Los Angeles herald., 1893-01-09
MONDAY. JANUARY .. 1893.
THE NEW HOMESTEAD.

... Ii there had D6en any tnluS very uicns-
trous or even threatening to our future
industries in the election OF Mr.. Cleve-
land, the promoters of the manufactur-
ing business at Homestead would by
this time have shown some signs o. dis
trust. But some things have Just come
out that prove the contrary and show
that Mr.. Carnegie and his co-capitalists
are more deeply interested than ever in
the carrying on of business which the
Republican orators and editors last fall
told us would languish and die If the
Democrats succeeded in the election.
A few weeks ago there was recorded
in the county records at Pittsburg the
details of the largest limited partnership
ever formed in the manufacturing busi-
ness in this country. 1t was the reor-
ganization of the old-time Carnegie
Brothers & Co. into the new Carnegie
Steel company, whose capital stock is
$25, ,O00, 900, being exactly five times the
amount of the old capital that wss put
in ten years ago, and in which there are
twenty-three stockholders.
1t WAS currently reported, and in fact
noisily proclaimed, last fall that Mr..
Carnegie himself would risk nothing
more in the venture if the tariff were to
be disturbed but would gradually draw
out OF the business. 5ut this transac-
ton, according to the local paper before
us, shows that he owns controlling in
terest, which, to be exact, is s13, 333, ,333.
Mr.. Frick also increases his holdings to
$2,75O, 900. The works included in this
vast business, and which have been one
by one gathered into the mighty trust,
are the Edgar Thompson, Homestead,
Duquesne, Upper and Lower Union mile,
Lucy furnaces, keystone bridge works,
Beaver Falls mills, Scotia ore mines in
Center county, Larimer coke works in
Westmoreland county, and the Youg-
hioghenY coke works in Allegheny
county.
This immense partnership of twenty
three men and such capital ought to
be magnificent and uplifting force in
a community; but Homestead, with it's
10000 people, is made up of majority
of Hungarians, who have never even
signitied purpose or desire to become
American citizens. OF the thirty four
hundred employees about seventeen hun
dred are not even known by name, but
are registered only by number. There
have never been over eight hundred reg
istered voters in the town, fact that
marks the standard of intelligence more
vividly than any words can do. A cor
respondent. of the New York Tribune
was sent out there last summer to report
the facts as to the great strike, and we
may be assured that they were not made
more unfavorsble than was inevitable.
Here are some extracts:
The streets of Homestead are proba-
bly, the vilest in any town of its size in
the United States. There are pave
ments in only one street, and then for
not more than couple of blocks.
1t is indeed wonder that there is
anything like good health in the place !;
yet the citizens cay that they have to
contend with nothing worse than a few
cases of typhoid fever and diphtheria
everv year. The high-smelling cutters
must be responsible for some of the
sickness az least, but they are not the
most unpleasant nor the most danger
GUS OF the towns shortcomings. rhe
drinking water is the most foul that
ever found it's way to human palate. AS
there is no sewerage system cesspool
in the little yard behind each house is
an absolute necessity.
SO is a cietern. The cesspools and
cieterns are almost side by side. The
result is as natural as it is disgusting.
The fret glass of water that l tried to
drink was so Offensive that was affected
by nausea. After that l slaked my
thirst with mineral water at the drug
glste'. There are saloons on or near al
most every prominent corner in Home
stead, perhaps 90 in gll, and their own
ers are growing rich. One of the saloon
keepers wears diamonds, is regarded as
"high roller" in one OF Pittsburg's ex-
pensive sporting clubs. and owns much
property. He is brawny fellow and 1
aeked him il he had ever worked in the
mills.
mot " said be- "Why should L?
have over 5000 OF Carnegie's men work.
ing for me-"
His meaning was plain. The hard
working men contributed from their
earnings to this "sporting gents" hoard
every month OF their lives. There are
undoubtedly more saloonsin Homestead
than there ought to be. but after one
has partaken OF Homestead water, he
isn't quite as rabid on the subject of
total abstinence as he may be where
Croton is plentiful.
There is not book store in the
town, The only news agent in the place
keeps in stock about 100 paper-covered
novels, and be told me that he did not
sell one of them IN week. There is
not even a circulating library, nor q
public reading room nor club. About
400 daily, afternoon and evening, news
papers are sold ia the town. The steel
mills and the saloons monopolize large
part OF the mental and physical facui-
ties of the community.
These facts at once show that il this
great center Of Industrial work must be