The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1892-07-07
,nE CAUSE OF THE TROUBLE
A Difference OF Dollar Between Conpan,
and Men Started the strike.

|.
and Men Started the strike.
On the south bank OF the narrow Mononga
hela River. eight miles to the southeast o
Pittsburgh. is this little town OF Homestead
which the whole world Is now watching. There
is a level bordering the river. but the ereat
Carnegie works occupy most OF this. The town
rises from the river upon the terraced and
gently sloping hillsides. The houses are none
OF them pretentious. and most Of them are the
modest homes Of laborers. both skilled and
unskilled. Each laborer owns his own house.
Each has a little yard about 1t. Ten years ago
Homestead had less than 1000 inhabitants;
now 1t has over 1900. OF whom $500 are d.
rectly employed by tho Carnegie mills.
These mills with their dozen large and sub
stnntial buildings and their huge chimneys.
shadow tho whole town and dwarf 1t. You sec
at a glance. no matter from what direction you
approach It. that tho Carnegie steel Associa-
ton is the cause, tho life. tho whole Of this
town. that without it the town would never
have existed, that with its closing the town
would be deserted. Its $500 laborers. with
their families and tho few shopkeepers. po-
licemen. and othcr employees incident to q
municipality nre entirely dependent upon the
$4,000 handed out at the little window Of the
business Office to the long line Of intelligent
and prosperous looking men who have earn ed
1t in the Carnegie mills.
Until few weeks ago this town was place
Of honest labor. fruitful In contentment and
domestic happiness. The fires in the furnaces
blazed day and night the machinery never
ceased its roar. and tho noise OF It filled the
whole town under the vast canopy Of smoke
from the chimneys. Now all the sounds OF
honest industry have ceased The great mills
havo been changed into fortress: the bitter
ness that can only end In bloodshed exists be-
tween employers and employees. Honest In
dustry has been changed into tho zeal for vio-
lence apd bloodshed. Already the strike war
has its roll Of killed and wounded. And the
battle has only begun.
This little town is the greatest steel produce
ing centre in the world. its output being great
er than that OF the immense Krupp works at
Hssen. These works. which are but branch
Of tho Carnegie Steel Association. occupy 40
acres with dozen substantial buildings and o
score Of sheds and small outbuildtngs. Here
all kinds Of iron work is dono. from the making
OF Bessemer steel to the making Of those mr.
NOR plates for war vessels that require the
highest kind OF skilled labor.
This is not tho frs: trouble that has arisen
between the works and the men. In 1880
there were serious difficulties. which ended in
July Of that year with the signing Of sliding
scale OF wages upon a basis o. S25 as the min
imum price for steel billets. This scale WAS
signed for three years. and until early in juno
of this year everything has been quiet But
the workmen have never been fond of M. Car
negie and his associates. and have Grumbled
continually. and have announced that they
had all sorts Of forebodings OF evil Those
forebodings were realized. they claimed. when
Mr.. Carnegie ceased to take an active
part in the affairs Of the great associa-
hA Nd
ceeded q short time ago by H. c.
Frick. who became Mr.. CarneGie's right hand
man and representative. with the official title
OF Chairman Of the Board of Trustees OF the
Carnegie Steel Association. The Amalga-
mated Association OF Iron and Steel Work ers.
OF which NIL the Homestead laborers arc men,
bers does not like and has never liked An
drew Carnegie. But for II. c. Frick it has IN
antipathy that began with dstrust and has
ended in a hatred active in the breasts of each
OF its CO.OOO members.
The causes of this hatred and the career OF
Mr.. Frick generally will bc found interesting.
He was born in West Overton. Westmoreland
county. forty-two years ago. He was the son
OF fairly prosperous farmer. and began his
commercial career as dry goods clerk in
Mount Pleasant Then he became a book
keeper in his grandiather's dis,illery. and
there began to study the possibilities OF the
mahulacIure Oh COKE. belore ne was 20 years
with h% in hs building e ny c3 fhs ovens
The owners OF coke ovens. friehtened by by the II.
depressed OPT markets; wee anx9us to sell at al
ing ut the setting of tho judgment OF a boy OF
bought all the coke ovens his capital would
permit lenSed rs many more rs he could and,
ssI Sea s Sne nf TSe sssdt w Ss
whose sRrewdness had marked lin to 'v ali a the
business men Of western Pennsylvania.
The tCaTinsgieS 6TnGht an interest in his
vastly. and thus he and Andrew rarneSi came
to know, each other we'll ana when Carnegie
sucessd lin as Sps drnr to
son steel Company. then the largest OF tho
SSsrnSsf The s.nd Fl s a ssyo I.
bitterly opposed unions. and had successfully ii;
without the aid OF committees from the
u unlonSs AS President OF the Edgar Thomson
Steel Company he broke M tho union among
hatred OF tho AmaIgamated Association.
When the. announcement OF his promotion
its fight for life mad come. and That tho, strug-
sie alrea o. on at Homestead would DO
, In June. when the time Of the expiration of
steel billet was IT hand. the, Carnegie, Assocl-
IL WOulu HOI 0UttT INTO
Rnot her contract on the S25 basis, thnt the
minimum must hereafter be So. and that tho
contract should expire on Dec. 81. with the
more inronyenient time Of July. l. When
Chairman Frick presented these. con-
Amalgamateh Association tho anger and
hatred burst out, at .onoe. The mon
denied the truth OF the company's
the reduction and asserted that the change OF
time for the expiration Of the contract from
midsummer to nidwinter was made 30 that
the men would not he able to follow a protest
against further reduction by strike on &C
connt OF the hard weather.
The men demanded the old minimum of
$25 and the old time OF expiration. Mr.. Frick
raised tho minimum to $40 and the men low
cred their demand to 1874. But on the dollar
between. tho employers and employees rpiit
said;
" II this contract ut s23 is not signed by June
~ midnight. We will not doa with tho union