The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-07-07
AT HOMESTEAD.

Yesterdays slaughter at Homestead
has sent thrill of horror from one end
of the country to the other. The blood
Of Americans has been shed by Ameri-
cans and who can tell whether the end
has yet come? The withdrawal of the
Pinkerton men has removed one cause
Of irritation, but the owners Of the
steel works are virtually disposses 3D.,
and they have now the right to ask
Gov. Pattison for the restoration of
their property and for adequate protec-
ton in its use.
The blame Of yesterdays carnage be-
longs to neither side alone. The riot
was the elimination of troubles which
have been brewing for a month. The
contest over the proposed new scale and
the refusal of the company to recognize
the Amalgamated Association had
so far embittered the feelings Of
the workmen that they hanged
President Frick in effigy. This
indignity melted Frick to retaliation
and the big works were shut down two
days before the expiration Of the con-
tracts, thus putting the men into the
position of locked out workmen instead
of strikers, though, as a strike was only
forty-eight hours off, the practical diff
ference is not a heavy one.
The action of the advisory committee
in disbanding and removing all restraint
upon violence on the refusal of the sheriff
to swear in the leaders of the workmen as
deputies and thus give the guarding of
the works into the hands of the very
persons against whom they were to be
guarded. was unreasonable. The action
of the company in sending for the Pink
erton force before the resources of the
sheriff had been exhausted, and before
it was certain that local efforts must
fail was foolhardy. 1t was tempting
fate.
Upon the final answer to the awfnl
question, who fired the first shot, will
depend the placing of terrible respon-
sibility. The weight of testimony thus
far places that guilt upon the workmen,
but i'm the confusion of accounts il is as
well to reserve Judgment for few
hours. Members Of the Amalgamated
Association are quoted anonymously rs
saying that the Pinkerton men opened
the shooting. Assistant Superintendent
Hinde, of the Pinkertons, asserts on the
other hand that the boats We're peppered
for twenty-five minutes before reaching
the landing and that not until he him
self and others of his men were wounded
was the fire returned. John G.. Nc
Curry, of the crew of the tug Little
Bill, and u s. Robinson. one of the
Pinkertons on the Little Bill, make the
same statement, and add that any pro-
vocation of hostilities on their part
would have been madness, seeing that
there were not more than twenty rifles
among the two barge loads Of men.
Here the matter rests and the truth
may never appear.
The action Of the men yesterday after
noon i'm three times shooting down n
flag of truce, and the cowardly assaults
upon the wounded prisoners after their
surrender had been reccivcd-assaufts
in which two men had their eyes torn
out of the sockets and in which one man
was beaten to death-were horrible bru-
talities. which the genuine workingmen
must deprecate bitterly. For Ameri.
can workingmen are men and citizens.
and it is their misfortune that in strug-
lies like that at Homestead u lawless