The National tribune., 1892-07-14
DEATH AND DISASTER.
Capital and Labor Clash at Carnegie's
Steel Works, at Homestead, Pa.

Capital and IL Dor have met once more on
bloody field. Never in the history Of strikes
and riots. since the railroad riots of 1877. have
there been so many lives sacrificed, and sucf
| fighting between the representatives of the TIVE
great social divisions. The troubles at the Car
| negie Steel Works at Homestead Pa, have cul
| minated in crisis that has startled the coun
| try. Many families are fatherless, or have lost
brother, and many man lies sick unto death
| in the hospitals.
| 1t was on Wednesday morning. July 6, thai
| 300 Pinkerton detectives were seen coming W
| the river on two barges. They had been sent
| for to take possession of and protect the prop
| erty of the Carnegie Steel Works, by Ii. G.
Frick, the Superintendent of. the plant. Nc
sooner had they been sighted, than the alarm
among the locked-out workmen was given, and
| the streets in an incredibly short time became
| filled with an excited crowd of men, women
and children, hurrying towards the works
landing.
Here the people gathered. waiting to see il
the men would land. The moment it became
evident that the detectives we're to land as il
by an unseen power the seething mass of hui
manity made rush and 100 feet of the high
fence crumpled like paper; the men were in
the yard and lined the bank. Here they
waited the next move of the Pinkertons. Sud-
denly form was seen to break from the ranks
Oh tne WOfRlngmen ana move toward the
waters edge. A flash and report came from
the boat and the man fell. Then opened the
fight. In an instant all was chaos and when
it was all over six workingmen were killed
and II injured some fatally, while of the
Pinkertons two were killed and &c wounded.
Almost Immediately after the first shot the
firing became general OH both Sides At first
the strikers retreated, and it looked for q
moment as if they would be completely
cd hut fha ,sn1,l,v id aud hon
retired toward the big trestles leading to the
Pemicky Bridge.
At length 30 or more of the Pinkertons at
tempted to land from one of the boats. They
were met with sharp volley and were obliged
to retire to the boat. 1t was in this attempt
that the Pinkertons suffered their loss. Di-
rectly after this both sides rested for few
moments. and then after another sharp pas
sage the hostilities ceased for the time.
At Z o'clock all was quiet, and the Pinkertons
had not yet effected landing.
But the cessation of hostilities was not for
long. second conflict was precpita ted when
another effort was made to land. The detect
ives were repulsed several times. The men
built breastworks of steel bars, and the crowd
increased to more than 5000 men. The work
ingmen got a cannon, and fired shot after shot
into the boats, which had drawn off into the
stream. Intermittent firing from guns and
pistols was kept up, with several casualties.
Attempts we're made to set fire to the barges
but were unsuccessful. The steamer Little Bill,
which had towed the barges to Homestead,
came up and attempted to tow them away, but
was driven back. The Pinkertons hoisted a
flag of truce three times, and three times it was
shot down.
At length, in the afternoon, the Pinkerton
men, having suffered heavy losses in wounded,
and having run out of ammunition, and being
unable to retire from their position, surrendered
to the men whom they had come to quel. The
detectives were brought on shore. Now came
the most disgraceful scene of the whole affair,
and one which swept away from the public
mind all lingering sympathy for the strikers.
AS the men landed, they had to pass through
divided mob of men, women aud even chill
dren. The leaders of the crowd had promised
protection If the Pinkertons gave up their
arms and surrendered without further trouble,
but they were powerless to stem the torrent of
brutality that ragged around the defeated men.
A woman, maddened by bereavement threw
handful of sand into the face of one Of the
men, and while the poor wretch covered his
tortured eyes with his hands, another woman
struck him over the head with heavy um-
brclia This was the signal for scene only to
be compared to those of the Commune in Paris.
Clubs, stones, pistol-butts and broom handles
rained a pitiless shower from the hands of the
women upon the heads of the captives. Of all
the 300 men who laid down their arms not one,
unless he were too badly wounded to walk,
escaped this humiliation. Many of them were
knocked down again and again, beaten into
state of insensibility, plastered with mud and
deprived of portions of their clothing.
Later in the day, when the prisoners were
being escorted to the depot to be sent to Pitts
burg, the scene was renewed. The vicious and
bloody minded mob of women and tougbs made
q terrible rush on the men again, and while
the victims lay senseless and bleeding scores of
vixenish women tore their clothing, scratched
their faces, and pelted them with stones. One
man, whose nose had just been broken by a
stone, was held firmly, while score Of wives
and mothers spat all over his misshspen and
wounded features. The draft riots in New
York were not so vile in their atrocities as this
And SO the night fell on Homestead.
Homestead stands on the south bank of the
Monongahela River, at a point opposite the
eastern boundary of the corporate limits of
Pittsburg, but it is eight miles from the Union
Station by railroad. The plant is the greatest
structural, plate, and armor mills in the
world. 1t could not be duplicated for less than
$s,0o0,0o0 or $10,0O0,00o. Nearly 100000
have been spent in improvements in the past
year. Here are employed $500 men.
The City of Homestead. of nearly 10000 peo-
pie, is almost entirely populated by workers in
the mills and their families Defense prepara-
ti0ns in the mills and about the property are
on large scale. Large electric search lights
are situated at vantage points on the big mills.
12-foot- high tight board fence, topped with
strands of barbed wire surrounds the property.
There were coal and iron police on the ground
and there are only two modes of entrance.
The trouble at Homestead is not the first of
its kind at that place, as three years ago, when
on account of somewhat similar disagreements