Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1894-05-11
THE MIXED ARMOR PLATES
The Carnegie Frauds Extended 0Ver a
Period Of Several Years.
EXPOSURE OF THE WHOLE SYSTEM
Other Expensive Metals Besides Aluminium
We're Used In the Samples De-
signed for Testing.

HOMESTEAD, Pa, May J.-Half q dozen
men who were concerned in the making
of the two aluminium test plates at the
Carnegie Steel Mills in the winter of
1892 are arranging to get together and
put their information on paper for the
benefit of Secretary Herbert or a con-
gressional committee. One of these men
said tonight, after reading the interview
with George G. Burrows:
II remember the aluminnn, expert
ments, as Secretary Lovejoy callS them,
very well. Fred Fender, who lives at
Port Perry now, was one of those whe
melted the steel, and he TOOK the tests.
Two big plates were rolled Tor the bal
listic test at Indian Head Not only
was large percentage Of aluminium
combined with the nickel aud steel, but
another expensive metal Was used. l
can't remember the name Ut 1t now.
These plates were made unoer the direc-
ton OF John Purvis, who worked in the
Sheffield Steel Works, in England, and
who was imported by Andrew Carnegie
at salary Of $4,000 year. He had q
seven years contract. Purvis personally
superintendent the making of these two
plates, which we're got up especially to
make q magnificent showing at the
Indian Head proving grounds. He told
us about the other expensive metal that
III certain armor plate made for the
English government-light plate de-
signed to guard especially exposed por.
tons of the deck-it was required in the
specifications to be used. Not only was
aluminium, at $1,000 u ten, and this other
expensive metal used in the manufacture
of these two test plates, but the steel
itself was of the very highest quality,
much better than the ordinary metal
used in making armor plate"
The evidence of these men, together
with the statement of Mr.. Burrows, who
was correspondence clerk in the office of
the Pittsburg Reduction Company and
the Pittsburg Testing Laboratory, where
the aluminium was made and the plates
tested, makes complete chain and
shows the existence of the conspiracy to
oef,aud Uncle Sam over year before the
date that President Cleveland decided
that defective armor plate was manu-.
featured.
There never has been any question
among the skilled workmen at Home
stead as 10 the character OF the armor
plate being foisted upon the government
by the Carnegie Steel Company. 1t is
regarded rs the height of absurdlty or
worse that the authorities at Washington
should have allowed the Carnegie Com
pany to emerge from the cloud of Secre-
tary derbert's first investigation with a
smirch upon only ten months of their
work, and that ten months period after
the great strike Of 1892, when complai
SAINT persons might assume that the mill
was in disorganized condition.
The wholesale frauds came very near
being exploited in the summer OF 1892.
The facts were there and dozens of the
workmen knew about them. Lawyer
William Brennan, the attorney for the
Amalgamated Association, was in con-
sultation in July, 1892, with several
leaders of the Homestead strikers re-
garding the advisabiiity of publishing
broadcast the Carnegie frauds upon
Uncle Sam. Lawyer Erwin, OF st. Paul,
who came here to defend the men ac-
cused Of rioting, WAS taken into the con-
ference. Many of the leaders thought
that complete exposure of the whole
system of making rotten armor plate
plates that would hold barrels of water
and plates that had been Improperly
tempered and palming them off upon the
guileless government inspectors as first
class workmanship, would help the cause
of the strikers.