Association, came up from Pittsburgh, bearing a commission from the
Sheriff. He was accompanied by Assistant President-elect C. H. McEvay,
of Youngstown, Ohio; Secretary Shaw, Charles Johns and other prominent
officials and members of the association. President-elect Garland joined
the party. The visitors, whose mission was one of mediation, arrived
none too soon. The same indefatigable individuals who had experimented
with the burning raft and the car of fire, had just turned their
attention to pumping oil into the water and throwing heaps of burning
waste upon it, expecting to set fire to the barges by this means. It
was also determined to pump streams of oil upon the barges with the aid
of the borough fire-engines and, having once thoroughly soaked the craft
with the inflammable fluid, dynamite, the men thought, ought to do the
rest.
There was a lull in these proceedings when word was passed along the
line that the Amalgamated officials desired to address the men. The
mass-meeting, which a few citizens of the town had unsuccessfully sought
to bring about was now gotten together in a short space of time and with
no appreciable difficulty, for the men entertained a high regard for
President Weihe and were anxious at heart to hear what advice he might
have to tender them. The meeting was held in one of the mill buildings.
Mr. Weihe addressed the crowd, explaining that he came by virtue of an
agreement with the sheriff to propose that the Pinkertons be allowed to
depart with the guarantee that they would not return. The barbarity of
continuing the battle until it ended in an absolute massacre was
enlarged upon, and it was pointed out that the workmen were already
victorious and could afford to rest on their laurels and to avoid
tarnishing the good name of Homestead by committing what the world would
regard as an outrage upon humanity.
Mr. Garland, who had mounted on a boiler as a rostrum, followed in an
earnest appeal to the manhood of his hearers. "For God's sake, brethren,
be reasonable" he cried. "These men have killed your comrades, but it
can do no good to kill more of them. You have doubtless had two lives
for one already."
A roar of disapproval greeted this deliverance. "We'll have the lives
of the rest of the villains," shouted a chorus of angry voices. "Let us
blow them out of the water or burn them alive." "Order, order!" cried
others, and the rebuke was reinforced by a display of clubs and brawny
fists which had the effect of silencing the turbulent element for the
time being.
"If you permit these men to depart," Mr. Garland continued, "You will
show to the world that you desire to maintain peace and good order along
with your rights. Public opinion will still uphold you in your
struggle."
Again clamorous disapproval greeted the speaker. Cries of "Kill them!"
"Burn them!" were heard on all sides, but there were also a few who
shouted "Let them go!"
Mr. McEvay spoke next. "This day," he said, "You have won a victory such
as was never before known in the history of struggles between capital
and labor." Tremendous cheering followed this diplomatic exordium.
"But," the speaker resumed, "If you do not let these men go, the
military will be sent here and you will lose all you have gained. We
have no assurances, but we hope for a conference if peace is
established. It is certain that, after this lesson, Pinkerton detectives
will never come here again." Cheering was renewed when Mr. McEvay
finished and the cries of "Let them go" increased in volume.
[Illustration: HUGH O'DONNELL.]
Mr. Weihe seized this opportunity to suggest that a steamer be allowed
to come up the river and tow away the barges. "Will the Little Bill come
after them?" somebody howled, and once more pandemonium broke loose. Mr.
Weihe's promise that an unobjectionable boat would be secured had,
however, a quieting effect, and the meeting dispersed leaving the
impression in the minds of the officials that the Pinkertons could be
released.
The news of what had taken place in the meeting traveled quickly through
the mill yard, reaching even the tireless laborers who had been throwing
oil on the barges and who were now engaged in bombarding them with Roman
candles, sky-rockets and other fireworks--surplus Fourth of July stock
obtained from the stores.
Hugh O'Donnell seized this opportunity to make another plea for peace.
Grasping a small American flag, the intrepid young leader sprang upon a
pile of iron and commanded the attention of perhaps a thousand men, who
gathered eagerly around him. O'Donnell began his speech cautiously,
discussing the situation in such a manner as to feel the pulse of his
auditory and make sure that he had their sympathy. After having assured
himself of his ground, he unfolded a plan for a pacific settlement,
suggesting that a truce be arranged, and that the workmen take the
initiative by displaying a white flag.
"Show the white flag? Never," was the unanimous response. "If there is
any white flag to be shown, it must fly from the boats."
This brought O'Donnell to the point he wished to reach, "What will we do
then?" he asked.
"We will hold them in the boats until the Sheriff comes and we will have
warrants sworn out for every man for murder. The Sheriff will then have
to take them in charge," said one man, and, singularly enough,
considering the mood in which the men had been a few minutes before,
this comparatively mild proposal evoked a general shout of approval.
O'Donnell, satisfied that a peaceable adjustment could now be effected,
stepped down and went among the men strengthening the resolution which
had just been taken. In the meantime the Pinkertons had been holding a
final conference among themselves. A majority favored surrender and
forced the captains, who were still doggedly bent upon holding out, to
give in. Once more a white flag was hoisted on the Iron Mountain, and
this time it was not shot down.
At the sight of the flag, the workmen cheered and cries of "Victory!"
"We have them now," "They surrender," rent the air.
O'Donnell, accompanied by two other members of the advisory committee,
ran down to the river bank and received the message of the detective
who acted as spokesman. The purport of it was that the Pinkertons would
surrender if protection from violence were assured to them. After a
short parley, this was agreed to, although the howls and imprecations of
an unruly mob which had thronged into the mill-yard boded ill for the
fulfilment of the guarantee. O'Donnell had more than his own comrades
to answer for. Throughout the afternoon thousands of outsiders--some
of them millmen from South Pittsburgh, some roughs and toughs who
relished the prospect of taking a hand in a fight of any kind, some
Anarchists, aching for a chance to strike a blow at "Capital" and its
representatives--had walked into Homestead over the railroad tracks and
were now mingled with the steelworkers. These strangers, of course, were
careless of consequences and indifferent to the restraining influence of
O'Donnell and those associated with O'Donnell in ending the conflict.
The women, too, were not to be relied upon. After being shut out of the
battle-ground all day, it was questionable whether or not they could be
held in check when the Pinkertons were placed at their mercy. It is well
to bear these facts in mind in connection with the painful scene which
is now to be depicted.
The Pinkertons, despite O'Donnell's pledge of protection, seemed to lose
all heart when the moment came to leave the barges. Nobody was willing
to be the first to go on shore, and, as if seized by a panic, the
helpless wretches huddled together behind benches and boxes and waited,
in fear and trembling, for a summons from the other side. The workmen,
however, were not slow to make themselves masters of the situation.
Hundreds of them rushed down the bank, crossed the gang-plank and
clambered into the barges. On the shore a tremendous crowd gathered,
hooting and yelling, most of them carrying weapons of some kind. No
wonder the Pinkertons blenched. They had to run the gauntlet, and if the
experience before them was not destined to be almost as trying as that
attributed to the victims of the gauntlet torture in tales of Indian
life, it was not because the mob did not show all signs of thirsting for
a fierce carnival of revenge.
The crowd on the shore formed itself, as if by a preconcerted plan, into
two lines, 600 yards long, between which the men from the barges had to
pass. As the first of the Pinkertons emerged from the barge Iron
Mountain, it was seen that he carried his Winchester rifle. "Disarm
him," yelled the crowd, and directly every one of the guards was forced
to lay down his arms.
Then the Pinkertons came out, in a dilapidated looking string, walking,
running or crawling as best they could. The first few passed through the
lines without molestation beyond hoots, jeers and imprecations. Suddenly
the fury of the mob broke out. A man struck a detective with his open
hand. The example was contagious. Clubs and stones were used with
demoniacal ferocity. Women, converted for the nonce into veritable
furies, belabored Mr. Frick's janizaries with bludgeons, stoned them,
kicked them and spat upon them. The hated Pinkerton uniforms were torn
off and cast into the river. Cries for mercy were treated with derision.
As a means of identification the Pinkertons had been compelled to
uncover their heads, and thus offered an easy mark to their half-crazed
assailants.
"Men, for the love of God, have mercy on me," shrieked a gray-headed
man, wounded and bleeding. Mercy! The time for that weakness had gone
by. The suppliant was an accursed Pinkerton and again and again he was
struck down and beaten before he reached the end of those terrible
lines.
One young fellow, on leaving the gang-plank, threw himself on his knees,
burst into tears and begged to be spared. Kicks brought him to his feet
again, and he had hardly risen when he was felled to the earth by a
blood-stained club.
The satchels and other small articles that the Pinkertons carried were
snatched from them and destroyed.
Only those who were seriously wounded were permitted to pass without
being attacked.
While this exhibition of barbarism was in progress, Hugh O'Donnell and a
corps of aids, representing the advisory committee, made frantic efforts
to shield the prisoners; but the mob, for the most part, owed no
allegiance to the Amalgamated lodges, and set the officials at defiance.
In fact, several of the men who made up the hastily-formed escort were
themselves struck and reviled for their humanity.
The Pinkertons were led through the streets to the rink, or opera-house,
suffering indignities all the way. Even children threw mud and stones at
them. Arrived at the rink, the entire posse was driven in like a herd of
sheep. Guards were placed and members of the Amalgamated Association,
assisted by physicians of the town, attended to the wounded. Entrance to
the rink was not secured without serious trouble. A crowd of Hungarians
gathered here to take vengeance for the death of one of their countrymen
who had fallen in the early morning skirmish. Women were among them and
incited the men to mischief. When the Pinkertons appeared, a brawny
Hungarian seized one of them by the throat and struck him in the face,
while a stoutly-built woman belabored him with a club. A guard, placed
there by the advisory committee, leveled his gun at the Huns, and
shouted "Stand back, or by ---- I'll shoot the next man or woman that
raises a hand against them. We have promised to protect them and we'll
do it, even if we have to use our guns." This declaration provoked a
howl of rage and cries of "Kill the murderers." Instantly a dozen guns
were leveled at the mob, and disaster might have followed, had not
Burgess McLuckie come forward, commanded peace and assured the crowd
that the Pinkertons would be locked up and held for murder. No further
trouble was experienced in getting the bruised and battered prisoners
into their temporary quarters.
A sorrier sight than these men presented when they were assembled after
the horrors of the day's fighting in the barges and of the march to the
rink could not well be imagined. By actual count, one hundred and
forty-three of the survivors were suffering from painful wounds or
contusions, and those who had by extraordinary good luck, escaped with a
whole skin, were half dead from fear and exhaustion.
They were kept in the rink under guard until near midnight. In the
interim a conference was held between the borough council and the
workmen's committee, at which it was agreed to let the Sheriff come to
Homestead and remove the Pinkertons, whose presence in the town was a
standing incentive to disorder. The Sheriff was sent for accordingly and
arrived on a special train at eleven o'clock in company with the chief
executive officers of the Amalgamated Association and W. J. Brennen,
solicitor for the association. The Pinkertons were hurried into the
Sheriff's train as quickly as their condition would permit, locked
securely in the cars, and brought to Pittsburgh, where, after a score of
the most dangerously wounded men had been removed to the hospital, the
train was switched quietly to a side-track in the Pennsylvania Railroad
yards, there to remain until the authorities decided what should be done
with the Carnegie Company's troublesome agents. An hour or two later, it
was decided, after a consultation held by the Sheriff with his bondsman,
Chris L. Magee, a gentleman prominent in Republican politics, and the
railroad officials, that the men should be sent east, and they were
accordingly taken out of town, without considering the demand for their
arrest and indictment. This was, no doubt, the best thing that could be
done under the circumstances, in view of the strong feeling against the
Pinkertons among the working people of Pittsburgh.
When the Pinkertons had been driven from the barges, both vessels were
subjected to a thorough search. Among the articles brought to light was
a roster containing 266 names, divided into squads of 20, each in
command of a lieutenant. Notes in the book showed that some of the men
had been on duty at Walston, Pa., at Cleveland and other points where
strikes had occurred.
