Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-17
FOOLISH REPORTS.

| Among the silly reports growing out of
| the Homestead trouble we are not sur
prised to find some indicating that other
cities would like to make capital at the
expense of Pittsburg. The Chicago paper
which said that the Carnegie Company
contemplated moving the various plants
of the concern to Chicago thought, per-
haps, the statement good enough, hit or
miss, to advertise the Windy City bit,
now that the Worlds Fair prospectuses
are becoming slightly monotonous. When
a Philadelphia paper, later on, came out
with declaration that it was to Phila del
phia the Carnegie Company thought of
moving, nobody, of course, took that to be
| deliberate misstatement The same
| perception of the usual order of things in
the two cities compels us to believe that
whereas Chicago was doubtless trying to
advertise itself, dear old Philadelphia was
merely talking in its sleep. =
These Homestead occurrences-the
whole affair of lockout and strike and
bloodshed and i'll feeling-have been
deeply regretted by every good and SEN
sible citizen of Pittsburg- Pittsburg is
tie nerve center of the great industrial
region of which Homestead is part; and
the interests of all these surrounding
towns are our interests But the regret
does not come from fear that the Carnegie
or any other company will move its plant
out of Western Pennsylvania. To say
nothing of the absurdity of moving plants
worth millions of dollars hundreds of
miles through the country, there is no
place within its confines to equal their
present location. 1t is not by accident
that Western Pennsylvania presents the
scene of industry it does This is the
place where all the great industrial plants
have made the money which built them,
and all their other assets as well And, to
do justice to the Carnegie firm upon this
head, it is only fair to say that of all our
manufacturing concerns none has more no.
tably pursued the policy of investing
and reinvesting, extending old works
and building new ones in Allegheny and
adjacent counties upon an enormous scale
Here the immense concern has made its
profits. Here it has multiplied its inter-
ests in such way as should have con-
vinced anyone there was not shadow Of
possibility behind the story of intended
removal
When Pittsburg deplores the differences
which have eliminated so bitterly between
capital and labor, it is not only because of
the intrinsic loss which attaches to them,
but for the wrong impression they create
abroad. Strikes and lockouts are the
worst methods of settling differences.
1t is like as if A said to
B. 1--WE do not agree about this
matter; let US go down to the river and
toss our dollars into the deepest pool, and
see which of US will hold out the longer"
This is not rational way to settle any
matter capable of being adjusted by rea-
son, by a mutual and honest comparison
of facts, and by the kindly and fair feel
ing which ought to exist among sensible
men, 1t is not pleasant to think that here
in great industrial center, after so many
years of working together, some better plan
should not have grown up. We are not
surprised that Chicago with its mixed in
terests, the fantastic ideas of some of its
fluctuating population as to the undesir-
ability of steady government, and other
disadvantages, should have frequent and
extended strikes, and lock-outs in various
trades; but here, in Pittsburg, in indus
tries of long standing, where employers
and employed are the same people pretty
much from year to year, there is less ex-
cuse.
The present difficulties in Pittsburg,
however they terminate, will assuredly
not cost single manufacturing concern
to this region. But it will be sad thing
if they do not lead up to the practical wis
dom that will guard better against both
lock-outs and strikes in the future.