Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-07-13
Fight Between WOrkmen and Pinker
tons HirelingS.

their iron and steel works at Home
stead, on the Monongahela river,
miles above Pittsburg, Pa, eliminated
ON last Wednesday, July 9Th, in bat
tie between the workmen and a force
of armed men supplied by the Pinker-
ton Detective Agency, who were taken
to the scene in two barges lined with
steel, which resulted in the killing of 6
workmen, and badly wounding vi
others, 6 of whom will probably die
and slightly wounding rs more. Three
of the Pinkertons were killed and 27
wounded. The Pinkertons were armed
with Winchester rifles. The wOrkmen
used guns, pistols, and cannon, besides
fire, in an attempt to burn the barges
with oil. The men on the barges could
not land on account of the severity of
the attack of the workmen, and, as the
tug boats had left, they could not get
away, so there was no alternative left
them but to surrender, which they did
that evening. The number surrendered
was 234. The worst feature of this
lamentable affair was the brutal and
cowardly manner in which they were
treated by roughs and Infatuated
women when being marched under
guard of workmen to the house into
which they were to be confined and
protected till they were sent off. 1t is
true that they were mercenary hire
authority and were considered as MUIR
derers by the workmen. but yet they
were entitled to protection from as
sault after they had surrendered. This
the workmen endeavored to give them,
and guarded them as well as they
could, but they could not prevent in
furiated men and maddened women,
whose friends they had killed, from as
sailing them with stones, sticks, UNI
brellas, &c. They suffered severely
and will not be likely to go on another
similar war campaign. The difficulties
between employers and employees
than by armed conflict. 1t is possible
and even probable that there would
have been no fight and no blOOdshed,
if this armed force of Pinkerton's hire
difficulties should be settled by arbi-
tration in the first place, as they will
have to be in the end, if they are ever
settled at all. Both parties lose by
keeping open the difficulty, and both
would be gamers by a speedy and
peaceful settlement, and such could be
made by submitting the case to arbi-
tration.
In this case at Homestead both
parties have put themselves in the
wrong-the workmen in the first place
by attempting, by force, to prevent the
Carnegie Company from introducing
other laborers into their works, for no
man has the right to control, without
his consent, the business of another;
and the Carnegie Company in the
second place by hiring body of
armed men, who are unknown to the
la VS. of the country, to take possession
of his property, instead of having it
done in the mode provided by the laws
of the State. The workmen had no
legal right to hold possession of the
property against the consent of the
owner, and the owner had no legal
right to recover possession except in a
lawful way, by first calling upon the
authorities of the county, and if they
could not do it, then upon the Gov
ernor of the State, who, in the event
of the failure of all other modes, would
use the military force of the State. 1t
is thing for the county and State,
and not for the hirelings of Pinkerton
to do. 1t was natural, under the cir
cumstances, for the workmen to resist
and assault the Pinkerton force, and
it may have a good result and cause
the States to enact laws forbidding
their use within their boundaries in
the character of mercenary soldiers
They may be useful as detectives but
not as soldiers.
The difference in the wages of the
agreement in the scale price of the last
three years, which terminated on the
Both of June, 1899, and that which the
workmen had agreed to accept for the
next year, was SO small that the re-
fusal of the Company to agree to pay
what the workmen had agreed to &C
cept, seems to show that the Company
4 49,, -, Il, i
to force the workmen out. For the
past years, terminating June Both,
the wages were based upon the price
of 4x4 Bessemer steel billets, the
minimum being $25 per ton. The
Company for the future offered to base
the wages on steel billets at $22. The |
workmen finally proposed to make it |
$24. The Company agreed to make it |
$23 with the proviso that the contract
should terminate on the 31st Deem
Der instead of the 30th of June, which |
the workmen would not agree to as it |
would put them out in the dead of |
winter.
In this connection it is proper to |
state that, in the interest of Carnegie,
ga Republican Committee and a Re-
publican Congress and President" took |
the tariff off steel billets, thus re-
ducing their price, which was the basis
of wages, thereby, in the language of
the I'ade1-Appeaz, ''breaking faith
with the men who had trusted his word |
and honor.
The Infamous transaction was wholly
republican, and no democrat had any
hand in it whatever"
The Company short time before
|;