The barges were for a time thronged with curious men, women and
children. Somebody said "Burn them." Then the sight-seers fell back; a
few stout fellows carried out the last boxes of Winchesters and
ammunition; oil was thrown upon the boats; a torch was applied to each;
and, in a few minutes, the Iron Mountain and the Monongahela were
enveloped in flames. The delight of the on-lookers at this finale to the
tragic events of the day knew no bounds. They cheered, clapped their
hands and even danced with glee while the dry wood blazed and crackled,
and two huge columns of smoke rose lazily towards the sky and formed
clouds overhead. Not until the vessels had burned to the surface of the
water and the last hissing embers disappeared beneath the placid bosom
of the Monongahela did the enthusiasm abate.
The removal of the Pinkertons allowed the men of Homestead to rest for
the first time in forty-eight hours, and the town now lapsed into its
normal condition of quietude. Pickets were posted as usual to guard
against surprise, but, aside from these watchers, the whole population
sought repose, and by dint of sheer exhaustion, slept as soundly as if,
a few hours before, carnage had not reigned supreme.
Whether the sheriff of Allegheny county slept or not is an open
question. His last act before going to Homestead to remove the
Pinkertons was to set his clerks at work making out notices to leading
residents of Pittsburgh and Allegheny City, calling upon them, as loyal
citizens of the commonwealth, to report next morning for service as
special deputies at Homestead. The list was made up largely of editors,
bankers, wealthy merchants and others of a class not likely to respond
with alacrity. The outlook for a campaign against the fighting men of
Homestead with such an army was hardly of a kind to promote wholesome
slumber.
Mr. Frick, on whom the responsibility for the slaughter at Homestead was
generally supposed to devolve, spent the night at his palatial residence
in the East End, under the guardianship of private detectives.
Late at night, Secretary Lovejoy furnished a statement to the press. The
Carnegie Company, he claimed, had offered $10,000 to any steamboat
captain or owner who would go up the river and tow the barges down, but
could find no one willing to take the risk. The company now left
everything to the sheriff, with whom, quoth the secretary, "we cannot
interfere in the discharge of his duty."
CHAPTER VIII.
[Illustration: AFTER THE BATTLE]
CARNEGIE'S PROPERTY PROTECTED--CONFIDENCE STILL STRONG AMONG THE
MEN--HOMESTEAD AS A NEWS CENTER--THE DEATH-ROLL--BURIAL OF THE
DEAD--ANARCHISTS GET A SHORT SHRIFT--THE SHERIFF FAILS
AGAIN--INTERVIEWING THE GOVERNOR--MARTIAL LAW IN
SIGHT--PROCEEDINGS IN CONGRESS--OPINIONS OF NEWSPAPERS AND
PUBLICISTS--A PRESS CENSORSHIP ESTABLISHED AT HOMESTEAD.
At three o'clock on the morning of July 7, a committee of picked men
made a search of the Homestead works, keeping a sharp look-out for stray
Pinkertons, spies or other interlopers. Nothing was discovered. Even the
rats were scared away from the place, where empty cartridge shells,
wadding and discarded weapons--mute evidences of the bloody work that
had been done the day before--were scattered around in profusion. Having
completed its round, the committee retired to headquarters and prepared
an order requiring the watchmen, who had deserted their posts when the
battle with the Pinkertons began, to resume the guardianship of the
Carnegie Company's property. The men had guaranteed protection to the
plant and showed by this step that they meant to keep their word.
At an early hour all Homestead was stirring, and anxious crowds
assembled at headquarters and other distributing centers of information
to ascertain what the new day was likely to bring forth. For the most
part, the feeling of self-confidence which had inspired the locked-out
men was as strong now, when a reaction might have been expected to set
in, as it was at any time previously. Rumors of the coming of a fresh
detachment of Pinkertons put the men on their mettle, and it was
apparent that a repetition of Mr. Frick's experiment would be worse than
futile.
Nobody gave serious thought to the likelihood of prosecutions to follow.
The Pinkertons were invaders, whose purpose was to murder, and the
workmen were legally justified in repelling them _vi et armis_. So the
people reasoned, and this line of argument seemed, in their judgment, to
be the only one that could present itself to any fair-minded and
intelligent person. Even if it was wrong to kill and wound armed
invaders, they believed it would be preposterous to think of arresting
and imprisoning several thousand citizens.
The extraordinary interest taken in affairs at Homestead by the world
without was demonstrated by the fact that, within the twenty-four hours
elapsing after the firing of the first shot on July 6, this usually
quiet little town was transformed into the busiest and most prolific
news center in the United States. An army of newspaper correspondents
from all parts of the country found quarters in the hotels and took
possession of the telegraph offices. The ten daily papers of Pittsburgh
had variously from two to ten men on the ground. The New York _World_
headed the list of outsiders with five correspondents and a special
artist. The New York _Herald_, _Sun_ and _Mail and Express_; the Chicago
_Tribune_ and _Herald_; the Philadelphia _Press_ and _Times_; the
Cleveland _Leader_ and _Press_, and the Baltimore _Sun_ and _World_ all
dispatched bright, able "specials" to the scene of disturbance with that
admirable promptitude which makes American journalism a world's wonder.
The Postal and Western Union Telegraph Companies also proved fully equal
to the emergency. The Postal Company placed a corps of operators in a
large room in the building where the Amalgamated Association held its
meetings, and the Western Union, in addition to its regular office,
established an annex in a restaurant, where two expert operators were
kept busy handling huge masses of "copy," intended to be put in type,
perhaps a thousand miles away. The excellence and magnitude of the work
done by the newspaper men and telegraph operators at Homestead from this
time on were unprecedented. Reporters from Pittsburgh were on hand to
meet the Pinkertons when a landing was attempted, fraternized with the
firing parties behind the barricades while the battle was in progress,
interviewed the Pinkertons as they emerged from the barges after the
surrender, and withal seemed to lead a charmed life, for there is no
record of injury to any of the "gentlemen of the press." The latitude
enjoyed by the journalistic fraternity was owing chiefly to the
influence of Hugh O'Donnell, who had himself been a newspaper
correspondent in a small way and who realized besides the advisability
of aiding the press to secure accurate details of the struggle, so that
the motives and actions of the workmen should not be injuriously
represented. The gallant young leader had his reward. In a single day,
the newspapers made him world-famous.
The making up of a list of the killed and wounded turned out to be a
difficult matter. The Pinkertons had been hurried away, carrying many of
their wounded with them and leaving not more than a dozen of their
number in the Pittsburgh hospitals. At Homestead, there was a tendency
to conceal the losses of the workingmen. How many of the latter were
badly wounded has never been definitely ascertained. The official list
of the dead, on both sides, as it appears on the books of the coroner of
Allegheny County, is as follows:
Detectives--J. W. Klein, Edward A. R. Speer and T. J. Connors.
Workmen--Joseph Sotak, John E. Morris, Silas Wain, Thomas Weldon, Henry
Striegel, George W. Rutter and Peter Farris.
Speer, who was a Pinkerton lieutenant in Chicago, was shot in the leg
and lingered at the Homeopathic Hospital, in Pittsburgh, until July 17,
when death ended his sufferings.
Rutter also survived until July 17. He fell at the first volley, having
been shot in the thigh and abdomen. This man was a veteran of the Union
army and one of the most respected millworkers in Homestead. He
possessed courage above the ordinary and died rejoicing that he had
been able to lay down his life for his fellow workmen.
At two o'clock in the afternoon of July 7, the members of the
Amalgamated lodges and of the various other local societies were
marshaled in attendance at the funeral services of their dead
brethren--John E. Morris, Silas Wain and Peter Farris. The funeral of
Morris was under the supervision of the order of Odd Fellows, of which
he was a valued member. Rev. J. J. McIlyar conducted services at the
Fourth Avenue M. E. Church, and delivered an impassioned oration,
embodying a recital of the untoward events which had made Homestead a
place of mourning. "The millmen," he said, "were organized in an
association that enabled them to obtain just and adequate remuneration
for their services. The existence of this union of the men was
threatened by a body of Pinkertons, employed by somebody for the
purpose. This is what has put this blessed man in his coffin to-day; a
perfect citizen; an intelligent man; a good husband who was never
lacking in his duty; a brother who was devoted and loyal and who will
surely find his reward."
Rev. Mr. McIlyar told how easily the difficulty between the Carnegie
firm and its employees might have been adjusted had arbitration been
resorted to. "But," he added, "this town is bathed in tears to-day and
it is all brought about by one man, who is less respected by the
laboring people than any other employer in the country. There is no more
sensibility in that man than in a toad." While the minister was speaking
the sobs of Morris's broken-hearted widow interrupted his address, and
her grief found a sympathetic echo in the hearts of all present.
Crowds lined the route to the cemetery and watched with tear-dimmed eyes
the passage of the funeral cortege. On the way the hearse that bore the
remains of Peter Farris fell into line. After the last sad rites had
been performed over the graves of Morris and Farris, another procession
was formed and all that was mortal of Silas Wain was removed to its
resting-place.
Towards evening a stir was created by the appearance on the streets of a
little band of anarchists from Allegheny City, who, like vultures
attracted by the scent of prey, were drawn to the scene of trouble by
the hope of fomenting still greater disorders. The unbidden guests
proceeded to distribute incendiary circulars, setting forth that the
mills were the rightful property of the workingmen and should be seized
as such, and calling on the good people of Homestead to become
anarchists and strike for liberty hand-in-hand with their "brothers."
Two of the agitators were placed under arrest and confined in the
lock-up. The rest were promptly shipped out of town with an admonition
not to return. It caused the workmen much concern to suppose that they
might be credited with anarchistic tendencies; and, as a consequence, a
species of censorship was established over the newspaper correspondents,
with a view to preventing the publication of reports describing the
Homestead defenders as a set of cut-throats and desperadoes, whereas,
they wished the whole world to know that they were honest men, fighting
for bread for themselves and their wives and children.
On the night of July 6, as has been told in the preceding chapter,
Sheriff McCleary set his clerks to work on the issuing of notices to
prominent citizens to report for service as deputies. The papers were
delivered early in the morning, but the results were far from
satisfactory. Some of the editors, bankers, merchants, manufacturers and
political leaders addressed were too far advanced in years to be
physically fit for active service, at least one of the number being over
80 years of age. Others had too wholesome a regard for their own safety
to risk doing duty at Homestead and preferred being arrested and fined,
if a penalty should be required. Only thirty-two men reported at the
sheriffs office, and these were unarmed. The sheriff dismissed them with
the remark that it was useless to go to Homestead with so small a force.
Governor Pattison, however, was not moved by the representation that an
appeal directed to persons who were not likely to undertake police duty
under any circumstances exhausted the powers of the county government.
He had already taxed the sheriff with shirking his duty and the course
of events after the battle did not seem to have altered his opinion on
this head. But the sheriff had made up his mind to incur no danger that
he could avoid, and, therefore, remained all day in his office, leaving
the local authorities of Homestead to preserve the peace if they could
or would. The only important move which he made looking to the
restoration of order was to call a conference in the evening to consider
a proposition to introduce deputies into the Homestead works. At this
meeting, C. L. Magee, John F. Cox, a Homestead attorney, Burgess John
McLuckie, Hugh O'Donnell, President Weihe and President-elect Garland,
of the Amalgamated Association, David Lynch, William Roberts, Jerry
Doherty and James McCrory, also of the Amalgamated Association, were in
attendance. As might have been expected no definite conclusion was
reached, beyond what was embodied in the assurances tendered by the
Amalgamated men that they would do their utmost in the interest of
peace. The persistent refusal of the Carnegie Company to lift a hand for
the prevention of another outbreak or to exhibit any trace of friendly
consideration for its locked-out employees was an obstacle in the path
of the peacemakers that could not well be overcome.
A conference of militia officers at the Seventh Avenue Hotel, in which
the sheriff was also a participant, excited considerable interest. The
purpose of this consultation, it was understood, was to consider the
facilities for getting the citizen-soldiery into the field on short
notice, in case the governor should finally decide to order them out.
Much uneasiness was felt in Homestead concerning the chances of military
interference. The citizens were naturally averse to the quartering of
troops in the town for an indefinite period. It was apparent that this
was what Mr. Frick was aiming at. His own hired troop having failed, it
was his desire, with the aid of Sheriff McCleary, to force the governor
to call out the troops of the state and place them indirectly at the
disposal of the Carnegie firm. With the militia at his back, the
Carnegie Company's chairman counted on easily filling the mill with
non-union men and breaking up the Amalgamated lodges.
