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.