,000--thronged the steep
hills which rise above Homestead, whence they had an unobstructed view
of what was taking place in the mill yard and on the river.

A few venturesome spirits pulled out in skiffs and fired into the barges
at close quarters.

The Little Bill crossed to Port Perry, opposite Homestead, without
further mishap. There is a B. & O. railroad station at that place, and
there Captain Rodgers and Deputy Sheriff Gray put Captain Heinde and
five other wounded Pinkertons on a city-bound train with instructions
to have them taken to the West Penn and Homeopathic hospitals.

The burgess of Homestead, honest John McLuckie, issued a proclamation
ordering the liquor saloons to be closed and calling upon all good
citizens to help him in preserving the peace. As the burgess was a
staunch Amalgamated man and himself a sharer in the common tribulation,
everybody understood, as a matter of course, that the preservation of
the peace, from his point of view, consisted in a united effort to make
short work of the Pinkertons.

While these events were transpiring at the scene of action, the
telegraph wires were carrying the news of the battle to all parts of the
country. In Pittsburgh excitement rose to fever heat. Sheriff McCleary
reached his office early and, having come to the conclusion that, where
300 Pinkerton men were worse than powerless, it was useless for him to
think of interposing, sent a message to Governor Pattison, briefly
detailing the situation at Homestead and the inability of the civil
authorities to cope with it, and soliciting "instructions at once." The
governor promptly answered as follows: "Local authorities must exhaust
every means at their command for preservation of peace."

The sheriff, who had been hoping that the militia would be ordered to
his relief, was much discomfited by this plain intimation that, as chief
peace officer of the county, he was expected to be up and doing instead
of collapsing under fire. Being a prudent man, however, he took no
risks, but remained in the safe seclusion of his office.

At the Carnegie offices there were no signs of perturbation, although
Mr. Frick and his associates were early informed of the bloody outcome
of their scheme of invasion. President Weihe, of the Amalgamated
Association, urged a conference with the men as the only expedient which
might be successfully employed to stop the shedding of blood.

The answer to this humane suggestion was characteristic. It was a flat
refusal. "Our works are now in the hands of the sheriff," said Secretary
Lovejoy, "and it is his official duty to protect the property from
destruction or damage. If it is necessary in his judgment to call out
troops, he is the proper authority to do so. Everything is in his
hands."

This, at a time when the sheriff was publicly announcing that he was
powerless, and when the chances were a hundred to one that the entire
force of Pinkertons would be destroyed like rats in a trap, betokened
very clearly that the sacrifice of life was a trifle in the eyes of the
Carnegie officials compared with the sacrifice of the non-unionist
policy to which the firm had tied itself down. The Pinkertons might be
killed to the last man, but the Frick ultimatum must stand. No doubt,
the firm also considered that the worse the turn taken by affairs at
Homestead, the stronger the probability that the militia would be
ordered out, and that, with soldiers on the ground, there would be no
trouble about bringing in non-unionists.

There was, then, nothing to be looked for in the way of humane mediation
at the hands of the firm, and nothing in the way of masterful
intervention at the hands of the sheriff.

Four thousand infuriated steelworkers and three hundred caged
Pinkertons were to be left to fight out their deadly quarrel without let
or hindrance.

The dictates of law and humanity were alike suspended upon that July
day--the most unfortunate day in the history of organized labor in the
United States.

[Illustration: THE BATTLE AT THE LANDING.]




CHAPTER VI.

[Illustration: THE BOMBARDMENT]

    CANNONADING THE BARGES--SILAS WAIN'S SAD DEATH--THE LITTLE BILL
      RETURNS AND RUNS THE GAUNTLET--A CAR OF FIRE TERRIFIES THE
      PINKERTONS AND DRIVES CAPTAIN RODGERS TO FLIGHT--AMALGAMATED
      OFFICIALS ARRIVE--DINING UNDER FIRE--HORRORS IN THE
      GUARDSMEN'S QUARTERS--THE KILLING OF DETECTIVE
      CONNORS--DYNAMITE--SUICIDE ON THE BARGES--MESSAGES FROM
      ABROAD--CONGRESS ACTS.


While the heroes of the battle at the landing were building breastworks
in the mill-yards and keeping up an intermittent fire on the enemy, a
busy scene was in progress at the telegraph office in the advisory
committee's headquarters. Here a temporary arsenal was established and
rifles, shot guns and ammunition were distributed to volunteers eager to
take a hand against Mr. Frick's emissaries.

Soon a new terror was added to those already menacing the Pinkertons.
The dull roar of a cannon was heard proceeding from the heights across
the river, and, at the first shot, a huge gap was torn in the roof
of the outer barge. Another shot flew wide of the barges and struck
Silas Wain, a young steelworker who was standing in an exposed part
of the mill yard, killing him instantly. Wain's sweetheart, a young
English girl named Mary Jones, to whom he was to have been married
in a few weeks, almost lost her reason when the news of her lover's
death reached her, and was delirious for hours. In consequence of
this unfortunate occurrence, the cannon that did the mischief--a
twenty-pounder--was subsequently shipped across to the Homestead side.
Another piece of ordnance, of smaller calibre, was taken from the
quarters of the Homestead Grand Army post and mounted at the pump-house
of the county poor farm, adjoining the mill-yard. Owing to the elevation
of the position, however, and the inexperience of the men who were
handling the guns, it was found impossible to get the range of the
barges and both pieces were ultimately abandoned.

[Illustration: BEHIND THE BARRICADES.]

As the morning advanced, the workmen began to realize that some more
effective means than rifle bullets must be resorted to in order to
dispose of the barges and their obnoxious freight. The Pinkertons took
care not to expose themselves, unless when one more venturesome than the
rest undertook to make a reconnoissance and emerged on the bow of either
barge. As this exploit invariably attracted a hail of bullets it was not
frequently attempted. About 50 of the guards, all of them old hands in
the Pinkerton service, kept up a regular fire through the loopholes cut
in the sides of the barges, rendering it unsafe for a workman to show
himself outside the furnace-stacks and piles of metal used as ramparts.
George Rutter, an old and respected Amalgamated man and a member of the
Grand Army, forfeited his life by taking chances on the accuracy of the
Pinkerton men's marksmanship. He was shot in the thigh and died from the
wound a few days later. John Morris, another mill-worker, and Henry
Striegel, a young man who was on the field merely as a sympathizer, met
the same fate. Striegel accidentally shot himself with his own gun, and
was struck by shots from the barges after he fell.

Shortly after 11 o'clock, the Little Bill steamed back towards the
landing-place flying the Stars and Stripes, Captain Rodgers having
conceived the idea that the mill men would not dare to fire on the
national flag, despite its being hoisted above a hostile craft. The
captain's mind was speedily disabused of this idea. Volley after volley
was poured into the little steamer, smashing the glass in the
pilot-house and making the splinters fly in all directions. The man at
the wheel, Alexander McMichaels, had to abandon his post and rush below.
John T. McCurry, who had been hired the day before as watchman on the
boat, without being informed of the kind of service in prospect, was
shot in the groin, and Captain Rodgers only saved his life by throwing
himself on his face on the deck. According to the story told afterwards,
the Captain had purposed connecting with the barges and releasing them
from their perilous position, but was glad enough to run the gauntlet
with his own boat without attempting to relieve others.

The Little Bill arrived at a moment when the escape of the Pinkertons
seemed hopeless. A body of desperate men had formed the design of
burning the barges, and commenced by setting fire to a raft composed of
timbers soaked with oil and floating it down the river.

A groan of agony was sent forth from the unhappy wretches in the barges
when this messenger of death was seen drifting towards them. Some of the
men, driven to the verge of insanity by the suspense of the morning and
the dread of death at any moment, proposed to desert the barges and try
to swim to a place of safety. One of the captains put a quietus on the
plan by threatening to blow out the brains of the first man who
endeavored to desert his fellows in the face of danger which menaced all
equally.

The burning raft failed to accomplish its mission. The flames which shot
up from it when it was launched were gradually extinguished by the water
and, by the time it reached the barges, it was only a charred and
blackened mass.

Nowise discouraged by their failure, the men on shore turned their hand
to a new plan of incendiarism. From the converting department of the
mill down to the water's edge where the barges were moored runs a
railroad switch, forming a steep incline. A car was run on to this
switch and loaded with barrels of oil, lumber, waste and other
combustibles. A torch was applied to the inflammable pile, and the car
of fire, from which the flames mounted high in the air, was sent
whirling down the incline. Thousands of eyes were fixed upon this
spectacle. The Pinkertons gazed with blanched faces and trembling limbs,
confident that their last hour had come. Far back on the hills, women
and children watched what was being done and shouted their approval. The
sharpshooters dropped their guns and looked on with bated breath.

Surely that fiery monster, looking like a thing of life as it sped
downward, would crash into the barges and do its work with infernal
effectiveness.

[Illustration: THE CAR OF FIRE.]

But no. Great as was the momentum of the car, it came to a sudden stop
when the wheels embedded themselves in the soft soil at the water's
edge, and the workmen were again baffled.

The Little Bill, which, in the absence of the wheelman, had been
knocking about aimlessly between the barges and the shore, was the only
sufferer. The little tug was badly scorched, and those on board had to
labor like Trojans to preserve her from total destruction. After this
crowning stroke of misfortune, Captain Rodgers decamped with all
possible celerity, and went on down the river to Pittsburgh. His
departure was a blow to the Pinkertons, who were hoping that the Little
Bill might tow them out of danger. Now that the tug was gone, the last
ray of hope vanished, and it seemed to be a question of only a short
time until the expedition, already badly shattered, would be burnt up or
blown up.

The Little Bill's departure was the signal for renewed firing, which was
maintained so vigorously that probably not less than 1,000 shots were
fired within ten minutes.