In order to prevent the execution of this design and to offset the
sheriffs representations, leading citizens of Homestead telegraphed the
governor requesting him to take no action until he had conferred with a
committee which would immediately wait upon him at Harrisburg. The
committee, which consisted of Attorney John F. Cox, Hugh O'Donnell, J.
H. Williams, Dr. John Purman and G. W. Sarver, reached the executive
chamber at 10:20 P. M. on July 8 and remained in conference with the
governor until midnight. Messrs. Cox and O'Donnell made strong arguments
against the calling out of the military, assuring the governor that
order was restored in Homestead and that the sheriff would be allowed to
take peaceable possession of the Carnegie property. Governor Pattison's
reply was to the effect that insubordination would be checked if it took
the whole military power of the state and of the nation; but, he added,
the rights of all parties to the struggle would be maintained without
regard to the merits or demerits of the business differences between
them, and the military would be subordinated to the civil power. In
short, without stating positively that he would call out the military,
the governor sent the committee home with a pretty firm conviction that
Sheriff McCleary's supineness had done its work and that, unless
conditions altered amazingly, the troops would soon be on the ground. It
was learned afterwards that the governor had sent an officer of the
national guard to examine into the condition of things at Homestead and
make an accurate report. The experiences of this individual, who, being
a stranger, fell under suspicion and had some disagreeable encounters
with the pickets and workmen's committees, were, no doubt, the real
occasion of the governor's action; for it is certain that Sheriff
McCleary's pleading telegrams had little weight at Harrisburg.
In the meantime, the aspect of affairs at Homestead became, if anything,
more warlike. After the burial of their dead comrades had been attended
to, the men set about strengthening their defenses, so as to guard
against any attack, whether from Pinkertons or others. The fence around
the mill-yard was repaired; the picket lines were restored and
reinforced and arms and ammunition were freely distributed. Scouts were
sent out with instructions to post themselves in the railroad yards
around Pittsburgh and at points along the river and to give the alarm at
the approach of an invading party of any description. The military
organization of the men was well-nigh perfect, and it was manifestly
impossible that they could be surprised.
But one alarm was given during the night. At 1 A. M. the ringing of
bells and the blowing of whistles aroused the town, and the works were
quickly surrounded by men carrying loaded rifles. When it was
ascertained that the alarm was a false one, the crowd just as quickly
dispersed and from a state of wild excitement the town lapsed back into
peace and quietude.
Much encouragement was given to the men by the interest taken in their
cause not only by organized labor throughout the land but by some of the
most noted men in public life. Congress entered into the discussion of
the Homestead struggle with extraordinary zest. Representative
Camminetti opened the ball in the lower house on July 6, and on the
following day Mr. Palmer, of Illinois, made a fiery speech in the
senate, declaring the Pinkerton invasion to be an insult to the
commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and that the coercion of wage-workers by
an armed force was reprehensible and called for the sternest
condemnation. Mr. Palmer maintained further that the workmen of
Homestead, having built up the mills by their labor, had a right to
insist upon, permanency of employment and reasonable compensation. Mr.
Voorhees, of Indiana, argued that the Homestead troubles were the direct
result of the Republican tariff system, by which the iron barons of
Pennsylvania were heavily protected with a pretended understanding that
the workingman would get his share of the benefits conferred. Mr.
Carnegie, the speaker said, had done his part by sending an armed mob to
shoot down his employees if they refused to serve for reduced wages or
to abandon their jobs to others whose services could be had for less
money. The Pinkertons had been killed by men acting in self-defense, and
it was his only regret that Carnegie himself had not been at the head of
that squad "instead of skulking in his castle in Scotland." Republican
senators responded to these speeches, defending the protective tariff,
but emphatically repudiating Pinkertonism. While these proceedings were
going on in the senate, the house busied itself with arrangements to
send a committee to Homestead, and several speakers also took occasion
to denounce the employment of Pinkerton trained bands as contrary to the
spirit of American institutions.
The press of the country was almost a unit in deploring the harsh
methods employed by the Carnegie Company and in demanding legislation
prohibiting the maintainence of a Pinkerton "standing army" and its
utilization in labor troubles. The New York _World_ suggested that the
dispute at Homestead be settled by referring it to a board of
arbitration, to be composed of Governor McKinley, of Ohio; Governor
Pattison, of Pennsylvania, and Terence V. Powderly, Grand Master Workman
of the Knights of Labor. The New York _Sun_ stood alone among the
Democratic papers in upholding Mr. Frick and the Pinkertons.
General B. F. Butler, whose reputation as a constitutional lawyer gave
special significance to his remarks, expressed the opinion that the
Carnegie Company should be held legally responsible for the provocation
of bloodshed, since it had prepared for riot and sent an armed
expedition to precipitate it. In his judgment, the government should
cause the Pinkerton forces to be disbanded.
General Weaver, the nominee of the People's Party for president,
pronounced the outbreak an illustration of the subjugation of the
Republic to corporate despotism. "When Rome was near her fall," he said,
"the wealthy barons had their braves. Our corporate barons have their
Pinkertons.... The frightful condition of affairs in Pennsylvania will
strike the whole country like an alarm bell at midnight."
The newspapers containing these expressions were scanned with avidity by
the locked-out men, and, at the same time the scrutiny exercised over
the reporters was made all the more vigorous as it became apparent even
to those of limited intelligence that Homestead was now the focus of
world-wide observation, and that the judgment formed abroad depended
entirely on the carefulness and veracity of the correspondents. Some of
the latter protested hotly against what they regarded as unwarrantable
interference with their work, but protests counted for nothing. Spies
and impostors had slipped into town in the guise of newspaper men and
the committeemen of the lodges deemed it necessary to supervise with the
utmost vigor the work of those whose credentials were accepted,
especially since the reporters were necessarily aware of the identity of
the most active combatants and were in a position to betray secrets
which might be used afterwards with fatal effect. Several correspondents
who were suspected of making a questionable use of their opportunities
were arrested and driven out of town, and those who were allowed to
remain, had to wear badges provided for them by the committeemen. That
there was reasonable foundation for these precautions was attested later
on when it turned out that a few men who professed to represent
reputable journals were in the pay of the Carnegie Company. One of these
spies held credentials from a well known Chicago newspaper.
CHAPTER IX.
[Illustration: SOLDIERS TO THE FRONT.]
THE SHERIFF'S LAST EFFORT--MR. FRICK ISSUES A STATEMENT AND THE
AMALGAMATED ASSOCIATION RESPONDS--POLITICAL AND INDUSTRIAL
ORGANIZATIONS INDORSE THE HOMESTEAD MEN--INTERVIEWING
CARNEGIE--CENSORSHIP OF THE PRESS--GOVERNOR PATTISON ORDERS
OUT THE NATIONAL GUARD--STRENGTH OF THE MILITIA--LOCKED-OUT
MEN PREPARE TO WELCOME THE BLUE-COATS--A SPEECH THAT BURGESS
McLUCKIE NEVER DELIVERED.
With the exception of alarms caused by rumors that Pinkertons were
coming in force, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, July 8, 9 and 10, were
comparatively uneventful days at Homestead.
On Friday morning Harris Striegel, a lad of 19, who had been among the
first to fall, was buried with solemn ceremonies. In the afternoon a
mass meeting was held at the rink, under the auspices of President Weihe
and other officers of the Amalgamated Association. William J. Brennen,
attorney for the Association, addressed the men, advising them to let
the sheriff take possession of the works. If they refused to do this, he
said, the militia would be ordered out, and then, if resistance should
be offered, the troops would undoubtedly fire upon the citizens at a
fearful cost of human life. Other speakers took the same ground as Mr.
Brennen, and the disposition of the men seemed favorable to the
admission of the sheriff and a posse of unarmed deputies. Nevertheless,
the meeting adjourned without taking definite action.
Sheriff McCleary arrived in the town shortly after the adjournment of
the meeting and was met by Dr. Gladden and five business men. The
sheriff said that at the conference held in his office the night before
he had received from attorney Cox and Dr. Gladden a list of twenty
business men of Homestead who would serve as deputies. Only six out of
the twenty were on hand to serve. What was there for him to do but to go
home again? A large crowd surrounded the speaker, listening to his
remarks, and followed him wherever he went. One of the locked-out men, a
turbulent individual, named Burke, accused the sheriff of double-dealing
and abused him roundly. Mr. McCleary hastened to get out of his
uncomfortable quarters and boarded the first train for Pittsburgh.
The Amalgamated leaders devoted considerable time to the discussion
among themselves of an interview given by Mr. Frick to the Philadelphia
_Press_ and published simultaneously in the Pittsburgh morning papers.
This deliverance conveyed a carefully prepared history of the trouble
between the Carnegie firm and its workmen, justified every act of the
former, condemned every act of the latter, and declared that the firm
would never again recognize trades unions. The principal points in Mr.
Frick's defense were these:
1.--That $23 a ton for billets was a reasonable minimum on which to base
wages, and that its acceptance should follow from the fact that the
introduction of new machinery into the mills, at great expense, had
enabled the men to increase their output and consequently to increase
their earnings.
2.--That the expiration of the sliding scale on June 30 was
embarrassing, because, in order to make contracts for the year, the firm
should be informed on January 1 of the rates of wages to be paid.
3.--That the improvements already referred to warranted a decrease in
tonnage rates, and that, even allowing for this decrease, the tonnage
men would make more money than they did when the sliding scale went into
effect in 1889.
4.--That there was no question of starvation wages, since the reductions
proposed would affect only 325 men out of 3,800[A], and would merely
bring the wages of these men to an equality with those paid in other
mills operated with union labor but not possessing the improved
appliances of the Carnegie plant.
[A] The event shows that Mr. Frick cannot have been
sincere in this statement. Wages have been seriously
depressed in almost all departments of the Homestead
mill.
5.--That in the non-union mills operated by the Carnegie Company, good
wages were paid and the employees were contented.
An answer to Mr. Frick's statement was drawn up by the workmen and
published on the following day. The arguments in rebuttal were briefly
as follows:
1.--That, as the workingmen do not sell the product of their labor, they
must, under a sliding scale, protect themselves by requiring a minimum
basis of wage-rates, which should not fall so low as to involve the
payment of extremely low wages.
2.--That the enjoyment of fair rates of wages by the non-union workmen
at Braddock and Duquesne was due to the fixing of a standard by the
Amalgamated Association, below which the wages of non-unionists could
not decently be permitted to fall.
3.--That, in preparing the scale, the workmen had made full allowance
for improved machinery, not forgetting that the improvements had
displaced many men, and thus, in a manner, repaid the cost of the
investment. If there had been a misunderstanding on this head, it could
have been adjusted by fair discussion, but fair discussion was
impossible with an employer who declined to confer.
4.--That, of the 3,800 men employed, all or nearly all were affected by
one or the other of the changes proposed, to-wit: a reduction in the
minimum, another reduction in the proportionate rate of pay (thus making
a double reduction) and the termination of the scale on December 31,
1893, instead of June 30, 1894.
In concluding their answer, the workmen said, "If argument and honest
reasoning were substituted for the reserve and coldness of manner seen
in the company's present attitude, there might be reason to expect an
end of this deplorable state of affairs."
On Saturday, the Democratic Committee of Allegheny County met in
Pittsburgh at the call of its chairman, William J. Brennen, Esq., the
attorney for the Amalgamated Association, and, after the completion of
routine business, adopted, by an unanimous vote, resolutions
sympathizing with the men of Homestead in their efforts to "maintain
American and resist European pauper wages," condoling with the friends
of those who had been "shot down by the hirelings of a greedy and
arbitrary combination of capital" and denouncing Pinkertonism. These
resolutions were presented by Jere Dougherty, of the Amalgamated
Association.
