Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-09
EX-SHERIFF FIFE'S VIEWS.

| EA-SnEhlFF FlFEC VIE WS.
| ae Tells Why 1t Would Not Have Been
Proper to Organize . Cirizens Posse
Comparisons Between the Present and
tho Occurrence In TT.
eff Allegheny county had Democratic
Sheriff. or Pennsylvania had a Republican
Governor it would be good thing at this
| time for the people of Homestead and the
| majesty of the law in this State"
This was ex-Sheriff Fife's reply when
asked what Governor Pattison meant by his
comparison of Sheriff McCleary's conduct
in the Homestead riot with the policy pur-
sued by Mr.. Fife in the railroad riot in 1887.
"Governor Pattison is making political
play. and his whole course in this matter
has been arranged for buncombe to be used
| in politics. If McCleary had been Demo-
| crat he would have had Pattison's support
| if he had asked for it. But our Sheriff is a
Republican, and there will soon be Presi-
dental campaign in progress, both Of which
points MI. Pattison is taking every ad-
vantage Of
'I can see no good ground for criticism of
Mr. McCleary's course in the trouble at
Homestead. In the first place the Governor
and those of his way of thinking do not take
into consideration the circumstances sur
rounding this case. The old law Of posse
comitatus does not apply here as itwould in
a country district, and the people here are
too generally in sympathy with those work
ingmen at Homestead to respond to call to
60 and fight them.
They Could Not Have held Their Ground.
"Even had McCleary been able to raise a
force of 500 men on Tuesday it would have
been difficult to arm them all. If that mum.
ber of men had been taken up there,
armed or unarmed, they would not have
been put upon train and sent home. Nor
could they have held their ground against
that determined organized force of men who
are fighting for the idea that they are de-
Tending their homes. The result would
have been that half if not all the deputies
would have been killed and wounded, many
of the millworkers would have been killed,
and the conditions at Homestead would
have remained the same.
"Of course, the Governor would then have
been compelled to order out the State
Guard. 1t seems he is determined not to
adopt this course until our Republican
Sheriff takes lot of our citizens and ex-
poses them and himself to instant death.
Then he will exert himself am satisfied
there will be more trouble at Homestead.
More lives will be lost before non union
men 60 to work in that mill.
sGNoy,roor Dotfieopbe or;fio;ovv, ofv v,u oo.
tion does not come with good grace when
his course is compared with that of Gov
ernor Hartranft, In 1877. That strike
against the railroad companies was general
all over the country, but it was centered
here, and strikers from Maine to California
focked in here quietly for week before a
move was made. As Sheriff, had no Off
cial notice of the trouble, was not called
upon to interfere until the Thursday night
before the rioting began. 1t was on Satur-
day that the trouble broke out.
"Reminiscences of Seventy
'T had been out in the country two days
serving writ. Returning late Thursday
night went to bed and was sound asleep
when q carriage drove up containing David
Watt, then assistant superintendent of the
Pennsylvania railroad, who called for pro-
lection against the strikers. Watt told me
that 10, 900 men and women were congre-
gated along the tracks from Twenty-eighrh
street down to the old Union depot and that
in an attempt to get out train he had been
knocked down by the strikers.
'I went down to the tracks at II o'clock
that night with two deputies and found an
immense crowd of strikers, more than 10, 900
believe, and they were nearly all
strangers in the city. When came up
they treated me civilly, but when got up
on board pile to make a speech they re-
fused to listen and pulled the board pile
from under me. 1 then went out and
gathered up 25 men whom I pressed into
service as deputies. They could do moth
Friday morning, after hard work, I gathered
up about % more deputies, but outside of
few police could get no more men after
that.
"There was decidedly hostile attitude
shown on every hand against any iDterfer-
ence by the authorities; the strikers had
taken complete charge of the railway from
Braddock into the city, and thev were CON-
mitting acts in defiance of the law. To go
against them with less than 10000 drilled
and armed men meant annihilation. Lieu
tenant Governor Latta on Friday morn ing
telegraphed me that Breck's Battery and
would report to me for duty, but they have
never done so yet.
Militiamen Relatives Of the Strikers.
'They did report to General Pearson, but
when went to see what could be done
with them I found them in confusion. mix
ing with the mob. the strikers in possession
of their guns and paying no attention to
military order. Halt those militianen
were relatives of the strikers, and the bal
ance were friends, so they coEld not be in
duced to do anything against them.
"On Saturday morning. there gathered at
Twenty-eighth street, on the hillside, the
tracks and adjacent streets not less than TO-
900 men. The railroad company had de-
cided to run out trains. The Governor had
telegraphed me the night before that the
the next morning and would assist me in
opening a way through the mob to allow the
operation Of the road. When these men
came in Saturday afternoon they marched
with me and my Deputies to where the mob
filled the tracks at Twenty-eighth street.
The front ranks marched against the mob,
but not a man moved. General Brinton,
who was in command, wished to avoid
violence He ordered the front ranks to
open and the Black Hussars, with fixed
bayonets, marched th rough the breach.
Why Citizens sho I'D Not Be Sworn In.
"Before they read dhed the mob a man on
car fred revolverj killing soldier. An
other shot was fired from behind box, and
a volley of sticks, stones and Jumps of coal
knocked down a dozen more of the militia
men. Then the local guardsmen threw
down their arms and ran. Without waiting
for an order, the Philadelphians began fir