At this time the scenes in Homestead beggared description. The streets
were filled with women, weeping, wailing and wringing their hands and
begging for news of husbands, sons and brothers. Females were excluded
from the mill yard, and very wisely, for if admitted they would only
have hampered the fighting men and exposed their own lives without
benefit to anyone. In some places, substantial citizens gathered and
discussed plans for stopping the conflict, the only drawback to which
was that not one of them was feasible. Elsewhere groups of belligerents
canvassed projects for the killing of the Pinkertons in a body. And all
this amid the crackling of rifle-shots and the din of a legion of angry
voices.

President-elect Garland and Vice-President Carney, of the Amalgamated
Association, arrived early on the ground and were met with due honors by
the local committee. Mr. Garland's well-known figure was recognized at
once by the men. He was deeply affected by the gravity of the occasion
and expressed regret that things had reached such a lamentable
extremity. One of the leaders escorted the visiting officials to the
front and let them ascertain, by personal observation, how little use
there was in striving to mediate between the workmen and the Pinkertons,
since every shot fired by the former was meant to avenge the death of
their comrades. Vice-President Carney said openly that if Mr. Frick had
consented to waive the demand to have the scale expire on the last day
of the year, instead of the last day of June, the wage question might
have been amicably settled and the present carnage avoided.

At noon a telegram was received at the headquarters of the advisory
board stating that the governor had refused to call out the militia and
that the sheriff had started up the river with a squad of deputies. The
gratification of the people over the governor's attitude was not a whit
keener than their resolve to send the sheriff and his deputies to the
right-about if it was proposed to clear the way for the introduction of
the Pinkertons into the mill.

However, nothing was further from Sheriff McCleary's mind than a visit
to Homestead while the bullets were flying. The sheriff held a
consultation with Judge Ewing, of the quarter sessions court, and with
other gentlemen learned in the law, but without results other than those
exhibited in an order to close the saloons in Homestead and Mifflin
township, which was sent out at noon, and in a second message to the
governor. The latter communication embodied an urgent plea for aid,
recited the episodes of the early morning at Homestead, declared that
there were "no means at my command to meet the emergency," and that any
delay in ordering out troops might lead to further bloodshed and
destruction of property.

The governor made no response to this appeal.

By noon, the men who were posted behind the ramparts in the yard of the
Homestead mill were almost worn out with fatigue and hunger. Most of
them had been up all night without tasting food, and the strain upon
them had been enough to tax sorely the most robust physique. At 1
o'clock a relief expedition was organized and a squad of men carrying
baskets of provisions made their way into the yard and by dodging behind
furnace stacks and piles of iron managed to reach their suffering
comrades without exposing themselves to the fire of the enemy. Cheers
from the throng on the hills behind greeted this successful maneuver.
The men on guard, after eating a hasty meal, tired and begrimed as they
were, announced their intention of staying at their posts to the end.

From time to time, the Pinkertons waved a flag of truce, but it was not
respected any more than was the national flag hoisted on the Little
Bill. Sentiment had no place in the calculations of the men who formed
the garrison in the mill yard. The Pinkertons had made the attack; they
had been warned off and refused to go when they had the chance, and they
had fired upon the workmen and taken many lives. Therefore, they need
expect no quarter. So the flags of truce were shot down one after
another and as the display of these symbols made it necessary for one of
the Pinkertons to expose himself in every instance, and exposure
invariably meant being wounded, this recourse was soon dropped
altogether. The horrors of the position of these men increased every
hour. The atmosphere of the barges was stifling. The relentless rays of
the July sun beat down upon the roofs of the craft and raised the
temperature within beyond the limit of endurance. There was scarcely a
breath of air to carry away the noxious exhalations from the lungs of
the 300 men within and the fumes of smoke and powder. Bullets, bolts,
scrap metal and other missiles struck the frail structures on every side
and gave promise of demolishing them piecemeal before sunset.
Occasionally a missile found its way through a loophole and brought down
one of the guards. It was in this way that Thomas J. Connors, of New
York, was killed. Connors was sitting under cover in the outer barge,
with his head buried in his hands, when a rifle bullet whizzed through
the open doorway of the barge and struck him in the right arm, severing
the main artery. He died in a few hours. This man's death is a matter of
special interest, since it was afterwards made the basis of indictments
for murder lodged against several of the Homestead leaders.

The wounded Pinkertons were waited upon and helped as far as the limited
resources of the barges permitted by A. L. Wells, a young student of
Bennett Medical College, Chicago. Wells had joined the expedition for
the purpose of earning enough money during the vacation months to help
him comfortably through his next year's course. He was a stout-hearted
fellow and did his best to alleviate the sufferings of the unfortunates
around him, many of whom lay groaning in agony on the floor, amid pools
of blood. The young man fortunately escaped injury and stuck to his
suffering companions to the last, unmindful of his own comfort. Even in
that Pinkerton barge there was room for genuine heroism.

Shortly after one o'clock, a council of war was held among the men
behind the barricades, and a new plan was agreed upon for the quick
destruction of the barges.

Dynamite.

[Illustration: THROWING DYNAMITE BOMBS.]

Here was a sure destroyer; one that could be trusted to do the work
which the burning raft and the car of fire had failed to do. A supply of
stick dynamite was obtained and a dozen of the most reckless men in the
yard opened up a bombardment of the barges with the deadly explosive.
But somehow the sticks of dynamite proved little more effective than the
means previously utilized. Most of them fell wide of the mark and the
few which struck the barges did slight damage. Guardsman Wells, in
telling the story of the fight afterwards, held that the first stick
thrown tore a hole in the side of the barge Iron Mountain as easily as
if the barge were made of paper. If so, this was the only instance in
which the dynamite was really effective. The workmen, who felt confident
that it would be easy to blow the barges to pieces, were greatly
disappointed. It looked as if they might keep on firing lead and iron
into the vessels forever without wiping out the enemy, while the
importance of ending the battle before nightfall was plain to all of
them.

About this time, it is said, some of the Pinkertons, unable to endure
the agony and suspense any longer, eluded the vigilance of their
officers and committed suicide by drowning. Detective Atkinson, of New
York City, made this statement in a Pittsburgh newspaper on the day
after the battle: "When we saw that preparations were being made to burn
the barges, I loaded my revolver and made up my mind to blow out my
brains should the boat be set on fire. I am just as positive that not
less than a dozen of our men committed suicide during the day as I am
that I am standing here. I saw four jump into the water and sink and I
have been told that several others made away with themselves in the same
way." The proprietors of the Pinkerton agency professed subsequently to
have examined their roster and accounted for all the missing men, and
that, with one exception, there were no cases of suicide. Atkinson's
story, however, was corroborated by others, and is given here as having,
at least, a semblance of truth.

The news received over the telegraph wires at the advisory committee's
headquarters was not of a character to dampen the ardor of the Homestead
defenders or lead them to dread the accounting to which somebody must be
held after the score which they had to settle with the Pinkertons would
be wiped out in blood. First came the information that the sheriff had
thrown up his hands and that the governor declined to call out the
militia. Then messages of sympathy and encouragement began pouring in,
and, as these multiplied, the conviction impressed itself upon the men
that they were fighting not only their own battle, for the salvation of
themselves and their families, but the battle of organized labor as a
whole, and that the eyes of workingmen all over the continent were upon
them. Perhaps this was an extravagant conception, but it was
substantially justified by the tone of the telegrams sent in from far
and near, proffering aid and bidding the men of Homestead stand to their
guns. Even from far-away Texas came the news that artillery would be
shipped to Homestead to help the cause of labor. To many rough fellows,
heroic in their way and easily misled by circumstances, it appeared more
likely than not, that the killing of those two barge-loads of Pinkerton
guards was but the first step in a conflict of national extent, which
would wind up in the coming of an industrial millennium. Hardly a man
among them imagined that the law would seek atonement for the death of
Mr. Frick's hired invaders.

One of the most significant bits of news that reached the men was that
conveyed in a dispatch from Washington, D. C., to the effect that
Representative Caminetti, of California, had introduced in Congress a
resolution reciting the benefits conferred upon Andrew Carnegie by
protective tariff legislation and calling for the appointment of a
committee to investigate and report upon the cause of the Homestead
lock-out and its sanguinary consequences.

There were some cool-headed and conservative people in Homestead who
tried to assemble a mass meeting for the purpose of taking measures to
stop the shedding of blood and to have the Pinkerton barges removed and
sent down the river. The pleas of these would-be peacemakers fell upon
deaf ears. In fact, it became dangerous to suggest a cessation of
hostilities within the hearing of those who had experienced their
baptism of fire and felt that lust of bloodshed which is said to be
latent in the breasts of most men. He who talked of meeting the
"Pinkerton butchers" half way challenged suspicion as a coward or a
traitor.




CHAPTER VII.

[Illustration: THE SURRENDER]

    AMALGAMATED OFFICIALS AS MEDIATORS--PRESIDENT WEIHE CALLS A MASS
      MEETING AND COUNSELS PEACE--HUGH O'DONNELL'S SPEECH--THE BRAVE
      YOUNG LEADER PROCURES A SURRENDER--PINKERTONS RUN THE
      GAUNTLET--A SAVAGE MOB ASSAILS THE PRISONERS--ARRIVAL OF THE
      SHERIFF--THE FRICK TROOP OF INVADERS DRIVEN FROM THE STATE.


At three o'clock President William Weihe, of the Amalgamated
Association, came up from Pittsburgh, bearing a commission from the
Sheriff. He was accompanied by Assistant President-elect C. H. McEvay,
of Youngstown, Ohio; Secretary Shaw, Charles Johns and other prominent
officials and members of the association. President-elect Garland joined
the party. The visitors, whose mission was one of mediation, arrived
none too soon. The same indefatigable individuals who had experimented
with the burning raft and the car of fire, had just turned their
attention to pumping oil into the water and throwing heaps of burning
waste upon it, expecting to set fire to the barges by this means. It
was also determined to pump streams of oil upon the barges with the aid
of the borough fire-engines and, having once thoroughly soaked the craft
with the inflammable fluid, dynamite, the men thought, ought to do the
rest.