Resolutions of similar tenor were adopted by all the labor unions in
Allegheny County, and thousands of lodges in other localities placed
themselves on record to the same purpose and, in most cases, coupled
their expressions of sympathy and endorsement with offers of financial
support. The South Side Glassworkers' Union, of Pittsburgh, demanded
that the city councils reject Andrew Carnegie's gift of $1,000,000 for a
free library, since the library would be paid for by the reduction of
workingmen's earnings. This home-thrust was repeated by scores of other
unions in and around Pittsburgh, and, as a consequence, the councils let
public business go to the wall and avoided holding a meeting until the
excitement had simmered down. The fact is that, since the gift had been
accepted, the money received and deposited to the order of a special
commission, and some of it already spent, there was no way of returning
it; but anyhow the councils did not venture on a discussion of the
question, which must have led to a division on pro-Carnegie and
anti-Carnegie lines.
At Columbus, O., 2,000 workmen met in the statehouse yard and passed
resolutions calling upon the Pennsylvania authorities and the United
States Congress to exterminate the Pinkerton system.
At Chicago, representatives of 20,000 men engaged in the building trades
discussed the propriety of taking up arms and marching to the relief of
Homestead.
Even in England, the trades unions entered protest against the Carnegie
methods and called upon Kier Hardie, a workingmen's representative in
Parliament, to whose election expenses Andrew Carnegie had contributed
£100, to return the amount forthwith. Mr. Hardie very promptly forwarded
the money, not to Mr. Carnegie, but to the people of Homestead, who, he
held, had a valid title to receive and use it.
Three days elapsed after the battle at Homestead, before the English
agents of the American press associations, who had been ordered to
follow him up, were able to locate Mr. Carnegie and obtain an interview.
Although regularly advised by cable of the progress of the troubles at
his mills, he did not let the news interfere with his pleasures, but
spent those three days on a coaching tour from Edinburgh to Kinloch, in
Scotland. At Kinloch, he rented a shooting-box for eight weeks at a cost
of $10,000. Here an American interviewer found him. According to the
correspondent's statement, he was received by Mr. Carnegie in a
"contemptuous and insulting" manner, as if the "intrusion upon his ducal
magnificence" were a thing to be resented with the hauteur distinctively
belonging to an American iron baron, who can afford to have castles and
shooting-boxes in Europe. In response to a request for his opinion on
the occurrences at Homestead, Mr. Carnegie said: "I am not willing to
express an opinion. The men have chosen their course and I am powerless
to change it. The handling of the case on the part of the company has my
full approval and sanction. Further than this, I have no disposition to
say anything."
Possibly this brusque statement may have been prompted in a measure by
the irritation resulting from the use of the deadly parallels at the
little millionaire's expense in the _Pall Mall Gazette_, a marked copy
of which lay upon a table in the reception hall of the lodge. On one
side appeared a report of Mr. Carnegie's philantrophic talk at the
opening of the free library at Aberdeen, where he was seconded by the
Earl and Countess of Aberdeen, and on the other a tell-tale table of
reduced wages at Homestead.
The report of this interview with the high-priest of arbitration
supplied a rich theme of comment to the locked-out men and it was well
for Mr. Carnegie's dignity, that, just at this time, 3,000 miles
separated him from his employees. Even at that distance, his ears must
have tingled.
On Saturday evening, the press committee of the Amalgamated lodges, of
which Hugh O'Donnell was chairman, distributed official press badges to
the newspaper correspondents whose credentials were approved, and the
committee signified its purpose of keeping close watch on the work of
these gentlemen and of expelling from the town anyone of the number who,
either by a violation of confidence or by sending out false statements
proved himself unworthy of toleration. The reporters proposed the
appointment of a committee composed of two newspaper men, two workmen
and a fifth member, selected by these four, to pass upon disputes as to
news matter, but this proposition was dropped on the receipt of a
guarantee from Hugh O'Donnell that the rights of the press would be
respected.
Throughout all these proceedings, the men acted in the belief that they
were doing their best to maintain good order, and, although the
committee which had been sent to Harrisburg returned without genuinely
reassuring news, no one seemed to have the least idea that the military
would be called out.
However, the visit of the governor's agent, previously referred to, had
already borne fruit when, on the morning of Sunday, July 10, Sheriff
McCleary forwarded his final appeal for military aid. In this
communication, the sheriff once more averred that his powers were
exhausted, and that the civil authorities could not raise a force of
deputies large enough to cope with the locked-out men, "Only a large
military force," he added, "will enable me to control matters."
At 10 o'clock on Sunday night the governor issued the following order:
_George R. Snowden, Major-General Commanding N. G. P._:
Put the division under arms and move at once, with ammunition,
to the support of the sheriff of Allegheny County, at Homestead.
Maintain the peace, protect all persons in their rights under
the constitution and laws of the state. Communicate with me.
ROBERT E. PATTISON, _Governor_.
Sheriff McCleary was informed of this order and directed to communicate
with General Snowden.
Immediately on receipt of his instructions, General Snowden issued
orders to the brigade commanders. General Robert P. Dechert, in command
of the First Brigade, with headquarters at Philadelphia, was directed to
concentrate his brigade in camp at Mt. Gretna, near Lebanon, in the
eastern part of the state, by Monday afternoon, battery horsed, and
taking three days' rations. General J. P. S. Gobin, of the Second
Brigade, was ordered to concentrate his command at Lewiston, moving
west. General John A. Wiley, of the Third Brigade, composed of regiments
from Western Pennsylvania, was ordered to proceed with his command to a
point on the Pennsylvania Railroad within easy reach of the Monongahela
River.
Within twelve hours from the time when Major General Snowden received
the Governor's order the entire National Guard of Pennsylvania was on
the march, fully equipped and ready for any kind of service.
It was no makeshift army that thus took the field on a few hours'
notice. General Sherman said at the Garfield inauguration that the
Pennsylvania Militia were the best body of troops in the National Guard
of the country and, if confirmation of the accuracy of his judgment were
needed, the Homestead "campaign" furnished it in amplest measure. The
Guard underwent a signal transformation after the Pittsburgh railroad
riot of 1877. Prior to that time it was a loosely constituted, loosely
governed organization, wholly unfitted for service in an emergency and
serving principally as an agency for the distribution of military
titles. The disastrous consequences of the movement against the
Pittsburgh rioters, in which ignorance, incompetency and lack of
concrete organization, in addition to causing the destruction of
millions of dollars' worth of property came near bringing about the
loss of many lives, opened the eyes of Major General Hartranft, then
Governor of the state, and led him to formulate and carry into execution
a plan of reorganization the success of which is seen to-day in the
superiority of the Pennsylvania militia to any other body of troops in
the United States outside the regular army. Under Governor Hartranft's
direction the several divisions of the guard existing under the old
order of things were merged in a single division of three brigades,
composed of eighteen regiments of infantry, three troops of cavalry and
three batteries of artillery. The maximum enrollment was limited to 8000
men. The regiments are recruited from all parts of the state and include
all classes of citizens--farmers, mechanics, clerks, merchants and
gentlemen of leisure.
The mobilization of this great body of men was accomplished with a
degree of celerity and effectiveness unknown since the civil war. When
the regiments advanced on the morning of July 11, all had nearly their
full complement of officers and men. In a single night, preparations for
service, the duration and hardship of which could not be estimated, were
completed, and 8000 soldiers stood unreservedly at the disposal of the
commonwealth.
The news that the soldiers were coming was received in Homestead without
any perceptible feeling of alarm. It was understood by every one in the
town that resistance to the power of the commonwealth was out of the
question, and at the same time the idea went abroad that General Snowden
and his men would confine themselves to the preservation of the peace
and not aid Mr. Frick in the manning of the mill with non-unionists or
the landing of another force of Pinkertons. There were, it is true,
some hot-heads who disputed the justice of the Governor's action and
canvassed the possibility of resisting the militia or of inducing the
workingmen who bore arms for the state to make common cause with their
brethren in the beleaguered town. The advisory committeemen, however,
aided by other influential and intelligent citizens, were quick to
suppress these disorderly symptoms and to emphasize the necessity of
giving the soldiers a cordial and patriotic reception.
At two o'clock on Tuesday afternoon a mass meeting of workingmen was
held in the rink, with Hugh O'Donnell in the chair. Burgess McLuckie
made a fervent address, counseling a friendly demeanor towards the
soldiers and eulogizing the Governor. "This man Pattison," said the
sturdy Burgess, "Is acting quietly and rightly. He understands our
position. He does not cater to monopolies.... Your friends are about to
come; the safest, the best people that can come. We don't want
Pinkertons here. We want the militia.... I stand here to say that any
man who insults the militia shall be taken to the river and ducked."
Cheers and laughter followed this sally and a motion in favor of ducking
in the river any man who insulted the militia was carried unanimously.
John M. Carter, of the Baltimore _News_, who was fresh from an interview
with the Governor, delivered a cheering speech, and other addresses of a
prudent, common-sense tenor were made by members of the Amalgamated
Association.
The feeling of friendship for the militia became contagious. It was
decided that the blue-coated visitors should be received in state. All
the brass bands in town took to rehearsing music of a triumphal
character, to the inspiring strains of which Homestead was to be
amicably turned over to its "protectors." In one band room, when the
question of appropriate tunes came up, the exhilaration of the hour
brought forth some odd suggestions. A young man who proposed "See the
Conquering Hero Comes" was summarily suppressed, and a like fate befell
an individual who thought the "Rogues' March" might fit the occasion.
"Hold the Fort." "Comrades," "Johnny Get Your Gun" and "The Bogie Man"
were canvassed, but a compromise was not reached until some gentleman of
equal tact and discretion suggested "Ta Ra Ra, Boom De Ay," which was
accepted without a dissenting voice as the correct thing to express
Homestead's new-born sentiments of hope and contentment.
A reception committee, headed by Burgess McLuckie and Hugh O'Donnell,
was designated to welcome the representatives of the state and it
remained only for the latter to reciprocate in kind to convert the
military occupation of the town into a love-feast.
The Burgess issued a proclamation warning strangers to get out of town,
directing the closing of drinking-places and enjoining women and
children to keep off the streets. This duty performed, Honest John
McLuckie immersed himself in the study of a speech, of specially
artistic construction, intended for the edification of Major General
Snowden and his staff on their entrance into Homestead, and warranted to
inspire those dignitaries with a profound sense of the good-will and
law-abiding spirit of the people of the town and their cheerful
readiness to fraternize with the troops.
Unfortunately this little _chef d'oeuvre_ was never delivered.
Like the flower in Gray's "Elegy," it was "born to blush unseen and
waste its sweetness," if not on desert air, at all events on the cold
and irresponsive dead wall of military discipline.
All other themes of interest had now sunk out of sight in the face of
the great event of the hour--the converging of the militia regiments
upon Homestead. Even the Pinkertons, the fear of whose return with
reinforcements had endured over Sunday, were forgotten, and the entire
community was on the tip-toe of expectation, not knowing at what moment
the glitter of swords and bayonets and the clatter of horses' hoofs
would herald the advent of the advance guard.
Night fell and still no soldiers. General Snowden had taken care not to
advertise the route of the troops nor the time of their arrival. It was
his purpose to take the town by surprise and to occupy the positions
selected in advance by an officer detailed to make a reconnoissance,
before the people could be apprised of the nature and scope of his
movements.
The maneuvers were carried out with the desired secrecy, the newspaper
men and telegraph operators along the lines of march being kept in the
dark, despite their habitual alertness.
So the Homestead folk went to bed without the opportunity of looking
down the muzzles of any guns except their own and even these, together
with the Winchesters taken from the Pinkertons as the lawful spoils of
war, had been hidden from view, the occasion for their use having now
finally departed.
While the good people on the banks of the Monongahela slept the sleep of
contentment, the soldiers of the First Brigade were stretched shivering
on the open ground at Mt. Gretna, and General Snowden, with all of the
Second and Third Brigades, except the regiments of the extreme West, was
traveling as fast as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company could carry him
towards the scene of disturbance.
CHAPTER X.
