River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1892-07-21
Mashburn..
Dated July 18th. lS92.
The Homestead Riots.

The Homestead Riots.
Nothing has occurred for years so
emphatically emphazing the antag-
onism which is growing up between
capital and labor. as the riots at
Homestead. The rapid develop
ment of labor unions in which nat
urally the outspoken ambitious men
soon get the leadership, the promises
they are compelled to make to hold
their positions and the jealousy that
exists between the capitalist who
reaps the benefit of the labor, and
the workman, whose toll enriches
the former, has at last eliminated
in the attempt by many, to secure
to the workmen a larger part of the
profits than the owners of factories
and mills are willing to concede.
1t should be remembered at the very
outset, that this is not strife be-
tween bloated capitalists, grinding
down their laborers, until their earn
ings are not sufficient to provide a
decent living, but it is fight be-
tween the capitalist and wealthy
labor union determined 10 maintain
its supremacy, a union boasting of
possessing more than a million in
its Golfers, with members whose
yearly income averages more than
that of the teachers, the pastors and
the engineers of our land. 1t is not
strife therefore for relief from star
walton. 1t resolves itself, simply
into a battle to determine, whether
the owners of the Homestead Mills
shall be at liberty to employ whom
they please, or whether they will be
compelled to accept such workmen
as the Amalgamated Steel Workers
Union shall see fit to allow them to
have upon the terms the Union shall
dictate.
1t was not because the Carnegie
company proposed to discharge its
faithful workmen, that the mob
gathered in the dawn of the morn
ing and attempted to murder at
wholesale the men which the COM
psny had employed to guard its
works, but it was because the officers
of this wealthy labor organization,
who ride to their work in carriages,
feared, lest their power would van
ish if a few non union men who
needed the employment, were per-
mitted to enter the precincts of the
mills.
1t is therefore a fight on the part
of this wealthy Union, to prevent
honest but unorganized labor, from
obtaining employment. That the
leaders expected the terrible scenes
which disgraced that fair village is
not to be supposed. Probably the
utmost they expected was to pre-
vent by show of force the guards
from landing from the barges, but
they reckoned without their host
An Infatuated mob is not governed
by reason, and he who provokes ii
to action accepts a terrible response
bility.
Nor are the owners of the mills
entirely without fault. 1t is doubt
less the case that they had become
weary of being dictated to by men
whose fortunes had been made III
their employ earning wages far in
excess of that paid in any Other
country in the world, but they had
reaped a vast benefit themselves, and
should not have attempted to force
an issue without good cause or after
deep consideration.
The employment too of armed
guards brought from foreign state
while right in the abstract, wa.
wrong in policy. 1t is true they
felt that the civil power was in sym
pathy with the strikers and that M
adequate help would come from tn,
sheriff or his deputies. 1t is true
that the governor of the state refused
to aid them in their perilous situa
ton. 1t is true, that they felt tina
their costly plant, worth eight mil
lions of dollars, was liable to de
struction at the hands of al angry
and unthinking mob and few mer
would have hesitated at procuring