There was a lull in these proceedings when word was passed along the
line that the Amalgamated officials desired to address the men. The
mass-meeting, which a few citizens of the town had unsuccessfully sought
to bring about was now gotten together in a short space of time and with
no appreciable difficulty, for the men entertained a high regard for
President Weihe and were anxious at heart to hear what advice he might
have to tender them. The meeting was held in one of the mill buildings.
Mr. Weihe addressed the crowd, explaining that he came by virtue of an
agreement with the sheriff to propose that the Pinkertons be allowed to
depart with the guarantee that they would not return. The barbarity of
continuing the battle until it ended in an absolute massacre was
enlarged upon, and it was pointed out that the workmen were already
victorious and could afford to rest on their laurels and to avoid
tarnishing the good name of Homestead by committing what the world would
regard as an outrage upon humanity.

Mr. Garland, who had mounted on a boiler as a rostrum, followed in an
earnest appeal to the manhood of his hearers. "For God's sake, brethren,
be reasonable" he cried. "These men have killed your comrades, but it
can do no good to kill more of them. You have doubtless had two lives
for one already."

A roar of disapproval greeted this deliverance. "We'll have the lives
of the rest of the villains," shouted a chorus of angry voices. "Let us
blow them out of the water or burn them alive." "Order, order!" cried
others, and the rebuke was reinforced by a display of clubs and brawny
fists which had the effect of silencing the turbulent element for the
time being.

"If you permit these men to depart," Mr. Garland continued, "You will
show to the world that you desire to maintain peace and good order along
with your rights. Public opinion will still uphold you in your
struggle."

Again clamorous disapproval greeted the speaker. Cries of "Kill them!"
"Burn them!" were heard on all sides, but there were also a few who
shouted "Let them go!"

Mr. McEvay spoke next. "This day," he said, "You have won a victory such
as was never before known in the history of struggles between capital
and labor." Tremendous cheering followed this diplomatic exordium.
"But," the speaker resumed, "If you do not let these men go, the
military will be sent here and you will lose all you have gained. We
have no assurances, but we hope for a conference if peace is
established. It is certain that, after this lesson, Pinkerton detectives
will never come here again." Cheering was renewed when Mr. McEvay
finished and the cries of "Let them go" increased in volume.

[Illustration: HUGH O'DONNELL.]

Mr. Weihe seized this opportunity to suggest that a steamer be allowed
to come up the river and tow away the barges. "Will the Little Bill come
after them?" somebody howled, and once more pandemonium broke loose. Mr.
Weihe's promise that an unobjectionable boat would be secured had,
however, a quieting effect, and the meeting dispersed leaving the
impression in the minds of the officials that the Pinkertons could be
released.

The news of what had taken place in the meeting traveled quickly through
the mill yard, reaching even the tireless laborers who had been throwing
oil on the barges and who were now engaged in bombarding them with Roman
candles, sky-rockets and other fireworks--surplus Fourth of July stock
obtained from the stores.

Hugh O'Donnell seized this opportunity to make another plea for peace.
Grasping a small American flag, the intrepid young leader sprang upon a
pile of iron and commanded the attention of perhaps a thousand men, who
gathered eagerly around him. O'Donnell began his speech cautiously,
discussing the situation in such a manner as to feel the pulse of his
auditory and make sure that he had their sympathy. After having assured
himself of his ground, he unfolded a plan for a pacific settlement,
suggesting that a truce be arranged, and that the workmen take the
initiative by displaying a white flag.

"Show the white flag? Never," was the unanimous response. "If there is
any white flag to be shown, it must fly from the boats."

This brought O'Donnell to the point he wished to reach, "What will we do
then?" he asked.

"We will hold them in the boats until the Sheriff comes and we will have
warrants sworn out for every man for murder. The Sheriff will then have
to take them in charge," said one man, and, singularly enough,
considering the mood in which the men had been a few minutes before,
this comparatively mild proposal evoked a general shout of approval.

O'Donnell, satisfied that a peaceable adjustment could now be effected,
stepped down and went among the men strengthening the resolution which
had just been taken. In the meantime the Pinkertons had been holding a
final conference among themselves. A majority favored surrender and
forced the captains, who were still doggedly bent upon holding out, to
give in. Once more a white flag was hoisted on the Iron Mountain, and
this time it was not shot down.

At the sight of the flag, the workmen cheered and cries of "Victory!"
"We have them now," "They surrender," rent the air.

O'Donnell, accompanied by two other members of the advisory committee,
ran down to the river bank and received the message of the detective
who acted as spokesman. The purport of it was that the Pinkertons would
surrender if protection from violence were assured to them. After a
short parley, this was agreed to, although the howls and imprecations of
an unruly mob which had thronged into the mill-yard boded ill for the
fulfilment of the guarantee. O'Donnell had more than his own comrades
to answer for. Throughout the afternoon thousands of outsiders--some
of them millmen from South Pittsburgh, some roughs and toughs who
relished the prospect of taking a hand in a fight of any kind, some
Anarchists, aching for a chance to strike a blow at "Capital" and its
representatives--had walked into Homestead over the railroad tracks and
were now mingled with the steelworkers. These strangers, of course, were
careless of consequences and indifferent to the restraining influence of
O'Donnell and those associated with O'Donnell in ending the conflict.
The women, too, were not to be relied upon. After being shut out of the
battle-ground all day, it was questionable whether or not they could be
held in check when the Pinkertons were placed at their mercy. It is well
to bear these facts in mind in connection with the painful scene which
is now to be depicted.

The Pinkertons, despite O'Donnell's pledge of protection, seemed to lose
all heart when the moment came to leave the barges. Nobody was willing
to be the first to go on shore, and, as if seized by a panic, the
helpless wretches huddled together behind benches and boxes and waited,
in fear and trembling, for a summons from the other side. The workmen,
however, were not slow to make themselves masters of the situation.
Hundreds of them rushed down the bank, crossed the gang-plank and
clambered into the barges. On the shore a tremendous crowd gathered,
hooting and yelling, most of them carrying weapons of some kind. No
wonder the Pinkertons blenched. They had to run the gauntlet, and if the
experience before them was not destined to be almost as trying as that
attributed to the victims of the gauntlet torture in tales of Indian
life, it was not because the mob did not show all signs of thirsting for
a fierce carnival of revenge.

The crowd on the shore formed itself, as if by a preconcerted plan, into
two lines, 600 yards long, between which the men from the barges had to
pass. As the first of the Pinkertons emerged from the barge Iron
Mountain, it was seen that he carried his Winchester rifle. "Disarm
him," yelled the crowd, and directly every one of the guards was forced
to lay down his arms.

Then the Pinkertons came out, in a dilapidated looking string, walking,
running or crawling as best they could. The first few passed through the
lines without molestation beyond hoots, jeers and imprecations. Suddenly
the fury of the mob broke out. A man struck a detective with his open
hand. The example was contagious. Clubs and stones were used with
demoniacal ferocity. Women, converted for the nonce into veritable
furies, belabored Mr. Frick's janizaries with bludgeons, stoned them,
kicked them and spat upon them. The hated Pinkerton uniforms were torn
off and cast into the river. Cries for mercy were treated with derision.

As a means of identification the Pinkertons had been compelled to
uncover their heads, and thus offered an easy mark to their half-crazed
assailants.

"Men, for the love of God, have mercy on me," shrieked a gray-headed
man, wounded and bleeding. Mercy! The time for that weakness had gone
by. The suppliant was an accursed Pinkerton and again and again he was
struck down and beaten before he reached the end of those terrible
lines.

One young fellow, on leaving the gang-plank, threw himself on his knees,
burst into tears and begged to be spared. Kicks brought him to his feet
again, and he had hardly risen when he was felled to the earth by a
blood-stained club.

The satchels and other small articles that the Pinkertons carried were
snatched from them and destroyed.

Only those who were seriously wounded were permitted to pass without
being attacked.

While this exhibition of barbarism was in progress, Hugh O'Donnell and a
corps of aids, representing the advisory committee, made frantic efforts
to shield the prisoners; but the mob, for the most part, owed no
allegiance to the Amalgamated lodges, and set the officials at defiance.
In fact, several of the men who made up the hastily-formed escort were
themselves struck and reviled for their humanity.

The Pinkertons were led through the streets to the rink, or opera-house,
suffering indignities all the way. Even children threw mud and stones at
them. Arrived at the rink, the entire posse was driven in like a herd of
sheep. Guards were placed and members of the Amalgamated Association,
assisted by physicians of the town, attended to the wounded. Entrance to
the rink was not secured without serious trouble. A crowd of Hungarians
gathered here to take vengeance for the death of one of their countrymen
who had fallen in the early morning skirmish. Women were among them and
incited the men to mischief. When the Pinkertons appeared, a brawny
Hungarian seized one of them by the throat and struck him in the face,
while a stoutly-built woman belabored him with a club. A guard, placed
there by the advisory committee, leveled his gun at the Huns, and
shouted "Stand back, or by ---- I'll shoot the next man or woman that
raises a hand against them. We have promised to protect them and we'll
do it, even if we have to use our guns." This declaration provoked a
howl of rage and cries of "Kill the murderers." Instantly a dozen guns
were leveled at the mob, and disaster might have followed, had not
Burgess McLuckie come forward, commanded peace and assured the crowd
that the Pinkertons would be locked up and held for murder. No further
trouble was experienced in getting the bruised and battered prisoners
into their temporary quarters.

A sorrier sight than these men presented when they were assembled after
the horrors of the day's fighting in the barges and of the march to the
rink could not well be imagined. By actual count, one hundred and
forty-three of the survivors were suffering from painful wounds or
contusions, and those who had by extraordinary good luck, escaped with a
whole skin, were half dead from fear and exhaustion.