[Illustration: CAMP McCLELLAN]
SNOWDEN'S SHARP TACTICS--THE TAKING OF HOMESTEAD--TROOPS IN
POSSESSION--SOLDIERS REPEL ADVANCES AND THE FRATERNAL
RECEPTION IS DECLARED OFF--O'DONNELL'S COMMITTEE AT
HEADQUARTERS--SUSPICION AND RESENTMENT ABROAD--THE LITTLE BILL
RETURNS--CONGRESSMEN HOLD AN INVESTIGATION--CAPITAL AND LABOR
IN CONFLICT ON THE WITNESS STAND--THE COST OF PRODUCING STEEL
REMAINS A RIDDLE.
In pursuance of Gen. Snowden's plan to take Homestead by surprise, the
Second and Third Brigades, instead of being massed as announced in the
newspapers, at Brinton, a station on the Pennsylvania R. R. nearly
opposite Homestead, came together at Radebaugh, a mile and a half west
of Greensburg, and 28-1/2 miles distant from Pittsburgh. By 2.30 A. M.
all the regiments had reached the rendezvous, and at 5 A. M. the order
to advance was given and the troops moved towards Homestead, crossing
the Monongahela river over the P. V. & C. bridge near Braddock. The
Tenth and Fourteenth regiments, and a battery, were left on the Braddock
side of the river with orders to occupy the hills above Port Perry, from
which the guns would sweep the mill yards and the Homestead river front.
The early morning hours were full of surprise for the people of
Homestead. Look-outs were posted at all avenues of approach and anxious
crowds hung around the telegraph offices. As it drew on towards 9
o'clock, a report was circulated that the troops were at Greensburg.
Telegraphic inquiries dispatched to that place brought the response that
they were not there. At 9.25 the operator at Greensburg sent this
message: "No. 23 was wrecked above this place last night; tracks are
blocked and troops are delayed." A bulletin conveying the news was
pasted on the window of the telegraph office and elicited faint cheers
from the crowd. Evidently several hours must yet elapse before the
soldiers would arrive, and the interval was ample to rest and eat
breakfast.
But at the very moment when the Greensburg operator was ticking his
message over the wires, a train pulled into Munhall station at the
eastern end of the town, and from a parlor car in front a tall,
distinguished-looking man, wearing the stars of a major-general,
alighted, followed by six others in uniform and an individual in
civilian's clothing. It was Major General Snowden, accompanied by his
staff and Sheriff McCleary. Behind the general officers' train, which
was made up of two cars, came another train of ten cars, from the
windows of which bayonets and muzzles of guns protruded. Then came
another train and another and still others, until 95 cars were drawn up
in line, all bearing the same freight of guns and bayonets and
lusty-looking fellows in the blue uniform of the National Guard.
There were, perhaps, 200 men and boys at Munhall when the military
trains came in. Some of them had been up all night and were but half
awake. None of them had expected the soldiers to arrive at that depot.
After the first surprise was over, half a dozen scouts, who had been
posted by the advisory committee, ran towards the town shouting: "The
troops! the troops!" The rest of the crowd pressed in around the staff
officers' train and looked on with curious interest.
General Snowden, fearing that there was trouble brewing, held a hasty
consultation with his staff, and had the troops drawn up in line without
a minute's loss of time. Company E of the Eighteenth regiment was
selected for skirmish duty and marched along the tracks, clearing the
crowd away. Then the whole regiment advanced, throwing out detachments
of skirmishers as it went, and taking a straight course to the place of
encampment.
Shanty Hill, the position selected, lies north of the town and forms
part of the Pittsburgh Poor Farm, which had been purchased by the
Carnegie Company, but was still held by the city under a special
arrangement. The hill slopes gently towards the base but develops midway
into a rather steep ascent. A broad plateau extends back from the
summit. A better position for military purposes could not have been
found. The town and the mill yards stretched out below, covered within
easy range by batteries on the heights, and no movement could occur on
the streets without being detected from above.
Before the scouts who ran to give warning of the presence of the
soldiers had fairly begun to spread the alarm, the Eighteenth regiment
had gained the summit of the hill and formed a line of battle. The
Fifteenth regiment followed and formed a line of battle to the right of
the Eighteenth, then came the Thirteenth, Twelfth, Fifth, Ninth and
Seventh regiments, and within half an hour 4,000 men were drawn up in
parallel lines of battle, overlooking the town, and ready, at the word
of command, to turn 4,000 rifles on the crowds that, by this time had
massed below.
[Illustration]
Meanwhile the surprised citizens of Homestead perceived another force of
soldiers marching and counter-marching on the hill tops on the other
side of the river, their bayonets and field pieces glittering in the
morning sunlight.
Homestead was beleaguered at all points. Without the firing of a shot or
the semblance of a parley, the town, which a week before had been the
scene of carnage, was captured, and its guardians were taken so
completely by surprise that they scarcely realized what was occurring
until the troops were in possession.
General Snowden had proved himself an admirable tactician, and the
swiftness and unerring precision with which he handled the large body of
men under his control were universally applauded.
The unexpected fashion in which the soldiers entered broke up all the
plans that had been arranged for their reception. The Homestead bands
remained mute; Burgess McLuckie's speech was relegated to oblivion, and
the reception committee was nonplussed by the circumstance that the
guests had made themselves at home without waiting for a formal
reception. It appeared, in short, that the soldiers were so intent upon
business that they had no time for sentiment and that the process of
fraternizing was not to be so easy as the people had expected.
If there was any doubt on this head it vanished when some of the workmen
endeavored to make their way up Shanty Hill in order to mingle with the
"boys in blue." Sentinels barred the way and informed those who sought
to pass, that until further orders, no civilian would be allowed to go
through the lines. So the townsfolk, including the committeemen of the
Amalgamated lodges, had to content themselves with clustering at the
foot of the hill and watching the manoeuvres of the troops from a
distance.
Shortly before noon a number of prominent citizens and leaders of the
Amalgamated Association held a conference and appointed a committee to
wait upon General Wiley (General Snowden's presence on the ground was
not yet known), to tender the good wishes and co-operation of the
Amalgamated Association and the people of Homestead, and to request that
the military receive the workingmen in a body, accompanied by brass
bands.
The committeemen obtained access to the headquarters of the Third
Brigade, but, on stating the nature of their mission to General Wiley,
were referred by him to General Snowden, who had established his
division headquarters at the Carnegie school house on Shanty Hill.
Sheriff McCleary was found in conference with General Snowden.
Captain Coon, an ex-militia officer and a representative citizen, spoke
for the committee, informing the General of the desire of the
Amalgamated Association and of the citizens generally to co-operate with
the state authority in maintaining order. General Snowden checked the
speaker with the statement that he did not recognize the Amalgamated
Association or any authority other than that of the Governor of
Pennsylvania and the Sheriff of Allegheny County. The best way in which
the people of Homestead could co-operate with the state troops was, he
said, by behaving themselves. Captain Coon undertook to renew the offer
of assistance, but was cut short with the assurance that such offers
could not be accepted.
At this point, Hugh O'Donnell stepped forward and explained that what
the people desired was to attest their cheerful submission to legal
authority in contrast to their refusal to submit to illegal authority as
represented by Mr. Frick's troop of Pinkertons.
"The gentleman behind you is the one to whom you should submit," said
General Snowden, with a wave of the hand towards Sheriff McCleary.
"We have always submitted to his authority," said O'Donnell.
"I beg your pardon," rejoined the General, "but you did not do so at the
mill."
O'Donnell made a gesture of dissent. "I leave it to the Sheriff if we
have not submitted," he retorted.
"No; you did not," replied the Sheriff. "You didn't allow my deputies to
take charge of the works."
Some further parley ensued, O'Donnell asserting that the committee
represented, not the Amalgamated Association, but a citizens' mass
meeting and General Snowden responding that he recognized no citizens
but those of Allegheny County.
"Then," said the former, "as citizens of Allegheny County we come to see
you."
"Then I'm glad to see you, gentlemen," was the General's rejoinder, "I
am glad that our position here is welcomed by the citizens of Allegheny
County."
O'Donnell now proposed that the men of Homestead, with four brass bands,
be permitted to pass in review before the troops, but met with a flat
refusal, General Snowden stating that he was there on the business of
the state and not to indulge in formalities.
This concluded the interview and the committee withdrew in anything but
a comfortable frame of mind.
It was useless to talk now of welcoming the soldiers as friends any more
than of resisting them as foes. They had come to do the duty imposed on
them by the state with mechanical precision and indifference to the
human conditions around them. As well think of fraternizing with the
pieces of ordnance that glistened ominously on the hill top as with the
icy Snowden and Snowden's 4,000 subordinates. This tall, courtly
gentleman with the huge moustache and gold-rimmed glasses perched upon
his classic nose, seemed to have not a grain of sentiment in his
composition. He was the visible incarnation of the state's police
powers, stern and inflexible, and it is not overstating the case to say
that, before night, all Homestead secretly detested him.
Sheriff McCleary, after quaking in his shoes for a week, fairly reveled
in the sunshine of General Snowden's presence. With cannon to right of
him, cannon to left of him, cannon in front of him and soldiers on all
sides, the Sheriff became a new man and began to talk in a tone of
authority which he had not previously ventured to assume. One remark
attributed to him was that the men who took part in the fight with the
Pinkertons would be prosecuted for riot and murder. When this ominous
threat was bruited abroad, it created a sensation among the workmen.
Most of the men, however, affected to regard it as mere buncombe. The
participants in the affray were pledged to secresy, and, it was
contended, if suits were to be entered at all, the whole population of
Homestead would have to be made defendants. Still there was a growing
feeling of uneasiness, especially since it was suspected, with good
reason, as it proved afterward, that there were Pinkerton spies in town
for the purpose of collecting evidence to be used in criminal
prosecutions.
The immediate result of the disquietude thus developed was to put a
keener edge on the discontent inspired by the uncongenial behavior of
the military. Men gathered in groups on the streets and indulged in
bitter murmurings. "We have been deceived," they said, "deceived by the
Governor; deceived unwittingly, but none the less effectually, by our
own advisers. We have stood idly by and let the town be occupied by
soldiers who come here, not as our protectors, but as the protectors of
non-union men, for whom Frick is now scouring the country and who will
be brought into the mill and installed in our places with the aid of
the commonwealth. Then, if we undertake to resist the seizure of our
jobs, we will be shot down like dogs. It is the story of the coke
regions over again."
As if to add fuel to the fire, the "Little Bill," the very name of which
could not be mentioned by a Homesteader without a profane accompaniment,
steamed up to the landing place adjoining the mill yard in all the glory
of an official dispatch boat. One of General Snowden's first acts had
been to charter the detested little tug for the use of the state, and
Captain Rodgers, still smarting from the effects of his experience on
July 6, was only too glad to obtain the chance of confronting his old
enemies under circumstances which insured his safety. The return of the
Little Bill had upon the locked-out men the effect that a red rag has
upon a bull.
Whatever hopes were based by the men of Homestead on the presence of
sympathizers, workmen like themselves, in the ranks of the militia were
quickly counteracted. It having come to the ears of Colonel Kreps, of
the Fifteenth regiment, that some of his men had promised to hand over
their guns to the steelworkers in the event of trouble caused by an
attempt of the Carnegie Company to operate the mill, the Colonel caused
the regiment to be drawn up in line, mentioned the report which he had
heard and closed with the words--"Let any man be foolish enough to
attempt anything of the kind and I will shoot him down in his tracks."
After this, the militiamen put a bridle on their tongues and
disaffection was not hinted at.
Although martial law, in the strict sense of the term, was not declared
at Homestead, General Snowden took the precaution of establishing a
provost guard which made the rounds of the town and fulfilled the dual
function of bringing disorderly stragglers into camp and repressing
dangerous demonstrations among the townspeople. Burgess McLuckie's
police were of little use and the saloonkeepers had disregarded the
order to close their establishments, so that a close watch had to be
kept to prevent drunkenness and disorder, particularly among the
soldiery.
Nothing was left undone to make Camp McClellan, as it was called, a
model of disciplinary perfection.
Just about the time when the National Guard was taking possession of
Homestead, a special committee detailed by the National House of
Representatives to investigate the trouble between the Carnegie Company
and its employees, arrived in Pittsburgh. The committee consisted of W.
C. Oates, of Alabama, chairman; W. H. Bynum, of Indiana; C. J. Boatner,
of Louisiana; E. B. Taylor, of Ohio, and Case Broderick, of Kansas.
