The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-03-31
CARNEGIE OWES him Ten
SO EDWARD LAHIEF, CHICAGO
NEWSPAPER MAN AND POLL
TICIAN THINKS
at LEAST HE HAS TEN COMING
story of How Reporter Got Inside
the Homestead Works During
the Strike-Facts W ere
( Suppressed.

They were swapping stories in Mayor
Harrison S Office, Chicago, the other day.
Secretary Edward Lahiff was there. and
Theodore and Donohue and some
others, big and little officials, says the
Times Herald. Donohue began to hum
the old song of the man that owed
OGrady.
That's right" said Lahin, "only it
ought 10 be Andrew Carnegie singing the
song, and he should be saying that he
owed the $40 to me. Yes, it's gospel
truth that Andrew Carnegie owes me $40,
and has ever since the Homestead strike.
Perhaps when this catches his eye, if it
does, he'll send me the money.
AT the time of the great Homestead
strike Ballard Smith was at the height OF
his fame as a New York managing editor.
He was making the World known and
felt everywhere, and I was working UNI
der him as a reporter. At the very out
set of the Homestead troubles two World
men were sent there, but, in common
with all other reporters, were only per-
united inside the works at o'clock every
afternoon. Then they found the furnaces
running the whistles blowing and signs
of great activity. In consequence they
daily telegraphed their papers that while
strike was in progress the Carnegie
works were not affected by it, and that
eNerNfnlnR was going On With liSlIl just
as if no labor trouble was at hand. Bal
lard Smith got it into his head that this
was lie He came to the opinion that
the Carnegie works were practically at
n standstill and that the thrifty Scots
man for once in his life was hard press a.
AS a result of this conclusion, Smith OF
fered a prize of 800 to the reporter who
would get inside the Homestead works
and stay there day and night until he
could write true story of the actual
condition of affairs there. It came into
my head that I might be the man TO get
the assignment but how to work my way
in I did not know. One morning l was
reading the advertisements in the papers
= when I came upon one that struck me pc
Ing peculiar It announced that skilled
mechanics to go out of town were being
hired at 755 Broadway. Immediately went
to my lodging house, where | was stay
ing with Jimmy Bates, and I rugged my
self up. I had his coat and looked as
near like a mechanic as man can that
Goes not know the difference between a
rivet bolt and a go-ahead eccentric.
Then ! descended upon 755 Broadway.
The man in charge asked me:
Are you a skilled mechanic?'
No. says I.
That don't make any difference, said
he. You can work as riveter's helper?'
Sure
AN right; YOU report at Jersey City
at 10 o'clock tonight. Your train will be
there. You'll be paid $3.50 a day
It knew then tLat I was going to
Homestead that I would soon be inside
the works. and that I was in the employ
:. of Andrew Carnegie. I walked out into
Broadway dressed as I was, and CHANGED
to meet one of the World reporters who
knew me fairly well and he was so daz-d
at my garb that he flew to a telephone
and informed the Office that had gone
crazy. But I had not had my photo
graph taken-this picture-and gave it to
Ballard Smith, 50 that in the event of
anything happening to me I could be
duly Illustrated in the story That night
/ left Jersey City with fifty of the vilest
roustabouts that I ever saw brought to-
Gether at one time. They were scum of
the earth, weak, disspated. irresponsible
wretches. hired to go to Homestead. es-
tensibly as skilled labor, but literally to
evade the law of Pennsylvania. (which
forbade an armed force being brought
into the state.
I'VE We're locked in our cars and re-
NAMED in them until the next morn
in when we We're taken off near Swiss
vale and at McKeeSport loaded on the
steamer Little Bill and conveyed to
Homestead. This Little Bill is the steam
er on which the Pinkerton men were kill
ed in the fight with the strikers. We.were
formed into companies, and each man
given a club, a pistol, a belt and hol-
ster. On the holster was worked a this
tie. and we were called, in honor of Car
negie's Scotch blood the Thistle Brigade
We looked like thistles, too. But we rep
resented Carnegie's determined effort to
beat the law and get an armed force in
side his works, and we were put inside
the stockade which surrounded the
works.
There a Col. Nugent drilled and drill
ed and worked us night and day When
We were not drilling we were doing
guard duty. ] found ont before I was
inside of Homestead an hour that Car
negie had fooled the American PRESS and
public as to the activity of his furnaces.
No work was going on, and the activity
shown at 4 o'clock every day was simply
10 blind the reporters let in at that
time. had my story, and had proved
the theory of Ballard Smith to be fact
My object was then to get out and get
my story into New York as soon as pos
sible. served four days at $3.50 a day,
which makes So and this amount Mr.
Carnegie or any of his subordinates
never paid me. Then, being taken sick
from drinking poisoned water, water
and food poisoned by the strikers / got
out and made my way to Connellsville
where [ was cared for by priest i
was deathly sick for a week. and then
left for Hot Springs, where recovered
my HedlIH.
My five-column story went on to New
York and was read in the copy By
Doc Cohen, one of the celebrities OF
the city. He recommend that 1 be paid
$500 for the trip, and eventually / did
receive $50. But, strangely enough, the
story was never printed. 1t has always
been believed that Ballard Smith about
this time lost that control of himself
that had made him famous. The course
of the World in the matter of the Home
stead troubles became almo anarchis-
tic. Mr. Pulitzer was cabled to Paris
as to Smiths condition, and cabled
back:
:, Print nothing in the World OF
Homestead but Associated Press mat
ter
This order arrived the day before my
story was to be published. NV i've col
umns were thrown away, and this is the
first time that the ske,Ston even of, the
story has ever been tyld. 1t is the ex-
PLANTATION of why Mr.. Carnegie owes me
SO If in his giving away of libraries
he should remember this, I would be
pleased Not that I want the ten. but
I'd make a souvenir of the draft or
check
Mr. Lahiff, although about as we1
known as mayors secretary or good
newspaper man can be, will be ren1efn-
bered in Chicago as the Journalist who
Secured the famous Gladstone interview