They were kept in the rink under guard until near midnight. In the
interim a conference was held between the borough council and the
workmen's committee, at which it was agreed to let the Sheriff come to
Homestead and remove the Pinkertons, whose presence in the town was a
standing incentive to disorder. The Sheriff was sent for accordingly and
arrived on a special train at eleven o'clock in company with the chief
executive officers of the Amalgamated Association and W. J. Brennen,
solicitor for the association. The Pinkertons were hurried into the
Sheriff's train as quickly as their condition would permit, locked
securely in the cars, and brought to Pittsburgh, where, after a score of
the most dangerously wounded men had been removed to the hospital, the
train was switched quietly to a side-track in the Pennsylvania Railroad
yards, there to remain until the authorities decided what should be done
with the Carnegie Company's troublesome agents. An hour or two later, it
was decided, after a consultation held by the Sheriff with his bondsman,
Chris L. Magee, a gentleman prominent in Republican politics, and the
railroad officials, that the men should be sent east, and they were
accordingly taken out of town, without considering the demand for their
arrest and indictment. This was, no doubt, the best thing that could be
done under the circumstances, in view of the strong feeling against the
Pinkertons among the working people of Pittsburgh.

When the Pinkertons had been driven from the barges, both vessels were
subjected to a thorough search. Among the articles brought to light was
a roster containing 266 names, divided into squads of 20, each in
command of a lieutenant. Notes in the book showed that some of the men
had been on duty at Walston, Pa., at Cleveland and other points where
strikes had occurred.

The barges were for a time thronged with curious men, women and
children. Somebody said "Burn them." Then the sight-seers fell back; a
few stout fellows carried out the last boxes of Winchesters and
ammunition; oil was thrown upon the boats; a torch was applied to each;
and, in a few minutes, the Iron Mountain and the Monongahela were
enveloped in flames. The delight of the on-lookers at this finale to the
tragic events of the day knew no bounds. They cheered, clapped their
hands and even danced with glee while the dry wood blazed and crackled,
and two huge columns of smoke rose lazily towards the sky and formed
clouds overhead. Not until the vessels had burned to the surface of the
water and the last hissing embers disappeared beneath the placid bosom
of the Monongahela did the enthusiasm abate.

The removal of the Pinkertons allowed the men of Homestead to rest for
the first time in forty-eight hours, and the town now lapsed into its
normal condition of quietude. Pickets were posted as usual to guard
against surprise, but, aside from these watchers, the whole population
sought repose, and by dint of sheer exhaustion, slept as soundly as if,
a few hours before, carnage had not reigned supreme.

Whether the sheriff of Allegheny county slept or not is an open
question. His last act before going to Homestead to remove the
Pinkertons was to set his clerks at work making out notices to leading
residents of Pittsburgh and Allegheny City, calling upon them, as loyal
citizens of the commonwealth, to report next morning for service as
special deputies at Homestead. The list was made up largely of editors,
bankers, wealthy merchants and others of a class not likely to respond
with alacrity. The outlook for a campaign against the fighting men of
Homestead with such an army was hardly of a kind to promote wholesome
slumber.

Mr. Frick, on whom the responsibility for the slaughter at Homestead was
generally supposed to devolve, spent the night at his palatial residence
in the East End, under the guardianship of private detectives.

Late at night, Secretary Lovejoy furnished a statement to the press. The
Carnegie Company, he claimed, had offered $10,000 to any steamboat
captain or owner who would go up the river and tow the barges down, but
could find no one willing to take the risk. The company now left
everything to the sheriff, with whom, quoth the secretary, "we cannot
interfere in the discharge of his duty."




CHAPTER VIII.

[Illustration: AFTER THE BATTLE]

    CARNEGIE'S PROPERTY PROTECTED--CONFIDENCE STILL STRONG AMONG THE
      MEN--HOMESTEAD AS A NEWS CENTER--THE DEATH-ROLL--BURIAL OF THE
      DEAD--ANARCHISTS GET A SHORT SHRIFT--THE SHERIFF FAILS
      AGAIN--INTERVIEWING THE GOVERNOR--MARTIAL LAW IN
      SIGHT--PROCEEDINGS IN CONGRESS--OPINIONS OF NEWSPAPERS AND
      PUBLICISTS--A PRESS CENSORSHIP ESTABLISHED AT HOMESTEAD.


At three o'clock on the morning of July 7, a committee of picked men
made a search of the Homestead works, keeping a sharp look-out for stray
Pinkertons, spies or other interlopers. Nothing was discovered. Even the
rats were scared away from the place, where empty cartridge shells,
wadding and discarded weapons--mute evidences of the bloody work that
had been done the day before--were scattered around in profusion. Having
completed its round, the committee retired to headquarters and prepared
an order requiring the watchmen, who had deserted their posts when the
battle with the Pinkertons began, to resume the guardianship of the
Carnegie Company's property. The men had guaranteed protection to the
plant and showed by this step that they meant to keep their word.

At an early hour all Homestead was stirring, and anxious crowds
assembled at headquarters and other distributing centers of information
to ascertain what the new day was likely to bring forth. For the most
part, the feeling of self-confidence which had inspired the locked-out
men was as strong now, when a reaction might have been expected to set
in, as it was at any time previously. Rumors of the coming of a fresh
detachment of Pinkertons put the men on their mettle, and it was
apparent that a repetition of Mr. Frick's experiment would be worse than
futile.

Nobody gave serious thought to the likelihood of prosecutions to follow.
The Pinkertons were invaders, whose purpose was to murder, and the
workmen were legally justified in repelling them _vi et armis_. So the
people reasoned, and this line of argument seemed, in their judgment, to
be the only one that could present itself to any fair-minded and
intelligent person. Even if it was wrong to kill and wound armed
invaders, they believed it would be preposterous to think of arresting
and imprisoning several thousand citizens.

The extraordinary interest taken in affairs at Homestead by the world
without was demonstrated by the fact that, within the twenty-four hours
elapsing after the firing of the first shot on July 6, this usually
quiet little town was transformed into the busiest and most prolific
news center in the United States. An army of newspaper correspondents
from all parts of the country found quarters in the hotels and took
possession of the telegraph offices. The ten daily papers of Pittsburgh
had variously from two to ten men on the ground. The New York _World_
headed the list of outsiders with five correspondents and a special
artist. The New York _Herald_, _Sun_ and _Mail and Express_; the Chicago
_Tribune_ and _Herald_; the Philadelphia _Press_ and _Times_; the
Cleveland _Leader_ and _Press_, and the Baltimore _Sun_ and _World_ all
dispatched bright, able "specials" to the scene of disturbance with that
admirable promptitude which makes American journalism a world's wonder.
The Postal and Western Union Telegraph Companies also proved fully equal
to the emergency. The Postal Company placed a corps of operators in a
large room in the building where the Amalgamated Association held its
meetings, and the Western Union, in addition to its regular office,
established an annex in a restaurant, where two expert operators were
kept busy handling huge masses of "copy," intended to be put in type,
perhaps a thousand miles away. The excellence and magnitude of the work
done by the newspaper men and telegraph operators at Homestead from this
time on were unprecedented. Reporters from Pittsburgh were on hand to
meet the Pinkertons when a landing was attempted, fraternized with the
firing parties behind the barricades while the battle was in progress,
interviewed the Pinkertons as they emerged from the barges after the
surrender, and withal seemed to lead a charmed life, for there is no
record of injury to any of the "gentlemen of the press." The latitude
enjoyed by the journalistic fraternity was owing chiefly to the
influence of Hugh O'Donnell, who had himself been a newspaper
correspondent in a small way and who realized besides the advisability
of aiding the press to secure accurate details of the struggle, so that
the motives and actions of the workmen should not be injuriously
represented. The gallant young leader had his reward. In a single day,
the newspapers made him world-famous.

The making up of a list of the killed and wounded turned out to be a
difficult matter. The Pinkertons had been hurried away, carrying many of
their wounded with them and leaving not more than a dozen of their
number in the Pittsburgh hospitals. At Homestead, there was a tendency
to conceal the losses of the workingmen. How many of the latter were
badly wounded has never been definitely ascertained. The official list
of the dead, on both sides, as it appears on the books of the coroner of
Allegheny County, is as follows:

Detectives--J. W. Klein, Edward A. R. Speer and T. J. Connors.

Workmen--Joseph Sotak, John E. Morris, Silas Wain, Thomas Weldon, Henry
Striegel, George W. Rutter and Peter Farris.

Speer, who was a Pinkerton lieutenant in Chicago, was shot in the leg
and lingered at the Homeopathic Hospital, in Pittsburgh, until July 17,
when death ended his sufferings.

Rutter also survived until July 17. He fell at the first volley, having
been shot in the thigh and abdomen. This man was a veteran of the Union
army and one of the most respected millworkers in Homestead. He
possessed courage above the ordinary and died rejoicing that he had
been able to lay down his life for his fellow workmen.

At two o'clock in the afternoon of July 7, the members of the
Amalgamated lodges and of the various other local societies were
marshaled in attendance at the funeral services of their dead
brethren--John E. Morris, Silas Wain and Peter Farris. The funeral of
Morris was under the supervision of the order of Odd Fellows, of which
he was a valued member. Rev. J. J. McIlyar conducted services at the
Fourth Avenue M. E. Church, and delivered an impassioned oration,
embodying a recital of the untoward events which had made Homestead a
place of mourning. "The millmen," he said, "were organized in an
association that enabled them to obtain just and adequate remuneration
for their services. The existence of this union of the men was
threatened by a body of Pinkertons, employed by somebody for the
purpose. This is what has put this blessed man in his coffin to-day; a
perfect citizen; an intelligent man; a good husband who was never
lacking in his duty; a brother who was devoted and loyal and who will
surely find his reward."