Messrs. Taylor and Broderick were the only Republican members.
The committee visited Homestead in the afternoon, and at 7.30 P. M.
began the hearing of testimony.
H. C. Frick was the first witness. In answer to leading questions he
detailed the membership, resources and operations of the Carnegie
Company, the wages paid at Homestead, the nature of the sliding scale
and the events leading up to the lock-out.
Judge Oates asked: "Not counting anything by way of interest on
investment, what is the cost per ton of billets?"
MR. FRICK.--I hardly think that is a fair question. I do not think you
ought to ask me to go into that.
COL. TAYLOR.--Would you object to informing us of the cost per ton of
steel?
Mr. Frick answered that he would.
MR. BOATNER.--Don't feel disposed to give away the secrets of the trade,
eh?
To this the witness responded that the matter in question was a trade
secret and must be respected as such.
Mr. Frick was then questioned concerning his enlistment of Pinkerton
guards. He had acted, he said, on the conviction, gathered from prior
experience, that the sheriff was powerless. After June 24, the firm had
decided to hire the guards at $5 a day per man, and to put new workmen
into the mill. The witness read a copy of a letter which he had sent to
Robert A. Pinkerton under date of June 25. The communication called for
300 guards to be used in enabling the starting of the Homestead mill on
July 6, directed the massing of the force at Ashtabula, O. and advised
"absolute secresy in the movement of these men, so that no demonstration
can be made while they are in route." It concluded as follows: "As soon
as your men are upon the premises, we will notify the sheriff and ask
that they be deputized either at once or immediately upon an outbreak of
such a character as to render such a step desirable."
Mr. Frick was plied with interrogations concerning the Little Bill, the
barges and the famous fence topped with barbed-wire, and Mr. Boatner
asked particularly as to the "port-holes" in the latter. "They were
made," the witness replied gravely, "for the purpose of looking out to
see who might be on the outside."
The examination of the Carnegie chairman was not completed when the
committee adjourned, after a two hours' session, and on the resumption
of the hearing next morning, he was again placed on the stand.
Congressman Boatner opened the ball by endeavoring to ascertain whether
or not there had been an agreement between Mr. Frick and the Pinkerton
agency prior to June 25, a point on which it appeared, Mr. Frick's
memory was defective. Neither could a direct answer be obtained as to
the time when it was deemed advisable to arm the guards. The question of
wages was taken up again, Mr. Frick stating that the rates at Homestead
were higher than at any other mills, that the proposed reduction
averaged 15 per cent. and yet the men would make still more money from
month to month under the new terms than they made under the old. The
examination of the Carnegie Chairman ended with the reading of a
schedule of wages paid to tonnage men under the old scale.
Captain Rodgers, of the Little Bill, was the next witness. He told the
story of the arrival of the Pinkertons, the trip of the barges up the
river and the fight at the mill landing substantially as it has been
related in the preceding pages of this volume.
Sheriff McCleary followed and was closely catechized as to his supposed
official sponsorship for the Pinkertons. The Sheriff denied that he had
promised to deputize the Pinkertons. Having been informed by Messrs.
Knox & Reed, the Carnegie Company's attorneys, that the Pinkertons would
be sent up and that a deputy would be needed to aid in preserving the
peace, he had, he said, ordered Colonel Gray to go and that "if there
was much opposition to their landing he should order the captain and
the Pinkertons to come away." No amount of cross-examining could shake
Mr. McCleary's assertion that the Pinkertons were not deputized and that
Colonel Grey was not authorised to deputize them.
President Weihe, of the Amalgamated Association, explained the sliding
scale system, the propositions submitted by the Carnegie Company, and
the workmen's reasons for rejecting those propositions. The reductions
in wages resulting from the acceptance of the firm's terms would range,
he said, from 10 to 30 per cent. As to improvements, the Association
always made allowances for these, and no objection was offered if jobs
were done away with. The change proposed in the scale-signing date would
have set an example which other mills throughout the country would have
been sure to follow.
Mr. Weihe was asked to state his views on arbitration. He declined to
speak for the Association, but gave it as his individual opinion that
arbitration, whether compulsory or by voluntary tribunals was an
unsatisfactory resort, the issue being almost invariably against the
workingman. The trouble in estimating wages resided in the fact that the
firms could not be persuaded to tell the exact cost of production.
Hugh O'Donnell succeeded Mr. Weihe on the witness stand. He told of the
organization of the advisory committee with himself as chairman and of
the posting of guards outside the mill fence, who "were told not to use
force."
"Were they ordered to use violence to keep men out?" the witness was
asked.
"No sir, they were not. Their purpose was to keep all out by peaceable
methods."
O'Donnell described the attempt of the Pinkertons to land and his own
efforts to check the bloodshed which followed. "I am sure," he said "the
crowd near the water had no guns."
"Who fired the first shot?" asked a committeeman.
"I cannot say."
"Do you know anything of the attempt to fire the barges with oil?"
"I decline to answer."
Resuming his story, O'Donnell recounted the incidents of the surrender
and the terrible march to the rink. "The detectives," he said, "received
most inhuman treatment, but our men did everything to protect them, as I
can prove, and many received wounds on the trip to the town rink." Asked
as to his wages, he replied that he earned $144 a month. His explanation
of the antipathy of the laboring class to Pinkerton detectives was that,
in the special case under consideration, the workmen looked upon the
Pinkertons as "armed invaders and allies of capital," and also because
"if the Pinkertons got possession they would aid the firm in bringing in
non-union men."
Burgess McLuckie testified to being an employe of the Carnegie firm,
earning from $60 to $65 a month. He volunteered the statement that
"there is a gigantic conspiracy somewhere, aided and abetted by
legislation, to deprive the workingmen of their rights under the
constitution of this government--those of life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness," and illustrated this assertion by referring to the
reduction of the tariff on billets, the identical article on which the
compensation of the Homestead men was based. Carnegie and McKinley, in
his opinion, were fellow conspirators in this case. He characterized the
Pinkertons as "lazy thugs employed by unscrupulous capitalists."
Congressman Taylor interjected a remark as to the signs of prosperity in
Homestead, and especially, the comfortable looking houses there. "Well,"
rejoined McLuckie, "let me ask you a question. Are those homes too good
for workingmen to live in?" "Not half good enough," answered Mr. Taylor.
"Thank you," said McLuckie. Everybody smiled at this little exchange of
compliments.
William Roberts, a member of the advisory committee, gave a very clear
statement of the causes of dissension at Homestead. The wage reductions,
he held, affected not the men who were making exceptionally high wages
but many who for eight weeks had not averaged $1 a day. For instance,
one man who, under the old scale made $2.23 a day would make under the
new one offered by the firm only $1.32, while the heater who made $4.31
suffered no reduction. Mr. Roberts advocated compulsory arbitration. In
answer to a question regarding the comparative rates of wages in the
Homestead and other mills, he said: "In the American iron works,
Carnegie's principal competitor, a roller is paid 70 cents per ton while
at Homestead he is paid only 22 or 23 cents. A plate-mill roller at
Homestead is paid 14 cents per ton, while at Jones & Loughlin's he is
paid 72 cents. The product is similar, it goes into the same market and
is used for the same purpose."
Colonel James H. Gray, Sheriff McCleary's chief deputy, described the
trip of the barges to Homestead, and corroborated the Sheriff's claims
that the Pinkertons were not deputized and that orders had not been
given to deputize them. He said positively that the Pinkertons did not
fire a shot until they had to do so in self-defense. This concluded the
second day's session of the committee.
When the committee re-convened on the morning of July 14, John A.
Potter, general superintendent of the Homestead mills, was the first
witness summoned. Mr. Potter furnished data as to the equipment and
capacity of the mills, but expressed ignorance as to the cost of
producing a ton of steel. He assigned as the reason for reducing wages
that the Carnegie firm was "ahead of competitors" and paying more than
the owners of similar mills, and therefore thought it should have "some
of the advantages." Mr. Potter had been on the Little Bill when the
Pinkertons tried to land at Homestead, but had declined to take the
responsibility of entering the mill yard by force.
The remainder of the morning was occupied principally with the hearing
of Homestead workmen who testified as to the effect of Mr. Frick's
propositions upon their respective earnings, and of watchmen and others
who had been connected with the Pinkerton's expedition and who described
their various experiences.
Mr. Frick was recalled and permitted to rebut some of the assertions
made by the workingmen. To prove that his firm did not control the
billet market he cited the fact that Jones & Laughlin's mill has a
capacity of 1000 tons daily, while the output at Homestead is 800 tons
daily. He again refused to give the labor cost of producing a ton of
steel although Congressman Boatner twitted him with refusing to give
the information "on which protective legislation is asked for."
"I do not think we asked for the legislation," observed Mr. Frick.
"You have been greatly misrepresented then," said Mr. Boatner grimly.
Mr. Frick estimated the value of the Homestead plant at from $5,000,000
to $6,000,000, and stated that the capitalization of the Carnegie
Company was considerably in excess of $25,000,000.
Having heard all sides of the case, the committee closed its labors
early in the afternoon and returned to Washington where congress awaited
its report.
CHAPTER XI.
[Illustration: _THE_ FIRST ARRESTS]
BRINGING IN THE "BLACKSHEEP"--PITTSBURGH, BEAVER FALLS AND
DUQUESNE MEN COME OUT--AN ALARM IN CAMP--THE GOVERNOR
ARRIVES--THE BOYCOTT AS A PERSUADER--POLITICS TO THE
RESCUE--MURDER CHARGED AND WARRANTS ISSUED--McLUCKIE,
O'DONNELL AND ROSS SURRENDER AND ARE RELEASED ON BAIL--GENERAL
SNOWDEN'S DISHEARTENING ANNOUNCEMENT.
The locked-out men were not mistaken in their belief that the Carnegie
Company would take advantage of the presence of the military to bring
non-union men into the mill. Troops were early detailed to garrison the
mill yard, and a line of sentries was posted outside the fence, so that
there could be no interference by the workmen either from the railroad
or the river. The steamboat Tide was used as a special transport for
non-unionists, the first squads of whom came over from Swissvale, on the
Pennsylvania railroad, and were taken across the river under cover of
Colonel Hawkins' guns. Agents of the firm were set to work in every
large city procuring recruits, and while it was found rather difficult
to tempt men to risk the desperate chances of a trip to Homestead to
take the places of the conquerors of the Pinkertons, a small number were
secured each day until, within a week after the first squad was brought
in, nearly one hundred men were quartered within the mill enclosure.
Hundreds of cots were provided for the accommodation of the new hands,
and large quantities of food and other supplies were laid in. At the
same time, the firm advertised for proposals to build 100 houses on the
City Farm plan of lots at Munhall station, thus signifying its intention
of establishing permanent quarters for those who were to take the places
of the old employees.
On Friday, July 15, for the first time since the lock-out began, smoke
issued from the cupolas of the great steel plant. The furnaces were lit
at last, and the news circulated rapidly throughout the town that the
company was suspected of having smuggled in enough non-unionists to
renew operations. An excited mob rushed pell-mell towards the mill yard,
but was stopped short at the picket lines, where the guards, with
levelled bayonets, barred progress.
As a matter of fact there were but few steelworkers among the first
hundred men brought in by the Tide. Fifteen of them were carpenters, who
were engaged on a temporary lodging house between the machine pressing
mill and the river, and a majority of the others were waiters, cooks,
clerks and bosses.
A final notice to the old employees was posted in Homestead on July 16.
It set forth that "individual" applications for employment would be
received by the general superintendent until 6 P. M., Thursday, July
21; that it was the company's desire to retain those of its former
workmen who had not taken part in the disturbances, and that the
positions of those who failed to comply with this notice would be given
to non-union men.
The locked-out men treated this manifesto with indifference, letting the
prescribed period pass by without any sign of a desire to return to work
on Mr. Frick's terms. Their sole reply was embodied in a circular issued
July 22, wherein it was set forth that the workingmen of Homestead and
the general public had a vested interest in the great industrial
establishment built up by the labor of the one and indirectly sustained
by tariff taxes paid by the other; that those interests would be
asserted and defended in the courts and the halls of legislation and
that the men rested their cause--"the cause of American liberty against
anarchy on the one hand and despotism on the other, with the courts, the
legislatures and the public conscience."
