The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1892-07-08
CARNEGIE TO FIGHT
Extensive Plans Made to Fight the Men
Belonging to the Different
Labor Unions.
CARNEGIE, THE PRODUCT OF PROTECTION,
The Fight Against the Amalmagated
Association Of the Iron
Workers.

Andrew Carnegie means war. He
has made his plans to fight organized
labor and he evidently expects long
and bitter campaign. A Pittsburg
dispatch dated the 18th says:
Andrew Carnegie's lieutenants are
preparing for a great struggle with
organized labor at the Carnegie mills
at Homestead. where 5000 workman
are employed chiefly in the manufac-
ture of armor plates for the govern
ment. The men have given no sign of
accepting the scale of wages which
was presented to them some time ago
by the Carnegie firm. They have until
the oath inst. to decide, but it is evil
dent that the Carnegies do not expect
the answer to be satisfactory, and so
they propose to displace the old EN-.
ployes with non-union men who will
work for the wages offered.
The great homestead plant, with its
expansive yards and endless tracks,
covering nearly 400 acres, has been
enclosed by an almost air tight board
fence which is fully nine feet high.
Along the top of this fence are
stretched three strands of barbed wire
which when the war begins will be
charged with electricity, and cannot
therefore be touched. Inside of the
fence are now being constructed
double rows Of gas and water pipes.
At the main entrance and just inside
the pondrOus gates have been erected
two substantial water plugs. Cook
houses are being built within the en-
closure. Sleeping arrangements have
been made for workman, who are to
be imported. and an enclosed platform
extending from the railroad station
over the high fence and into the works
has been built.
This covered platform, it is eX-
planned, will enable che company to
bring workmen, should the threatened
lockout occur, without their being
seen or known to those whose places
they will take. The large fireplugs at
the main entrance, with pressure of
400 pounds to the square inch, are to
be used, it is claimed, to protect the
workmen against any assault that may
be made from the outside.
The scale proposed to the workmen,
it is claimed by the Carnegies, will
not lessen the earning capacity of the
men to whom it is offered. 1t is in
tended. they say, only to equalize
wages and give to the firm its lightful
share of the profits that result from
improved facilities.
The workmen on the other hand
claim that the new scale will reduce
their wages from 10 to 40 per cent
They are members of the Amalgamated
association, whose national convention
is now in session at Pittsburg, and
say they will fight the new scale to
the end
The present acting head Of the Car
negie interest, H, G. Prick, is known
MS an aggressive opponent of trades
Unions and it is believed the new scale
is offered as much with view to max
ing the plant non-union as to secure
lower wages.
Perhaps the part of this dispatch
most significant of the fact that Car
negie is preparing for wholesale
bloodshed if necessary to carry his
point is that he has employed H. G.
Prick to manage his interests. On his
head rests the blood of hundreds of
Pennsylvania workingmen, who in
times past, have been shot down in
the Connellsvilla coke regions by
Pinkerton detectives in his employ.
Blood has flowed till it nearly put out
the fires in his coke furnaces, while he
has gone on apparently undisturbed by
the slaughter. And this is the man
whom Carnegie, this petted product
of protection" selects to manage his
campaign against the men who object
to a cut of from 10 to As per cent in
their wages. Can anyone fail to see
the significance?
From the dispatch heretofore quoted
it appears that Carnegie proposes to
introduce some novelties in warfare.
He intends to use electricity as
killing force-a weapon which even
the laws of civilized war has neveryet
recognized. 1t matters not to him
what the result so it serve his purpose.
He has set up a feudal castle defiant
of ali laws, and he proposes to main
tain it purely by force of arms.
The prospect is far from pleasant
one to contemplate. 1t is one of prob
able civil war, and that is evidently
what this baronial freebooter wants.
He makes these preparations, well
L. Al. -