Rev. Mr. McIlyar told how easily the difficulty between the Carnegie
firm and its employees might have been adjusted had arbitration been
resorted to. "But," he added, "this town is bathed in tears to-day and
it is all brought about by one man, who is less respected by the
laboring people than any other employer in the country. There is no more
sensibility in that man than in a toad." While the minister was speaking
the sobs of Morris's broken-hearted widow interrupted his address, and
her grief found a sympathetic echo in the hearts of all present.

Crowds lined the route to the cemetery and watched with tear-dimmed eyes
the passage of the funeral cortege. On the way the hearse that bore the
remains of Peter Farris fell into line. After the last sad rites had
been performed over the graves of Morris and Farris, another procession
was formed and all that was mortal of Silas Wain was removed to its
resting-place.

Towards evening a stir was created by the appearance on the streets of a
little band of anarchists from Allegheny City, who, like vultures
attracted by the scent of prey, were drawn to the scene of trouble by
the hope of fomenting still greater disorders. The unbidden guests
proceeded to distribute incendiary circulars, setting forth that the
mills were the rightful property of the workingmen and should be seized
as such, and calling on the good people of Homestead to become
anarchists and strike for liberty hand-in-hand with their "brothers."
Two of the agitators were placed under arrest and confined in the
lock-up. The rest were promptly shipped out of town with an admonition
not to return. It caused the workmen much concern to suppose that they
might be credited with anarchistic tendencies; and, as a consequence, a
species of censorship was established over the newspaper correspondents,
with a view to preventing the publication of reports describing the
Homestead defenders as a set of cut-throats and desperadoes, whereas,
they wished the whole world to know that they were honest men, fighting
for bread for themselves and their wives and children.

On the night of July 6, as has been told in the preceding chapter,
Sheriff McCleary set his clerks to work on the issuing of notices to
prominent citizens to report for service as deputies. The papers were
delivered early in the morning, but the results were far from
satisfactory. Some of the editors, bankers, merchants, manufacturers and
political leaders addressed were too far advanced in years to be
physically fit for active service, at least one of the number being over
80 years of age. Others had too wholesome a regard for their own safety
to risk doing duty at Homestead and preferred being arrested and fined,
if a penalty should be required. Only thirty-two men reported at the
sheriffs office, and these were unarmed. The sheriff dismissed them with
the remark that it was useless to go to Homestead with so small a force.
Governor Pattison, however, was not moved by the representation that an
appeal directed to persons who were not likely to undertake police duty
under any circumstances exhausted the powers of the county government.
He had already taxed the sheriff with shirking his duty and the course
of events after the battle did not seem to have altered his opinion on
this head. But the sheriff had made up his mind to incur no danger that
he could avoid, and, therefore, remained all day in his office, leaving
the local authorities of Homestead to preserve the peace if they could
or would. The only important move which he made looking to the
restoration of order was to call a conference in the evening to consider
a proposition to introduce deputies into the Homestead works. At this
meeting, C. L. Magee, John F. Cox, a Homestead attorney, Burgess John
McLuckie, Hugh O'Donnell, President Weihe and President-elect Garland,
of the Amalgamated Association, David Lynch, William Roberts, Jerry
Doherty and James McCrory, also of the Amalgamated Association, were in
attendance. As might have been expected no definite conclusion was
reached, beyond what was embodied in the assurances tendered by the
Amalgamated men that they would do their utmost in the interest of
peace. The persistent refusal of the Carnegie Company to lift a hand for
the prevention of another outbreak or to exhibit any trace of friendly
consideration for its locked-out employees was an obstacle in the path
of the peacemakers that could not well be overcome.

A conference of militia officers at the Seventh Avenue Hotel, in which
the sheriff was also a participant, excited considerable interest. The
purpose of this consultation, it was understood, was to consider the
facilities for getting the citizen-soldiery into the field on short
notice, in case the governor should finally decide to order them out.

Much uneasiness was felt in Homestead concerning the chances of military
interference. The citizens were naturally averse to the quartering of
troops in the town for an indefinite period. It was apparent that this
was what Mr. Frick was aiming at. His own hired troop having failed, it
was his desire, with the aid of Sheriff McCleary, to force the governor
to call out the troops of the state and place them indirectly at the
disposal of the Carnegie firm. With the militia at his back, the
Carnegie Company's chairman counted on easily filling the mill with
non-union men and breaking up the Amalgamated lodges.

In order to prevent the execution of this design and to offset the
sheriffs representations, leading citizens of Homestead telegraphed the
governor requesting him to take no action until he had conferred with a
committee which would immediately wait upon him at Harrisburg. The
committee, which consisted of Attorney John F. Cox, Hugh O'Donnell, J.
H. Williams, Dr. John Purman and G. W. Sarver, reached the executive
chamber at 10:20 P. M. on July 8 and remained in conference with the
governor until midnight. Messrs. Cox and O'Donnell made strong arguments
against the calling out of the military, assuring the governor that
order was restored in Homestead and that the sheriff would be allowed to
take peaceable possession of the Carnegie property. Governor Pattison's
reply was to the effect that insubordination would be checked if it took
the whole military power of the state and of the nation; but, he added,
the rights of all parties to the struggle would be maintained without
regard to the merits or demerits of the business differences between
them, and the military would be subordinated to the civil power. In
short, without stating positively that he would call out the military,
the governor sent the committee home with a pretty firm conviction that
Sheriff McCleary's supineness had done its work and that, unless
conditions altered amazingly, the troops would soon be on the ground. It
was learned afterwards that the governor had sent an officer of the
national guard to examine into the condition of things at Homestead and
make an accurate report. The experiences of this individual, who, being
a stranger, fell under suspicion and had some disagreeable encounters
with the pickets and workmen's committees, were, no doubt, the real
occasion of the governor's action; for it is certain that Sheriff
McCleary's pleading telegrams had little weight at Harrisburg.

In the meantime, the aspect of affairs at Homestead became, if anything,
more warlike. After the burial of their dead comrades had been attended
to, the men set about strengthening their defenses, so as to guard
against any attack, whether from Pinkertons or others. The fence around
the mill-yard was repaired; the picket lines were restored and
reinforced and arms and ammunition were freely distributed. Scouts were
sent out with instructions to post themselves in the railroad yards
around Pittsburgh and at points along the river and to give the alarm at
the approach of an invading party of any description. The military
organization of the men was well-nigh perfect, and it was manifestly
impossible that they could be surprised.

But one alarm was given during the night. At 1 A. M. the ringing of
bells and the blowing of whistles aroused the town, and the works were
quickly surrounded by men carrying loaded rifles. When it was
ascertained that the alarm was a false one, the crowd just as quickly
dispersed and from a state of wild excitement the town lapsed back into
peace and quietude.

Much encouragement was given to the men by the interest taken in their
cause not only by organized labor throughout the land but by some of the
most noted men in public life. Congress entered into the discussion of
the Homestead struggle with extraordinary zest. Representative
Camminetti opened the ball in the lower house on July 6, and on the
following day Mr. Palmer, of Illinois, made a fiery speech in the
senate, declaring the Pinkerton invasion to be an insult to the
commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and that the coercion of wage-workers by
an armed force was reprehensible and called for the sternest
condemnation. Mr. Palmer maintained further that the workmen of
Homestead, having built up the mills by their labor, had a right to
insist upon, permanency of employment and reasonable compensation. Mr.
Voorhees, of Indiana, argued that the Homestead troubles were the direct
result of the Republican tariff system, by which the iron barons of
Pennsylvania were heavily protected with a pretended understanding that
the workingman would get his share of the benefits conferred. Mr.
Carnegie, the speaker said, had done his part by sending an armed mob to
shoot down his employees if they refused to serve for reduced wages or
to abandon their jobs to others whose services could be had for less
money. The Pinkertons had been killed by men acting in self-defense, and
it was his only regret that Carnegie himself had not been at the head of
that squad "instead of skulking in his castle in Scotland." Republican
senators responded to these speeches, defending the protective tariff,
but emphatically repudiating Pinkertonism. While these proceedings were
going on in the senate, the house busied itself with arrangements to
send a committee to Homestead, and several speakers also took occasion
to denounce the employment of Pinkerton trained bands as contrary to the
spirit of American institutions.

The press of the country was almost a unit in deploring the harsh
methods employed by the Carnegie Company and in demanding legislation
prohibiting the maintainence of a Pinkerton "standing army" and its
utilization in labor troubles. The New York _World_ suggested that the
dispute at Homestead be settled by referring it to a board of
arbitration, to be composed of Governor McKinley, of Ohio; Governor
Pattison, of Pennsylvania, and Terence V. Powderly, Grand Master Workman
of the Knights of Labor. The New York _Sun_ stood alone among the
Democratic papers in upholding Mr. Frick and the Pinkertons.

General B. F. Butler, whose reputation as a constitutional lawyer gave
special significance to his remarks, expressed the opinion that the
Carnegie Company should be held legally responsible for the provocation
of bloodshed, since it had prepared for riot and sent an armed
expedition to precipitate it. In his judgment, the government should
cause the Pinkerton forces to be disbanded.

General Weaver, the nominee of the People's Party for president,
pronounced the outbreak an illustration of the subjugation of the
Republic to corporate despotism. "When Rome was near her fall," he said,
"the wealthy barons had their braves. Our corporate barons have their
Pinkertons.... The frightful condition of affairs in Pennsylvania will
strike the whole country like an alarm bell at midnight."

The newspapers containing these expressions were scanned with avidity by
the locked-out men, and, at the same time the scrutiny exercised over
the reporters was made all the more vigorous as it became apparent even
to those of limited intelligence that Homestead was now the focus of
world-wide observation, and that the judgment formed abroad depended
entirely on the carefulness and veracity of the correspondents. Some of
the latter protested hotly against what they regarded as unwarrantable
interference with their work, but protests counted for nothing. Spies
and impostors had slipped into town in the guise of newspaper men and
the committeemen of the lodges deemed it necessary to supervise with the
utmost vigor the work of those whose credentials were accepted,
especially since the reporters were necessarily aware of the identity of
the most active combatants and were in a position to betray secrets
which might be used afterwards with fatal effect. Several correspondents
who were suspected of making a questionable use of their opportunities
were arrested and driven out of town, and those who were allowed to
remain, had to wear badges provided for them by the committeemen. That
there was reasonable foundation for these precautions was attested later
on when it turned out that a few men who professed to represent
reputable journals were in the pay of the Carnegie Company. One of these
spies held credentials from a well known Chicago newspaper.