On this same day a large force of non-union men reported at the Carnegie
offices in Pittsburgh and were shipped to Homestead on the Tide,
starting from the Monongahela wharf amid the jeers of a crowd of
on-lookers. Similar trips were made every day thereafter, the safe
arrival of the first batches of recruits having emboldened others. Once
the ball was set rolling, the firm experienced little trouble in
securing men. There is always an army of unemployed in the United
States, and upon these as well as underpaid workers in various
lines--clerks, struggling young professional men and others--who were
tempted by the high wages said to be paid at Homestead the firm could
and did draw freely. The Homestead leaders contended that it would be
impossible to operate the mills without a force of expert steel workers,
but Mr. Frick seemed to care little about skill as long as he could
secure men able and willing to learn the work entrusted to them. The
mills, it appeared, were to be a school in which an entirely new set of
artisans were to be instructed, regardless of the losses that must be
sustained in the process.
[Illustration: BRINGING IN NON-UNIONISTS.]
In the meantime trouble was brewing in other concerns operated by the
Carnegie Company. Mr. Frick had already signed the scale at the
Pittsburgh and Beaver Falls mills, and expected to accomplish at these
plants much of the work which was suspended at Homestead. The workmen at
both places, however, sympathized with their brethren at Homestead and
decided accordingly to break their contract with the firm and go out on
strike until the trouble at Homestead should be fairly adjusted. The
Pittsburgh men, employed at the Upper and Lower Union Mills in
Lawrenceville, went out on July 15 and the Beaver Falls men on the
following day. The mill at Duquesne was non-union, but there, too, the
spirit of resistance manifested itself and on July 19, the men took
preliminary steps toward entering the Amalgamated Association so as to
be in proper shape to strike. On July 20 the Duquesne lodges were
permanently organized and on the 23d a strike was declared.
Homestead was now, in a degree, under martial law, the power of the
borough authorities being limited to the arrest of drunken and
disorderly persons. Two companies of soldiers did guard duty on the
streets and had orders to arrest any of Burgess McLuckie's special
policemen found exceeding their duty.
Life in Camp Black was anything but a bed of roses. Colonel Hawkins'
command spent two days and nights on the hills above Port Perry without
tents and suffered much from the inclemency of the weather, broiling
heat alternating with rain that drenched the men to the skin. A storm
blew down most of the tents on the second day of the encampment.
The first alarm that brought the soldiers out occurred after midnight on
July 15. Someone brought in word that the camp was to be attacked from
the rear. Bugles were sounded, the drums beat to arms, and in a few
minutes the Second and Third brigades were ready for action and threw
out their skirmish lines, while the force of pickets was doubled. The
alarm proved to be a false one; nevertheless the Sixteenth regiment was
kept under arms until daybreak.
It had been decided that the period of service at Homestead should take
the place of the regular annual encampment of the National Guard, and
Governor Pattison and his staff arrived accordingly on the 19th to
conduct the annual inspection, to which a week's time was devoted. Some
of the workmen supposed that the Governor might entertain the idea of
mediating between the conflicting parties, but it was soon found that he
harbored no such design. He visited the mills, inspected the scene of
the battle with the Pinkertons and conversed informally with citizens of
the town concerning the history of the trouble, but declined to
interfere further, confining himself mainly to his official functions as
Commander of the National Guard. Quarters were assigned to the Governor
and his staff in three comfortable cottages belonging to the Carnegie
Company, adjoining the Carnegie hotel on Eighth avenue, and opposite the
main entrance to the steel works. General Snowden and his staff had been
patronizing the hotel cuisine, previously sacred to the discriminating
palates of the Carnegie officials. An odd incident temporarily deprived
the General of this accommodation. One morning the head waiter, having
formed the opinion that the troops were helping to take the bread out of
the mouths of the workingmen, informed the proprietor that he could not
be instrumental in conveying the staff of life to the mouths of "the
enemy" and resigned on the spot. The head cook followed, and the
under-waiters and cooks went out with their leaders. When the officers
arrived for breakfast and found that there was nothing to eat, the air
was made blue with profanity. The boycott was one which all the military
force of the commonwealth was powerless to lift. After this, General
Snowden had his meals prepared and served at headquarters by a colored
cook drafted from one of the regiments. Young women who could be relied
on not to indulge in a sympathetic strike were installed in the places
of the cooks and waiters who had deserted from the hotel.
While the workmen were somewhat dismayed by the signs of activity within
the mill enclosure, feeling, as they did, that the thin end of the
non-union wedge had already been inserted, they stoutly refused to admit
that the firm could find enough skilled steelworkers in the country to
operate the mill or could successfully utilize green hands in the
intricate work which it had taken old employees, in many cases, years to
learn. This argument seemed invincible and was used on every hand as
confirming the supposition that the firm was merely making a pretense of
manning and operating the mill, so as to discourage the old hands and
provoke a stampede back to work. Such devices as this, the men said,
would be futile. The Homestead workers were firmly bound together and
there would be no deserters from their ranks. Mr. Frick might be able to
get non-union laborers, helpers, blacksmiths, mechanics, carpenters and
painters, but all these had to depend on the skilled labor of the men
who made the steel. Without rollers, heaters, shearers, cutters and
other trained workers, the mills could not start, and on these the
Amalgamated Association had a solid hold and would maintain it.
"Our weapon," said Hugh O'Donnell, "will be the boycott--the
workingman's only effective weapon. While Carnegie is seeking to starve
us into submission, we will endeavor to strike a blow at his every
industry. The strikes at Lawrenceville and Beaver Falls, and the action
of some of the carpenters' unions in refusing to work in buildings where
Carnegie's structural material is used constitute the kind of assistance
that we want."
There was certainly abundant reason for anticipating a general boycott
of the Carnegie Company's product. Labor unions in Pittsburgh, Chicago,
Philadelphia and elsewhere were holding meetings and pledging themselves
to carry out the program outlined by O'Donnell and it was even reported
that the railroad brotherhoods would interpose to prevent the
transportation of freight to and from the various Carnegie plants.
In any case there was no fear of actual suffering among the locked-out
men for a long time to come. Under the rules of the Amalgamated
Association, strike benefits would be paid out of the treasury of the
order and an additional and comfortably large fund was created by the
contributions which flowed into Homestead daily from every section of
the country.
There was also a strong conviction among the men that the Republican
party leaders would come to the rescue. The political aspect of the wage
dispute was explained in a previous chapter. This phase of the matter
was taken up with fierce avidity by the Democratic press after the
conflict of July 6, and the country rang with denunciations of a
protective policy which protected the manufacturer only and left reduced
wages and Pinkerton lead to the workingman as his share of tariff
benefits. Genuine apprehension was felt among the Republican
politicians, and Republican newspaper organs, seeing and dreading the
disturbed condition of the labor world, hardly dared respond to the
sneers of the opposition. The high tariff party had so long catered to
the labor vote that the problem of meeting labor's demands with regard
to Homestead was full of embarrassment, and it was evident that
President Harrison's prospects of re-election were seriously threatened.
The leaders at Homestead, knowing the dependence of the Carnegie Company
on tariff legislation and believing that the fealty of Messrs. Carnegie
and Frick to the Republican party would be an all-powerful consideration
in a crisis wherein the presidency itself was at stake, sent Hugh
O'Donnell to New York to confer secretly with General Clarkson and other
ruling spirits in the Republican national committee. O'Donnell left on
this mission on July 17. On the following day Mr. Frick played another
trump card, the forcing out of the military having been the first of a
hand which the implacable little chairman confidently asserted would
turn out to be all trumps.
Burgess John McLuckie was arrested on the charge of murder.
And this was not all. The information, lodged before Alderman McMasters,
of Pittsburgh, in pursuance of which the warrant for McLuckie's arrest
was issued, included also the names of Hugh O'Donnell, Sylvester
Critchlow, Anthony Flaherty, Samuel Burkett, James Flannigan and Hugh
Ross. F. T. F. Lovejoy, secretary of the Carnegie Company, was the
prosecutor and he affirmed that the men named "did of their malice
aforethought feloniously and riotously with force and arms and deadly
weapons kill and murder one T. J. Connors then and there being in the
peace of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." A second information charged
the same persons with the murder of Silas Wain.
Three constables were sent to Homestead to make the arrests. They
applied to General Snowden for assistance, which was promptly furnished,
two companies of infantry being detailed to their support. At the same
time the patrols were increased and two regiments were kept under arms
so as to be ready for any contingency. No trouble was experienced,
however. The accused had been forewarned and all, with the exception of
O'Donnell and McLuckie, had locked up their houses and gone into hiding.
The doughty burgess, strong in the consciousness of his innocence, went
to Pittsburgh at an early hour, surrendered himself at the alderman's
office and was committed to jail. Before the prison gates closed upon
him, he informed the newspaper representatives that the Amalgamated men,
in turn, would make informations against Carnegie, Frick and Potter. "We
will make this man Frick come down on his knees so hard that the sound
will be heard in the farthest corner of civilization" was honest John's
last observation as he was led into durance.
Secretary Lovejoy also had something to say for the enlightenment of the
public. "We have good cases against 1000 of these men," he said "and
from now on from twelve to fifteen informations will be made every day.
The laws of Pennsylvania are very broad on this subject. Persons who
were on the premises at the time of the shooting are liable not only as
accessories, but as principals."
McLuckie spent only one night in jail, being released next morning on
$10,000 bail after a brief hearing before Judge Magee in the county
criminal court. He took the first train for Homestead and was received
there with acclamations, the townspeople turning out _en masse_ to
receive him. A procession was formed in his honor, and to the strains of
"Home, Sweet Home," performed with unusual energy by the crack brass
band of the town, the hero of the hour was escorted to the rink, where
he made a speech of thanks to the people.
Hugh O'Donnell no sooner heard that a warrant was out for his arrest
than he suspended his operations in New York and returned to Homestead.
Like McLuckie, he spared the constables the trouble of arresting him
and, in company with Hugh Ross, proceeded to Pittsburgh with the
intention of surrendering. The two men went directly into the criminal
court and, without the aid of an attorney, presented themselves to Judge
Magee. O'Donnell addressed the judge, explaining that he had not sought
to evade the arrest and asking that the law take its course. The judge
was non-plussed by the unprecedented behavior of the two workmen in thus
walking calmly into what was, from their point of view, the "lion's
den," but, after some questioning, advised them to surrender themselves
at the office of Alderman McMasters. This they did, and within an hour,
they were behind prison bars. Two days later Peter Allen and Nathan Foy
were arrested at their homes and lodged in jail.
An application for the admission of O'Donnell and his companions to bail
was heard by Judge Magee on Saturday, July 23. Attorneys William J.
Brennen and John F. Cox appeared for the defendants on behalf of the
Amalgamated Association, and District Attorney Clarence Burleigh and D.
F. Patterson, Esq. represented the prosecution. The testimony of a
number of Pinkerton detectives, newspaper reporters, deputy sheriffs and
others was taken, showing conclusively O'Donnell's leadership and his
presence at the battle in the mill yard. The defence argued that
O'Donnell's part in the "riot" was that of a peacemaker. Judge Magee
reserved his decision until Monday, when he finally admitted the four
prisoners to bail in the sum of $10,000 each, the case having "within
its possibility a conviction of murder in the second degree."
The succession of arrests had, of course, a depressing effect on the
people of Homestead. A still more discouraging circumstance was General
Snowden's announcement that the troops would be kept in Homestead until
one side or the other should give in. As long as the troops remained the
mill was so securely guarded that the question was not merely of
providing against violence but of preventing the Amalgamated men from
obtaining access to the non-unionists and bringing persuasion to bear
upon them after the manner customary with labor organizations. General
Snowden was denounced without stint for what the men construed as a
desire on his part to play into the hands of the Carnegie Company. But
the General did not seem to mind denunciations. The last attempt to
subjugate him was made by the high constable of the borough on an
occasion when a stray cow had paid the debt of nature within the lines
of the encampment. The constable undertook to storm the enemy's works
with a view to compelling the interment of the cow with the honors of
war, but was seized and incarcerated over night in the guard house.
