The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1892-11-21
HOMESTEADERS PLIGHT
Leaders Denounced for the
Collapse of the Strike.
A STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE NOW

Starvation Staring Many of the striker
in the Face-only n Small Proportion
Can Hope to Re-enter the Carnegie
MlIs-Nou- Union Men win Not b,
Displaced.
HOMESTEAD, Pa, Nov. 2E-Now that
the agony is over, and the great Home
stead strike has been declared off by the
strikers advisory board, the men are not
backward in expressing their opinions OF
the men who have posed as leaders, con-
fidently promising q victory when they
knew for certainty that the battle was
hopelessly lost These men are furiously
| denounced.
According to Supt. Wood, of the Home
stead works, not more than 800 or 800
of the total number of employees will be
able to secure employment.
Before the break of last Thursday
there were left in Homestead $500 of the
| original $500 men who were locked out
on June 20
OF these $500 men, 1900 were me-
chanics and iaborers, and 600 were Anal
gamated Association men, Up to date,
l, 100 men have applied for work, and it
lS eSbllDdltu budI uOI lDOT6 budU OOU nave
been supplied with work.
The question OF declaring the mill
open began to agitate the minds of Ger
tain Amalgamated men as soon as it be-
came apparent that the mechanics in
tended breaking away in a body. Not
only the rank and file but many of the
leaders recognized that without the nu-
merical aid of the mechanics and laborers
they could not hope to carry tine day.
Money, or lack of it, also became an
| important factor. The failure to receive
promised money of large amounts,
together with the unfulflment OF other
promises, all came in for consideration.
| They could not subsist upon promises and
so told their leaders, who, seeing that it
would he useless to try and hold the men
together longer took steps to place their
brethren upon equal footing with the
mechanics in the grand rush for work.
Saturdays meeting was attended ex-
clusively by Amalgamated Association
members, much TO the chagrin and dis
| appointment of the sympathetic mechan-
les, who were turned aside They turned
to their homes in silence, hope dead
within them. The meeting was not
large one, and considerable surprise at
| tended the announced resignation of
| Chairman Crawford.
When his resignation had been accepted
striker arose and moved that the lock-
out be declared at an end and that the
men be allowed to seek employment in
| the Homestead mill.
Discussion of this question continued
until p. M, when the meeting ad-
| journed without result. Yesterday the
same question was taken up, but those
for and against such move were afraid
| to force the question to vote, so evenly
were they divided. Only about 200 men
attended the meeting.
Those opposed to bringing the fight to
an end struggled hard to prevent bal
| lot, pleading, arguing, and predicting the
disintegration of tine Amalgamated Asso-
citation.
These patriotic steel workers, who have
repeatedly stated that they would prefer
nakedness and starvation rather than de-
feat, were in the minority, and they knew
/ it. Yet they pleaded with their brethren
to stand firm, if for no other reason than
to show the world that they had not for
| gotten the men who were lying in prison
cells awaiting trial,
1t was of no avail. The question was
! put, the vote being a standing one.
| When Vlce-President Carney announced
tine result 10l TO 81, there was no joyous
| outbreak.
For a few minutes the men sat and
stared at each other. Then followed
angry denuuciations The men slowly
left the hall in twos and threes. They
seemed 10th to leave the building, the
very rafters of which have quivered with
the declaration, made thousand times,
that victory was theirs if they would only
| be patient
Last evening the men stood in small
groups about the streets, discussing the
| plight they found themselves in. With
winter upon them, they soc nothing in
store now but a struggle for existence,
which may assume the proportions OF a
! famine.
The oft-repeated declarations of the
| Carnegie officials that the non union men
will not be displaced to give employment
TO the strikers gives absolutely no nope
! for g 600 of the defeated steel workers.