CHAPTER IX.

[Illustration: SOLDIERS TO THE FRONT.]

    THE SHERIFF'S LAST EFFORT--MR. FRICK ISSUES A STATEMENT AND THE
      AMALGAMATED ASSOCIATION RESPONDS--POLITICAL AND INDUSTRIAL
      ORGANIZATIONS INDORSE THE HOMESTEAD MEN--INTERVIEWING
      CARNEGIE--CENSORSHIP OF THE PRESS--GOVERNOR PATTISON ORDERS
      OUT THE NATIONAL GUARD--STRENGTH OF THE MILITIA--LOCKED-OUT
      MEN PREPARE TO WELCOME THE BLUE-COATS--A SPEECH THAT BURGESS
      McLUCKIE NEVER DELIVERED.


With the exception of alarms caused by rumors that Pinkertons were
coming in force, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, July 8, 9 and 10, were
comparatively uneventful days at Homestead.

On Friday morning Harris Striegel, a lad of 19, who had been among the
first to fall, was buried with solemn ceremonies. In the afternoon a
mass meeting was held at the rink, under the auspices of President Weihe
and other officers of the Amalgamated Association. William J. Brennen,
attorney for the Association, addressed the men, advising them to let
the sheriff take possession of the works. If they refused to do this, he
said, the militia would be ordered out, and then, if resistance should
be offered, the troops would undoubtedly fire upon the citizens at a
fearful cost of human life. Other speakers took the same ground as Mr.
Brennen, and the disposition of the men seemed favorable to the
admission of the sheriff and a posse of unarmed deputies. Nevertheless,
the meeting adjourned without taking definite action.

Sheriff McCleary arrived in the town shortly after the adjournment of
the meeting and was met by Dr. Gladden and five business men. The
sheriff said that at the conference held in his office the night before
he had received from attorney Cox and Dr. Gladden a list of twenty
business men of Homestead who would serve as deputies. Only six out of
the twenty were on hand to serve. What was there for him to do but to go
home again? A large crowd surrounded the speaker, listening to his
remarks, and followed him wherever he went. One of the locked-out men, a
turbulent individual, named Burke, accused the sheriff of double-dealing
and abused him roundly. Mr. McCleary hastened to get out of his
uncomfortable quarters and boarded the first train for Pittsburgh.

The Amalgamated leaders devoted considerable time to the discussion
among themselves of an interview given by Mr. Frick to the Philadelphia
_Press_ and published simultaneously in the Pittsburgh morning papers.
This deliverance conveyed a carefully prepared history of the trouble
between the Carnegie firm and its workmen, justified every act of the
former, condemned every act of the latter, and declared that the firm
would never again recognize trades unions. The principal points in Mr.
Frick's defense were these:

1.--That $23 a ton for billets was a reasonable minimum on which to base
wages, and that its acceptance should follow from the fact that the
introduction of new machinery into the mills, at great expense, had
enabled the men to increase their output and consequently to increase
their earnings.

2.--That the expiration of the sliding scale on June 30 was
embarrassing, because, in order to make contracts for the year, the firm
should be informed on January 1 of the rates of wages to be paid.

3.--That the improvements already referred to warranted a decrease in
tonnage rates, and that, even allowing for this decrease, the tonnage
men would make more money than they did when the sliding scale went into
effect in 1889.

4.--That there was no question of starvation wages, since the reductions
proposed would affect only 325 men out of 3,800[A], and would merely
bring the wages of these men to an equality with those paid in other
mills operated with union labor but not possessing the improved
appliances of the Carnegie plant.

        [A] The event shows that Mr. Frick cannot have been
        sincere in this statement. Wages have been seriously
        depressed in almost all departments of the Homestead
        mill.

5.--That in the non-union mills operated by the Carnegie Company, good
wages were paid and the employees were contented.

An answer to Mr. Frick's statement was drawn up by the workmen and
published on the following day. The arguments in rebuttal were briefly
as follows:

1.--That, as the workingmen do not sell the product of their labor, they
must, under a sliding scale, protect themselves by requiring a minimum
basis of wage-rates, which should not fall so low as to involve the
payment of extremely low wages.

2.--That the enjoyment of fair rates of wages by the non-union workmen
at Braddock and Duquesne was due to the fixing of a standard by the
Amalgamated Association, below which the wages of non-unionists could
not decently be permitted to fall.

3.--That, in preparing the scale, the workmen had made full allowance
for improved machinery, not forgetting that the improvements had
displaced many men, and thus, in a manner, repaid the cost of the
investment. If there had been a misunderstanding on this head, it could
have been adjusted by fair discussion, but fair discussion was
impossible with an employer who declined to confer.

4.--That, of the 3,800 men employed, all or nearly all were affected by
one or the other of the changes proposed, to-wit: a reduction in the
minimum, another reduction in the proportionate rate of pay (thus making
a double reduction) and the termination of the scale on December 31,
1893, instead of June 30, 1894.

In concluding their answer, the workmen said, "If argument and honest
reasoning were substituted for the reserve and coldness of manner seen
in the company's present attitude, there might be reason to expect an
end of this deplorable state of affairs."

On Saturday, the Democratic Committee of Allegheny County met in
Pittsburgh at the call of its chairman, William J. Brennen, Esq., the
attorney for the Amalgamated Association, and, after the completion of
routine business, adopted, by an unanimous vote, resolutions
sympathizing with the men of Homestead in their efforts to "maintain
American and resist European pauper wages," condoling with the friends
of those who had been "shot down by the hirelings of a greedy and
arbitrary combination of capital" and denouncing Pinkertonism. These
resolutions were presented by Jere Dougherty, of the Amalgamated
Association.

Resolutions of similar tenor were adopted by all the labor unions in
Allegheny County, and thousands of lodges in other localities placed
themselves on record to the same purpose and, in most cases, coupled
their expressions of sympathy and endorsement with offers of financial
support. The South Side Glassworkers' Union, of Pittsburgh, demanded
that the city councils reject Andrew Carnegie's gift of $1,000,000 for a
free library, since the library would be paid for by the reduction of
workingmen's earnings. This home-thrust was repeated by scores of other
unions in and around Pittsburgh, and, as a consequence, the councils let
public business go to the wall and avoided holding a meeting until the
excitement had simmered down. The fact is that, since the gift had been
accepted, the money received and deposited to the order of a special
commission, and some of it already spent, there was no way of returning
it; but anyhow the councils did not venture on a discussion of the
question, which must have led to a division on pro-Carnegie and
anti-Carnegie lines.

At Columbus, O., 2,000 workmen met in the statehouse yard and passed
resolutions calling upon the Pennsylvania authorities and the United
States Congress to exterminate the Pinkerton system.

At Chicago, representatives of 20,000 men engaged in the building trades
discussed the propriety of taking up arms and marching to the relief of
Homestead.

Even in England, the trades unions entered protest against the Carnegie
methods and called upon Kier Hardie, a workingmen's representative in
Parliament, to whose election expenses Andrew Carnegie had contributed
£100, to return the amount forthwith. Mr. Hardie very promptly forwarded
the money, not to Mr. Carnegie, but to the people of Homestead, who, he
held, had a valid title to receive and use it.

Three days elapsed after the battle at Homestead, before the English
agents of the American press associations, who had been ordered to
follow him up, were able to locate Mr. Carnegie and obtain an interview.
Although regularly advised by cable of the progress of the troubles at
his mills, he did not let the news interfere with his pleasures, but
spent those three days on a coaching tour from Edinburgh to Kinloch, in
Scotland. At Kinloch, he rented a shooting-box for eight weeks at a cost
of $10,000. Here an American interviewer found him. According to the
correspondent's statement, he was received by Mr. Carnegie in a
"contemptuous and insulting" manner, as if the "intrusion upon his ducal
magnificence" were a thing to be resented with the hauteur distinctively
belonging to an American iron baron, who can afford to have castles and
shooting-boxes in Europe. In response to a request for his opinion on
the occurrences at Homestead, Mr. Carnegie said: "I am not willing to
express an opinion. The men have chosen their course and I am powerless
to change it. The handling of the case on the part of the company has my
full approval and sanction. Further than this, I have no disposition to
say anything."

Possibly this brusque statement may have been prompted in a measure by
the irritation resulting from the use of the deadly parallels at the
little millionaire's expense in the _Pall Mall Gazette_, a marked copy
of which lay upon a table in the reception hall of the lodge. On one
side appeared a report of Mr. Carnegie's philantrophic talk at the
opening of the free library at Aberdeen, where he was seconded by the
Earl and Countess of Aberdeen, and on the other a tell-tale table of
reduced wages at Homestead.

The report of this interview with the high-priest of arbitration
supplied a rich theme of comment to the locked-out men and it was well
for Mr. Carnegie's dignity, that, just at this time, 3,000 miles
separated him from his employees. Even at that distance, his ears must
have tingled.

On Saturday evening, the press committee of the Amalgamated lodges, of
which Hugh O'Donnell was chairman, distributed official press badges to
the newspaper correspondents whose credentials were approved, and the
committee signified its purpose of keeping close watch on the work of
these gentlemen and of expelling from the town anyone of the number who,
either by a violation of confidence or by sending out false statements
proved himself unworthy of toleration. The reporters proposed the
appointment of a committee composed of two newspaper men, two workmen
and a fifth member, selected by these four, to pass upon disputes as to
news matter, but this proposition was dropped on the receipt of a
guarantee from Hugh O'Donnell that the rights of the press would be
respected.

