Los Angeles herald., 1892-07-07
SOWING TIE WIND AND REAPING THE
WHIRLWIND.


readers of the HERALD. This place,
which bids fair to be historic, is situated
on the south bank OF the Monongahela
river. 1t aligns a stream which is his
torical. About seven miles higher up,
on the other bank of the Monongahela,
lies Braddock's Field, where Washing
ton replaced the vaunting British gen.
eral in command of the English and
yirginian forces away back prior to the
Revolutionary war. Between Home
stead and the center of the city of Pitts
burg lie some of the most highly popu-
lated labor districts in the United
States. The workers in iron alone-the
male and adult workers in iron in the
city of Pittsburg-will probably amount
to between thirty-fve ana forty thous-
and souls. They are ali stalwarts, and
argument with them is something alto
gether out of the ordinary line of con-
troversies. Fear is alien to the breasts
of these brawny giants. When they
pick up the cartel of defiance, often
wantonly thrown down by their op-
pressors, there is always something epic
to read about in the columns OF the
press Immediately thereafter.
Immediately opposite Homestead.
where Andrew Carnegie has immense
iron and steel works that is to say, on
the north bank of the Monongahela
river-Carnegie and his partners have
another enormous plant, called the
Beesemer works. It has always been
the policy of Carnegie and his partners
first to feel the pulse of their workmen
on the south side. If the experiment
went we'll at Homestead the screw was
applied at Bessemer and elsewhere. The
nod,s operandi was simple one, but it
was subject to miscarriage, as witness
the occurrences at Homestead yesterday.
And, indeed, the situation there is
critical in the extreme. 1t ia spectacle
in no wise creditable to republican
democratic institutions. Here we have
a firm, which is supposed to typify
American iron-workers. They are, in
truth, the really accredited representa-
tives of the Iron Barons. They have for
thirty years dictated congressional legis-
lation in their own interests. They
have built bulwarks around their pre-
scriptive right to rob, and have thrown
out breakwaters against the ris-
ing tide of public sentiment, at
last aro1sed to conscientious OPP
position. They have not only
naintained, but they have increased,
the scale of imposition upon the con
sumner, under the specious pretence that
they desired to increase the wages of
the American laborer, that they have
desired to keep them at standard far
higher than the scales which prevail in
Europe. As q matter of fact, they have
aimed to betray, and have succeeded in
betraying, the American laborer. They
have kept the word of prom Use neither
to their ear nor to their hope-wbile
they have gone on becoming richer as
the operative grew poorer. 1t has been
the old and only too true story of the
rich becoming richer and the poor
poorer, year by year.
AS result OF all this chicane, we now
see tragedy of exceptional energy and
emphasis in course of enactment on the
banks and on the stream of the Monon-
gahela river. Carnegie and his partners
tried their first experiment on a special
class, embracing only five hundred men
in their Homestead mill. Itwas simply
the entering wedge-the thin end-to be
followed by the butt. The remaining
forty three hundred operatives-possibly
feeling that their end would come next
or possibly inspired by genuine sym
pathy with their oppressed brethren
threw in their fortunes with the selected
victims, with the result of strike or
lock-out-call it what you please. And
now comes the tragic aspect of the
matter.
In the insolence of an unchecked
power Carnegie and his associates send
a barge loaded with Pinkerton detec-
tivea up the river, to take possession of
the Homestead works. These people
are absolutely unknown to the law.
They are malign and indefensible devel-
opment of the past twenty years. They
arrived at Homestead armed with re-
peating Winchesters, of the most inn.
proved description, prepared to deal out
death on every hand. The rightful de-
scription of these people is that OF
"Thug." No band OF desperadoes ever
subsidized by power in India, to con-
summate murder, could surpass these
people in all the unscrupulous purpose
and devilish enginery of slaughter.
They came, they saw, and, fortunately,
they have not yet conquered. Infuriated
by such an ostentatious display of MUIR
derous and despotic purpose, both banks
of the Monongahela river are swarming
with energetic professionals against cal
culated and methodized murder. Rifle
shot has rung back echo to rifle shot.
The striking ironworkers are showing
much of the heroism Of the people OF
Moscow, who. unable to cope with the
victorious legions of the First Napoleon
surrounded them with Gordon of fire.
They are even setting the river aAame
with petroleum, and cannon ball and the
explosion Of dynamite sticks answer in
full volume and resonance the rifle shots
OF Pinkerton's hirelings, species of
Pretorians unknown to the laws and alb
l.