Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-11-21
THE LONG STRIKE ENDED.
Workmen at Homestead, Pa, Decide .,
Give Up the Fight.

! ghnon. VICE PRESIDENT Carney and Treasurer
Madden. national officers Of the Amalgamated
Association Of Iron and Steel Workers, we're
present
The lockout had reached its one hundred and
forty-fourth day The vote that opened the
Homestead steel works to Amalgamated men
stood 101 ayes, 81 noes.
The meeting was a red-hot one all the way
through, and at one time it looked as il Burgess
Hollingshead would have to assert his official
authority to prevent serious conflict Charges
and counter-charges were the order of the day.
| Newspaper representatives were excluded but
the information is reliable that those wishing
TO declare the mill open barely succeeded in
! carrying their point.
Now that the agony is over the men are not
backward in expressing their opinions Of the
men who have posed leaders confidently
promising victory when they knew for o GER
tainty that the battle was hopelessly lost
WHO CAN OBTAIN WORK.
According to Superintendent Wood of the
Homestead works not more than eigh. or nine
hundred of the total number Of cid employees
will be able TO secure employment Before the
break OF last Thursday there were left In Home
stead about 800 of the original 8 800 men who
! were locked out on the 25th day Of June
OF these 800 men 1900 were mechanics and
laborers and 600 Amagamated Association men.
Up to date ], 100 men have applied for work. and
1 - esuIiidteu not more than 800 have
been supplied with positions
The question of declaring the mill open began
to agitate the minds of certain Amalgamated
men as soon as it became apparent that the
mechanics intended breaking away in a body.
Not only the rank and file, but many OF the
leaders. recognized that without the numerical
! aid of the mechanics and laborers they could
not hope to carry the day. Money! or lack of
II. also became an important factor The failure
to receive promised money of large amount,
followed by the bottom dropping out of the
promise OF victory for the steel workers in
event OF the democratic party coming into
power, together with tho unfulfillment of other
promises, all came in for consideration They
could not subsist upon promises. and so told
their leaders, who. seeing that 1t would be use
less to try to hold the men together longer,
took steps to place their brethren upon equal
footing with the mechanics in the grand rush
for work.
WHEN TIE VOTE WAS ANNOUNCED.
Only about 800 men attended the meeting.
Those opposed to bringing the fight to an end
struggled hard to prevent q ballot, pleading,
arguing and predicting the disintegration Of
the Amagamated Association in event of such
action. These steel workers. who repeatedly
stated that they would prefer nakedness and
starvation rather than acknowledge defeat,
were in the minority, and they knew it, Yet
they plead with their brethren to stand firm. if
for no other reason than to show to the world
that they had not forgotten the men who we're
lying in prison cells awaiting trial. 1t Was Of
no avail The question was put; the vote was a
standing one.
When Vice President Carney announced the
result there was no joyous outburst. There
was no demonstration such that which fol-
lowed the standing vote of the mechanics de-
caring themselves independent Of the ANAL
gamated Association For few minutes the
men sat and stared at each other. Then fol-
lowed angry denunciations.
The men slowly left the hall in twos and
threes. They seemed 10th to leave the build
ing. the very rafters of which have quivered
with the declarations made thousand times
that victory was theirs if they would only be
patient.
Yesterday afternoon and evening the men
stood in small groups about the street dis
cussing the plight they found themselves in
With winter upon them they see nothing in
store now but a struggle for existence, which
may assume the proportions Of famine.
The oft-repeated declarations Of the Carnegie
officials that the non-union men will not be dis
placed to give employment to the strikers
renders absolutely no hope in Homestead for
1000 OF the defeated strikers.
HISTORY OF THE STRIKE
The Homestead strike will be recorded az one
of the most famous labor demonstrations in the
history of the country.
The men were locked out June 25, five DAYS
before the expiration of the old wage SCALE and
from that time until July the Carnegie Steel
Company made no attempt to get men into the
mills. The advisory committee would allow no
one to go in except clerks, watchmen and fore
men in the employ of the company.
On the morning of July the pinkerton de-
tectives tried to land ct the mill and ten men
lost their lives a result of the battle which
followed. besides forty or fifty who were
wounded. some of whom were manned for life;
The capture of the Pinkertons after two
houTai fiUhfIpp HI-ripr which ris ri
cannon. dynamite and burning oil were used.
was followed by the terrible gauntlet running
and barbarous abuse of the captive Pinkertons,
one OF whom was driven insane by it and after
ward killed himself.
couple of others lost their reason passing
through the awful line of maddened men and
women from the river bank to the Opera House,
where they were held prisoners until given into
charge OF the county sheriff. The next event OF
importance was the ordering out by the gov
ernor OF the entire National Guard of the state
on July 10. two-thirds of which were encampedat
Homestead for three weeks and some regiments
for three months, with an aggregate cost to the
state of $500, 900.
The Homestead strike has proved one of the
most disastrous in the history of the country
1t originated from reduction in the depart
ments in which members Of the Amalgamated
Association Of Iron and Steel Workers we're en-
ployed. The hitch was on what is known as
the sliding scale.
1t is scale which regulates the mems wages
ty the market price of steel bullets. Nearly
every mill III this vicinity signed the SCALE in
GLIDING other mills of the Carnegie company.
At the refusal of the firm TO sign the scale for
the Homestead mill a lockout occurred by the
Amalgamated A ssocation and they were Joined
by the mechanics and Iaborers who struck ont
OF sympathy only, their wages not being re-
duced.
SEws RECEIVED WITH DIsMAY
The news OF yesterdays action was received