Throughout all these proceedings, the men acted in the belief that they
were doing their best to maintain good order, and, although the
committee which had been sent to Harrisburg returned without genuinely
reassuring news, no one seemed to have the least idea that the military
would be called out.

However, the visit of the governor's agent, previously referred to, had
already borne fruit when, on the morning of Sunday, July 10, Sheriff
McCleary forwarded his final appeal for military aid. In this
communication, the sheriff once more averred that his powers were
exhausted, and that the civil authorities could not raise a force of
deputies large enough to cope with the locked-out men, "Only a large
military force," he added, "will enable me to control matters."

At 10 o'clock on Sunday night the governor issued the following order:

    _George R. Snowden, Major-General Commanding N. G. P._:

    Put the division under arms and move at once, with ammunition,
    to the support of the sheriff of Allegheny County, at Homestead.
    Maintain the peace, protect all persons in their rights under
    the constitution and laws of the state. Communicate with me.

        ROBERT E. PATTISON, _Governor_.

Sheriff McCleary was informed of this order and directed to communicate
with General Snowden.

Immediately on receipt of his instructions, General Snowden issued
orders to the brigade commanders. General Robert P. Dechert, in command
of the First Brigade, with headquarters at Philadelphia, was directed to
concentrate his brigade in camp at Mt. Gretna, near Lebanon, in the
eastern part of the state, by Monday afternoon, battery horsed, and
taking three days' rations. General J. P. S. Gobin, of the Second
Brigade, was ordered to concentrate his command at Lewiston, moving
west. General John A. Wiley, of the Third Brigade, composed of regiments
from Western Pennsylvania, was ordered to proceed with his command to a
point on the Pennsylvania Railroad within easy reach of the Monongahela
River.

Within twelve hours from the time when Major General Snowden received
the Governor's order the entire National Guard of Pennsylvania was on
the march, fully equipped and ready for any kind of service.

It was no makeshift army that thus took the field on a few hours'
notice. General Sherman said at the Garfield inauguration that the
Pennsylvania Militia were the best body of troops in the National Guard
of the country and, if confirmation of the accuracy of his judgment were
needed, the Homestead "campaign" furnished it in amplest measure. The
Guard underwent a signal transformation after the Pittsburgh railroad
riot of 1877. Prior to that time it was a loosely constituted, loosely
governed organization, wholly unfitted for service in an emergency and
serving principally as an agency for the distribution of military
titles. The disastrous consequences of the movement against the
Pittsburgh rioters, in which ignorance, incompetency and lack of
concrete organization, in addition to causing the destruction of
millions of dollars' worth of property came near bringing about the
loss of many lives, opened the eyes of Major General Hartranft, then
Governor of the state, and led him to formulate and carry into execution
a plan of reorganization the success of which is seen to-day in the
superiority of the Pennsylvania militia to any other body of troops in
the United States outside the regular army. Under Governor Hartranft's
direction the several divisions of the guard existing under the old
order of things were merged in a single division of three brigades,
composed of eighteen regiments of infantry, three troops of cavalry and
three batteries of artillery. The maximum enrollment was limited to 8000
men. The regiments are recruited from all parts of the state and include
all classes of citizens--farmers, mechanics, clerks, merchants and
gentlemen of leisure.

The mobilization of this great body of men was accomplished with a
degree of celerity and effectiveness unknown since the civil war. When
the regiments advanced on the morning of July 11, all had nearly their
full complement of officers and men. In a single night, preparations for
service, the duration and hardship of which could not be estimated, were
completed, and 8000 soldiers stood unreservedly at the disposal of the
commonwealth.

The news that the soldiers were coming was received in Homestead without
any perceptible feeling of alarm. It was understood by every one in the
town that resistance to the power of the commonwealth was out of the
question, and at the same time the idea went abroad that General Snowden
and his men would confine themselves to the preservation of the peace
and not aid Mr. Frick in the manning of the mill with non-unionists or
the landing of another force of Pinkertons. There were, it is true,
some hot-heads who disputed the justice of the Governor's action and
canvassed the possibility of resisting the militia or of inducing the
workingmen who bore arms for the state to make common cause with their
brethren in the beleaguered town. The advisory committeemen, however,
aided by other influential and intelligent citizens, were quick to
suppress these disorderly symptoms and to emphasize the necessity of
giving the soldiers a cordial and patriotic reception.

At two o'clock on Tuesday afternoon a mass meeting of workingmen was
held in the rink, with Hugh O'Donnell in the chair. Burgess McLuckie
made a fervent address, counseling a friendly demeanor towards the
soldiers and eulogizing the Governor. "This man Pattison," said the
sturdy Burgess, "Is acting quietly and rightly. He understands our
position. He does not cater to monopolies.... Your friends are about to
come; the safest, the best people that can come. We don't want
Pinkertons here. We want the militia.... I stand here to say that any
man who insults the militia shall be taken to the river and ducked."
Cheers and laughter followed this sally and a motion in favor of ducking
in the river any man who insulted the militia was carried unanimously.

John M. Carter, of the Baltimore _News_, who was fresh from an interview
with the Governor, delivered a cheering speech, and other addresses of a
prudent, common-sense tenor were made by members of the Amalgamated
Association.

The feeling of friendship for the militia became contagious. It was
decided that the blue-coated visitors should be received in state. All
the brass bands in town took to rehearsing music of a triumphal
character, to the inspiring strains of which Homestead was to be
amicably turned over to its "protectors." In one band room, when the
question of appropriate tunes came up, the exhilaration of the hour
brought forth some odd suggestions. A young man who proposed "See the
Conquering Hero Comes" was summarily suppressed, and a like fate befell
an individual who thought the "Rogues' March" might fit the occasion.
"Hold the Fort." "Comrades," "Johnny Get Your Gun" and "The Bogie Man"
were canvassed, but a compromise was not reached until some gentleman of
equal tact and discretion suggested "Ta Ra Ra, Boom De Ay," which was
accepted without a dissenting voice as the correct thing to express
Homestead's new-born sentiments of hope and contentment.

A reception committee, headed by Burgess McLuckie and Hugh O'Donnell,
was designated to welcome the representatives of the state and it
remained only for the latter to reciprocate in kind to convert the
military occupation of the town into a love-feast.

The Burgess issued a proclamation warning strangers to get out of town,
directing the closing of drinking-places and enjoining women and
children to keep off the streets. This duty performed, Honest John
McLuckie immersed himself in the study of a speech, of specially
artistic construction, intended for the edification of Major General
Snowden and his staff on their entrance into Homestead, and warranted to
inspire those dignitaries with a profound sense of the good-will and
law-abiding spirit of the people of the town and their cheerful
readiness to fraternize with the troops.

Unfortunately this little _chef d'oeuvre_ was never delivered.

Like the flower in Gray's "Elegy," it was "born to blush unseen and
waste its sweetness," if not on desert air, at all events on the cold
and irresponsive dead wall of military discipline.

All other themes of interest had now sunk out of sight in the face of
the great event of the hour--the converging of the militia regiments
upon Homestead. Even the Pinkertons, the fear of whose return with
reinforcements had endured over Sunday, were forgotten, and the entire
community was on the tip-toe of expectation, not knowing at what moment
the glitter of swords and bayonets and the clatter of horses' hoofs
would herald the advent of the advance guard.

Night fell and still no soldiers. General Snowden had taken care not to
advertise the route of the troops nor the time of their arrival. It was
his purpose to take the town by surprise and to occupy the positions
selected in advance by an officer detailed to make a reconnoissance,
before the people could be apprised of the nature and scope of his
movements.

The maneuvers were carried out with the desired secrecy, the newspaper
men and telegraph operators along the lines of march being kept in the
dark, despite their habitual alertness.

So the Homestead folk went to bed without the opportunity of looking
down the muzzles of any guns except their own and even these, together
with the Winchesters taken from the Pinkertons as the lawful spoils of
war, had been hidden from view, the occasion for their use having now
finally departed.

While the good people on the banks of the Monongahela slept the sleep of
contentment, the soldiers of the First Brigade were stretched shivering
on the open ground at Mt. Gretna, and General Snowden, with all of the
Second and Third Brigades, except the regiments of the extreme West, was
traveling as fast as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company could carry him
towards the scene of disturbance.




CHAPTER X.

[Illustration: CAMP McCLELLAN]

    SNOWDEN'S SHARP TACTICS--THE TAKING OF HOMESTEAD--TROOPS IN
      POSSESSION--SOLDIERS REPEL ADVANCES AND THE FRATERNAL
      RECEPTION IS DECLARED OFF--O'DONNELL'S COMMITTEE AT
      HEADQUARTERS--SUSPICION AND RESENTMENT ABROAD--THE LITTLE BILL
      RETURNS--CONGRESSMEN HOLD AN INVESTIGATION--CAPITAL AND LABOR
      IN CONFLICT ON THE WITNESS STAND--THE COST OF PRODUCING STEEL
      REMAINS A RIDDLE.


In pursuance of Gen. Snowden's plan to take Homestead by surprise, the
Second and Third Brigades, instead of being massed as announced in the
newspapers, at Brinton, a station on the Pennsylvania R. R. nearly
opposite Homestead, came together at Radebaugh, a mile and a half west
of Greensburg, and 28-1/2 miles distant from Pittsburgh. By 2.30 A. M.
all the regiments had reached the rendezvous, and at 5 A. M. the order
to advance was given and the troops moved towards Homestead, crossing
the Monongahela river over the P. V. & C. bridge near Braddock. The
Tenth and Fourteenth regiments, and a battery, were left on the Braddock
side of the river with orders to occupy the hills above Port Perry, from
which the guns would sweep the mill yards and the Homestead river front.