With the fall of this functionary came the collapse of all that remained
of civil authority in Homestead, and thereafter General Snowden's word
was law.
The advisory committee was sorely perplexed over the disposition to be
made of the guns taken from the Pinkertons. The Attorney General of the
state was addressed on the subject but declined to give advice, and it
was doubtful that the guns could lawfully be retained as the "spoils of
war." Ultimately the individual holders of the weapons settled the
matter in their own way by hiding the trophies where prying detectives
would be unable to find them.
The death of George W. Rutter, at the Homeopathic hospital, Pittsburgh,
on July 18 closed the list of fatalities on the side of the workingmen.
Rutter remained in a delirium until the last, always imagining in his
ravings that he was back on the bank of the Monongahela, fighting
against the Pinkertons. He was buried at Verona, Pa., where his widow
and children resided.
CHAPTER XII.
[Illustration: THE SHOOTING OF FRICK.]
BERKMAN, A RUSSIAN AUTONOMIST, ATTEMPTS THE LIFE OF THE CARNEGIE
CHAIRMAN--MR. FRICK'S BRAVERY--"THE SHOOTING WILL IN NO WAY
AFFECT THE HOMESTEAD STRIKE"--MILITIAMAN IAMS CHEERS THE
ASSASSIN AND IS DRUMMED OUT OF CAMP--PUBLIC INDIGNATION OVER
THE IAMS AFFAIR--SNOWDEN, HAWKINS, STREATOR AND NEFF
INDICTED--WORKINGMEN PROSECUTE CARNEGIE OFFICIALS FOR MURDER.
"Frick is shot!"
Such was the appalling announcement blazoned on bulletin boards, passed
from mouth to mouth and hurried over the telegraph wires on the
afternoon of Saturday, July 23, while O'Donnell and Ross were undergoing
their preliminary hearing in the county court. The first question on
every lip was, "Did a Homestead man do the shooting?" and great was the
feeling of relief among the sympathizers of organized labor when it was
learned that the would-be assassin, Alexander Berkman, was a Russian
anarchist, and that his crime was prompted solely by the teachings of
the infamous class of outlaws to which he belonged.
Berkman came to the United States in 1886, fresh from the University of
Odessa, where he had inbibed the principals of the Autonomists--extreme
Anarchists who believe in redressing social wrongs by individual action.
He became a compositor in the office of Johann Most's paper, _Die
Freiheit_, wrote freely for Anarchistic publications and allied himself
with the worst class of revolutionary plotters in the metropolis. The
beginning of 1893 found him living with Emma Goldman, a Russian woman of
some note as a speech maker among the Anarchists, and spending much of
his time in the beer halls frequented by Anarchists and Nihilists.
Berkman seemed to be consumed with a desire to shine in the eyes of his
mistress and of the blatant, beer-sodden circle of which she was the
star, by giving a practical exemplification of his fidelity to
Autonomist doctrine.
"Who is the worst enemy of society in America?" he asked himself, and
when the Homestead trouble broke out, he imagined that his question was
answered.
Frick was the man--Frick, the oppressor of workmen, the representative
of the power of wealth and of might antagonizing right. "Undoubtedly,"
thought Berkman, "this man is society's arch-enemy and a fit mark for
the weapon of an Autonomist."
So the misguided wretch made up his mind to murder the Carnegie
chairman, and proceeded accordingly to Pittsburgh, armed for
assassination. In company with Henry Bauer and Carl Knold,
active anarchists of Allegheny City, Berkman inspected the
_Chronicle-Telegraph_ building on Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, in which
Mr. Frick's office is located, and mapped out a program of attack.
Representing himself as an employment agent, who desired to confer with
the Carnegie chairman regarding the furnishing of non-union labor, he
experienced little trouble in obtaining access to Mr. Frick's private
room. He made several visits before the day of the shooting, and was
suspected by no one. The neatly-attired, slight, young man who appeared
so anxious to help the firm in its endeavors to procure workmen was one
of the last men who would be supposed to harbor murderous designs.
At noon on the day set for the consummation of his plan, Berkman sent in
his card to Mr. Frick, requesting an interview, but was referred to the
clerk whose business it was to supervise the transportation of non-union
men to Homestead. The clerk was out and Berkman was told to call again
later. Shortly before two o'clock, Berkman returned and again asked to
see Mr. Frick. He was informed that the Chairman was engaged. After
waiting a few minutes in the hall outside the anteroom adjoining Mr.
Frick's office, he came back once more, and finding nobody present but
the office-boy, handed the lad his card and told him to take it in to
the Chairman. The boy had hardly opened the door of Mr. Frick's office
when Berkman rushed in, drew a revolver and opened fire. Mr. Frick, who
was seated at his desk in conversation with Mr. Leishman, one of his
partners, had his back turned to the intruder and offered an easy mark.
Berkman fired three shots in quick succession, the first two lodging in
Mr. Frick's neck, while the third struck the ceiling. The assassin
attempted to fire a fourth time, but the cartridge failed to explode.
He snapped the trigger several times and finding that the revolver
would not work, threw it on the ground, and, pulling out a stiletto,
advanced upon Mr. Frick, who, wounded as he was, had risen to his feet
to defend himself. Twice Berkman plunged the stiletto into Mr. Frick's
side and he was about to strike a third time when the wounded man,
summoning up all the strength left to him, seized his assailant's arm
and grappled with him in a fierce struggle for life.
All this passed so rapidly that the clerks in the adjoining offices were
unable to reach the scene of the encounter until the moment when Mr.
Frick and Berkman clinched. When they entered, Berkman had the Chairman
pressed against the large window looking out on Fifth avenue and was
trying to release the hand that held the stiletto. Both men were covered
with blood and a pool of blood was on the floor. On the street without,
then thronged with Saturday afternoon promenaders, people stood
transfixed with horror. Some shrieked helplessly. Some, with more
presence of mind, ran to summon the police.
The clerks quickly released Mr. Frick from the grasp of his assailant
and placed him on a lounge. Berkman dashed out of the office, with
several clerks in pursuit, and was caught in the elevator, given in
charge of the police and removed to the Central Station in a patrol
wagon.
Dr. Litchfield, Mr. Frick's family physician, and a number of other
medical men arrived promptly and took charge of the wounded man. Mr.
Frick had not lost consciousness and was able to recognize and speak to
the physicians. They wished to place him under the influence of
chloroform while probing for the bullets, but he forbade this and
submitted stoically to the operation, which lasted two hours. The
extraordinary nerve of the man never left him. After the bullets had
been extracted and his wounds bandaged, he conversed collectedly with
visitors, signed several letters which had been written before the
shooting and talked of being in condition to return to his office on
Monday.
Meanwhile an excited multitude thronged the street outside the Carnegie
offices and defied the efforts of the police to disperse it. At 6
o'clock an ambulance drove up, but it was not used. The news that Mr.
Frick was to be removed to his private residence at Homewood, in the
East End, had spread among the people and the desire to catch a glimpse
of him made the mob unmanageable. Not until 7.45 o'clock was the removal
accomplished. At that hour the crowd was drawn away by driving an
ambulance to the rear of the Carnegie offices. The vehicle was driven
quickly back again, and Mr. Frick was placed in it and carried off while
the coast was clear.
Before being removed to his home, Mr. Frick sent this message to the
reporters: "The shooting will in no way effect the Homestead strike."
Dangerous as the Carnegie Chairman's injuries were, his recovery was
rapid, and two weeks after his encounter with Berkman he was able to
return to his office and resume full charge of the firm's affairs to
which, while on his sick bed, he had still continued to give a
considerable measure of attention.
Berkman was taken to the county jail on Sunday night, there to await
trial. He seemed indifferent to his fate and expressed regret that he
had not succeeded in killing Frick. Bauer and Knold, his supposed
accomplices, were locked up on the following day. A wagon load of
Anarchist literature was seized at the house of Bauer, who acted as an
agent for publications of this character.
The effect of the shooting on public opinion was strongly marked. The
press of Pittsburgh was unanimous in expressing sympathy for Mr. Frick,
and in so doing, voiced the general sentiment of the people. At
Homestead much regret was expressed, and the workmen seemed to feel
that, although Berkman did not represent them or their cause, directly
or indirectly, his cowardly act was certain to prejudice their
interests.
Undoubtedly the attempt to murder Mr. Frick served to hasten the defeat
of the workingmen. The courage displayed by the Carnegie Chairman won
him admiration in quarters where he had previously been condemned, and
there were other circumstances which took the edge off the animosity
generated by his harshness towards organized labor. During the crisis at
Homestead, his young wife became a mother and, so powerfully did the
events in which her husband was the central figure effect her that, for
a time, she lay at the point of death. The child lived only a few days.
Mr. Frick, it was said, in recognition of the fact that the New York
_Sun_ was the only newspaper in the country which took up the cudgels in
his behalf, intended to name the little one Charles A. Dana Frick, after
the editor of that journal. These incidents conspired to soften the
popular heart somewhat, although Mr. Frick did not abate in the least
his hostility towards the Amalgamated men and his determination to break
the back of unionism in the Carnegie mills at any cost.
There was, however, one man in Allegheny county who neither sympathized
with Frick nor scrupled to express his regret that Berkman's weapons
failed to do their work.
This man was W. L. Iams, a youth belonging to one of the best families
in Greene County, who was serving in Company K, Tenth Regiment, under
Colonel Hawkins.
Iams was stretched on the grass outside Lieutenant Colonel J. B.
Streator's tent, chatting with a group of comrades, when the news of the
attempt on Frick's life was brought in. Acting on the impulse of the
moment, and doubtless without measuring the significance of his words,
the young man jumped to his feet and shouted "Three cheers for the man
who shot Frick." Colonel Streator heard the remark and, stepping out of
his tent, asked who had uttered it. Receiving no response, he ordered
the regiment drawn up in line in the company streets, and, after
condemning the language used by Iams as treasonable, demanded from one
company after another the name of the offender. When he came to Company
K, Iams stepped forward from the ranks and said "I did it." The Colonel
asked him why. "Because I do not like Frick" was the answer. Iams was
ordered to apologize before the regiment but refused, and was thereupon
sent to the guard-house and subjected, without the benefit of a trial by
court-martial, to the most degrading punishment known under military
law. He was first strung up by the thumbs with notice that he would be
cut down as soon as he apologized. Although suffering exquisite torture,
the young man remained firm and declined to retract his words. After
hanging for a quarter of an hour, he lost consciousness and the
regimental surgeon, Dr. Neff, ordered him to be cut down. Iams was then
placed in the guard-house until his case was reported to Colonel
Hawkins, at the headquarters of the provisional brigade. The report was
returned with the approval of Colonel Hawkins and General Snowden and an
order from the latter that the man be disgraced and drummed out of camp.
Colonel Streator executed these directions to the letter. Iams' head and
face were half shaved; his uniform was exchanged for an old pair of
overalls and a shirt and dilapidated hat to match, and in this wretched
condition he was led out of camp to the tune of the "Rogues' March." His
sentence carried with it permanent exclusion from the National Guard and
disenfranchisement.
Iams proceeded to Pittsburgh and, strange to say, became the lion of the
hour. He announced his intention of prosecuting the officers concerned
in his punishment and a score of attorneys volunteered their services as
his counsel. Among these was Frank P. Iams, Esq., a cousin of the young
man, who was engaged in practice at the Pittsburgh bar.
Within twenty-four hours the Iams case became a National _cause
celebre_. It was discussed everywhere from Maine to California. Military
authorities waxed warm over it. Legal authorities squabbled over it.
Professional publicists were interviewed concerning it.
Editors made it the subject of tremendous publications. Pictures of
Iams, hairless, mustacheless and defiant appeared in the illustrated
weeklies. The Allegheny County Democrats, happening to have another
convention on hand at this time, took the matter up in a political way,
and as it happened that Colonel Streator was a well-known and popular
Democratic club man, "confusion worse confounded" followed the endeavors
of the workingmen in the convention to secure the passage of resolutions
excoriating the "brutal and inhuman" conduct of Iams' superior officers.