The early morning hours were full of surprise for the people of
Homestead. Look-outs were posted at all avenues of approach and anxious
crowds hung around the telegraph offices. As it drew on towards 9
o'clock, a report was circulated that the troops were at Greensburg.
Telegraphic inquiries dispatched to that place brought the response that
they were not there. At 9.25 the operator at Greensburg sent this
message: "No. 23 was wrecked above this place last night; tracks are
blocked and troops are delayed." A bulletin conveying the news was
pasted on the window of the telegraph office and elicited faint cheers
from the crowd. Evidently several hours must yet elapse before the
soldiers would arrive, and the interval was ample to rest and eat
breakfast.

But at the very moment when the Greensburg operator was ticking his
message over the wires, a train pulled into Munhall station at the
eastern end of the town, and from a parlor car in front a tall,
distinguished-looking man, wearing the stars of a major-general,
alighted, followed by six others in uniform and an individual in
civilian's clothing. It was Major General Snowden, accompanied by his
staff and Sheriff McCleary. Behind the general officers' train, which
was made up of two cars, came another train of ten cars, from the
windows of which bayonets and muzzles of guns protruded. Then came
another train and another and still others, until 95 cars were drawn up
in line, all bearing the same freight of guns and bayonets and
lusty-looking fellows in the blue uniform of the National Guard.

There were, perhaps, 200 men and boys at Munhall when the military
trains came in. Some of them had been up all night and were but half
awake. None of them had expected the soldiers to arrive at that depot.
After the first surprise was over, half a dozen scouts, who had been
posted by the advisory committee, ran towards the town shouting: "The
troops! the troops!" The rest of the crowd pressed in around the staff
officers' train and looked on with curious interest.

General Snowden, fearing that there was trouble brewing, held a hasty
consultation with his staff, and had the troops drawn up in line without
a minute's loss of time. Company E of the Eighteenth regiment was
selected for skirmish duty and marched along the tracks, clearing the
crowd away. Then the whole regiment advanced, throwing out detachments
of skirmishers as it went, and taking a straight course to the place of
encampment.

Shanty Hill, the position selected, lies north of the town and forms
part of the Pittsburgh Poor Farm, which had been purchased by the
Carnegie Company, but was still held by the city under a special
arrangement. The hill slopes gently towards the base but develops midway
into a rather steep ascent. A broad plateau extends back from the
summit. A better position for military purposes could not have been
found. The town and the mill yards stretched out below, covered within
easy range by batteries on the heights, and no movement could occur on
the streets without being detected from above.

Before the scouts who ran to give warning of the presence of the
soldiers had fairly begun to spread the alarm, the Eighteenth regiment
had gained the summit of the hill and formed a line of battle. The
Fifteenth regiment followed and formed a line of battle to the right of
the Eighteenth, then came the Thirteenth, Twelfth, Fifth, Ninth and
Seventh regiments, and within half an hour 4,000 men were drawn up in
parallel lines of battle, overlooking the town, and ready, at the word
of command, to turn 4,000 rifles on the crowds that, by this time had
massed below.

[Illustration]

Meanwhile the surprised citizens of Homestead perceived another force of
soldiers marching and counter-marching on the hill tops on the other
side of the river, their bayonets and field pieces glittering in the
morning sunlight.

Homestead was beleaguered at all points. Without the firing of a shot or
the semblance of a parley, the town, which a week before had been the
scene of carnage, was captured, and its guardians were taken so
completely by surprise that they scarcely realized what was occurring
until the troops were in possession.

General Snowden had proved himself an admirable tactician, and the
swiftness and unerring precision with which he handled the large body of
men under his control were universally applauded.

The unexpected fashion in which the soldiers entered broke up all the
plans that had been arranged for their reception. The Homestead bands
remained mute; Burgess McLuckie's speech was relegated to oblivion, and
the reception committee was nonplussed by the circumstance that the
guests had made themselves at home without waiting for a formal
reception. It appeared, in short, that the soldiers were so intent upon
business that they had no time for sentiment and that the process of
fraternizing was not to be so easy as the people had expected.

If there was any doubt on this head it vanished when some of the workmen
endeavored to make their way up Shanty Hill in order to mingle with the
"boys in blue." Sentinels barred the way and informed those who sought
to pass, that until further orders, no civilian would be allowed to go
through the lines. So the townsfolk, including the committeemen of the
Amalgamated lodges, had to content themselves with clustering at the
foot of the hill and watching the manoeuvres of the troops from a
distance.

Shortly before noon a number of prominent citizens and leaders of the
Amalgamated Association held a conference and appointed a committee to
wait upon General Wiley (General Snowden's presence on the ground was
not yet known), to tender the good wishes and co-operation of the
Amalgamated Association and the people of Homestead, and to request that
the military receive the workingmen in a body, accompanied by brass
bands.

The committeemen obtained access to the headquarters of the Third
Brigade, but, on stating the nature of their mission to General Wiley,
were referred by him to General Snowden, who had established his
division headquarters at the Carnegie school house on Shanty Hill.

Sheriff McCleary was found in conference with General Snowden.

Captain Coon, an ex-militia officer and a representative citizen, spoke
for the committee, informing the General of the desire of the
Amalgamated Association and of the citizens generally to co-operate with
the state authority in maintaining order. General Snowden checked the
speaker with the statement that he did not recognize the Amalgamated
Association or any authority other than that of the Governor of
Pennsylvania and the Sheriff of Allegheny County. The best way in which
the people of Homestead could co-operate with the state troops was, he
said, by behaving themselves. Captain Coon undertook to renew the offer
of assistance, but was cut short with the assurance that such offers
could not be accepted.

At this point, Hugh O'Donnell stepped forward and explained that what
the people desired was to attest their cheerful submission to legal
authority in contrast to their refusal to submit to illegal authority as
represented by Mr. Frick's troop of Pinkertons.

"The gentleman behind you is the one to whom you should submit," said
General Snowden, with a wave of the hand towards Sheriff McCleary.

"We have always submitted to his authority," said O'Donnell.

"I beg your pardon," rejoined the General, "but you did not do so at the
mill."

O'Donnell made a gesture of dissent. "I leave it to the Sheriff if we
have not submitted," he retorted.

"No; you did not," replied the Sheriff. "You didn't allow my deputies to
take charge of the works."

Some further parley ensued, O'Donnell asserting that the committee
represented, not the Amalgamated Association, but a citizens' mass
meeting and General Snowden responding that he recognized no citizens
but those of Allegheny County.

"Then," said the former, "as citizens of Allegheny County we come to see
you."

"Then I'm glad to see you, gentlemen," was the General's rejoinder, "I
am glad that our position here is welcomed by the citizens of Allegheny
County."

O'Donnell now proposed that the men of Homestead, with four brass bands,
be permitted to pass in review before the troops, but met with a flat
refusal, General Snowden stating that he was there on the business of
the state and not to indulge in formalities.

This concluded the interview and the committee withdrew in anything but
a comfortable frame of mind.

It was useless to talk now of welcoming the soldiers as friends any more
than of resisting them as foes. They had come to do the duty imposed on
them by the state with mechanical precision and indifference to the
human conditions around them. As well think of fraternizing with the
pieces of ordnance that glistened ominously on the hill top as with the
icy Snowden and Snowden's 4,000 subordinates. This tall, courtly
gentleman with the huge moustache and gold-rimmed glasses perched upon
his classic nose, seemed to have not a grain of sentiment in his
composition. He was the visible incarnation of the state's police
powers, stern and inflexible, and it is not overstating the case to say
that, before night, all Homestead secretly detested him.

Sheriff McCleary, after quaking in his shoes for a week, fairly reveled
in the sunshine of General Snowden's presence. With cannon to right of
him, cannon to left of him, cannon in front of him and soldiers on all
sides, the Sheriff became a new man and began to talk in a tone of
authority which he had not previously ventured to assume. One remark
attributed to him was that the men who took part in the fight with the
Pinkertons would be prosecuted for riot and murder. When this ominous
threat was bruited abroad, it created a sensation among the workmen.
Most of the men, however, affected to regard it as mere buncombe. The
participants in the affray were pledged to secresy, and, it was
contended, if suits were to be entered at all, the whole population of
Homestead would have to be made defendants. Still there was a growing
feeling of uneasiness, especially since it was suspected, with good
reason, as it proved afterward, that there were Pinkerton spies in town
for the purpose of collecting evidence to be used in criminal
prosecutions.

The immediate result of the disquietude thus developed was to put a
keener edge on the discontent inspired by the uncongenial behavior of
the military. Men gathered in groups on the streets and indulged in
bitter murmurings. "We have been deceived," they said, "deceived by the
Governor; deceived unwittingly, but none the less effectually, by our
own advisers. We have stood idly by and let the town be occupied by
soldiers who come here, not as our protectors, but as the protectors of
non-union men, for whom Frick is now scouring the country and who will
be brought into the mill and installed in our places with the aid of
the commonwealth. Then, if we undertake to resist the seizure of our
jobs, we will be shot down like dogs. It is the story of the coke
regions over again."

As if to add fuel to the fire, the "Little Bill," the very name of which
could not be mentioned by a Homesteader without a profane accompaniment,
steamed up to the landing place adjoining the mill yard in all the glory
of an official dispatch boat. One of General Snowden's first acts had
been to charter the detested little tug for the use of the state, and
Captain Rodgers, still smarting from the effects of his experience on
July 6, was only too glad to obtain the chance of confronting his old
enemies under circumstances which insured his safety. The return of the
Little Bill had upon the locked-out men the effect that a red rag has
upon a bull.

Whatever hopes were based by the men of Homestead on the presence of
sympathizers, workmen like themselves, in the ranks of the militia were
quickly counteracted. It having come to the ears of Colonel Kreps, of
the Fifteenth regiment, that some of his men had promised to hand over
their guns to the steelworkers in the event of trouble caused by an
attempt of the Carnegie Company to operate the mill, the Colonel caused
the regiment to be drawn up in l

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