The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-08-18
PROSPERITY AT PITTSBURG
ENORMOUS BUSINESS OF THE INDUS
TRIES AND RAILWAYS.
Schwab a Relentless Foe of
but Generous Ia Those who
stand by His Company.
STAFF Correspondence Of the Journal.

lied the marvellous M~OnOnSdnela Ndhey
and made 1t one Of the greatest strips or
land that lays out of doors are wondering
TO themselves how long it is all going TO
last. There never was a time in the his
tory of this big manufacturing town when
money seemed so plentiful. Orders are
coming in TO everybody. from the pickle
manufacturers TO the armor plate makers.
by mail and wire and telephone. There
seems TO be no end to them. Even the
great steel strike has not put a brake on
the general prosperity. The modern manu-
facturer in this part of the Union has
rubbed Aladdin's lamp and summoned the
genii to bring him gold so often that the
process begins 10 bore him And now,
surfeited with business, he spends his
days in specializing when II will end and
when conditions will resume their normal
trend.
Steel men say, as Carnegie once did,
that iron is either a prince or a pauper.
There is no half way about It. Business
is either booming or ii is bad. They know
by experience that a single day may over
turn the whole fabric. They are not pessl-
mistic, but they have made so much money
they cannot help thinking that something
Is bound to break. Their argument is to
look out for tight money. So long as
money can be secured men will go on
building railroads and putting up sky
scrapers. If the banks will lend, venture
some spirits will lay out additions to cities
and sell lots to w~orkingmen and clerks.
And by the same token clerks and work.
ingmen will buy. But If money stiffens
up the whole affair will end and Pittsburg
will have to sit down and wait for the
next boom.
RAILWAY TRAFFIC..
Now it must not be understood that the
big business men of Pittsburg-and the
business men here are of a class by them
selves-think there is any danger Of a panic
or hard times. They see too clearly for
that. They calculated that things will go
on in excellent shape while Mckinley is
President. but the whole thing is so enor-
nous. so awe-inspiring, they cannot help
imagining that perhaps there will come a
jolt. There is no indication of it. Seem
ingly. more business is being done here
than has ever been done. Only last
Wednesday the greatest movement Of
freight cars the world has ever known was
recorded in the Beaver valley. More than
$500 freight cars were handled on the three
different roads between New Castle juno
ton and Wampum. These roads are the
Pittsburg & Lake Erie, the Pennsylvania
and the Pittsburg & Western. This freight
was moved in fifteen hours. Heretofore the
record has belonged TO the Pennsylvania
road, which moved in one day $500 cars be-
tween lockwood and Harrisburg. At one
time the Pennsylvania had ninety freight
trains moving on its lines between Ale
gheny and New Castle Junction. The
amount of freight thus carried is incom-
prehensible. The railroad men nave not
yet figured 1t out in pounds. But it all goes
to show that this is the greatest freight
producing center in the world. Observers
are getting greater day by day.
Sooner or later. If the strike continues.
there will be a lull in the freight business
and the prosperity or the city and its tenn
ing valleys may be checked somewhat, but
even thes temporary lafneneSS of the iron
and steel mills cannot have a very great
effect. That is discounted, too, by the
knowledge that the Amalgamated Associa-
ton must inevitably fail in its battle with
the steel trust, whether the fight is long
continued or settled soon.
SKILLED LABOR MAY BE SCARCE.
The only feature of the strike that gives
trust hunters at large is that the skilled
men Of the A~malgamated are rapidly get
ting work with the Independent plants out=
side Of the steel trust. There are many Of
these and the strike has given outside
capitalists courage to start up mills that
have long been idle and to put the indie
pendent mills in full force night and day.
Most of the big steel users are tied to the
trust with long time contracts, but there
are hosts Of little fellows who want iron
and a big contract is to be had here and
there If the promise of immediate delivery
is held out. If the ~Amalgamated skilled
men get in with the Independent plants
the trust will have some difficulty when il
gets ready to start it's mills. The trust
managers do not seem TO be alarmed at
this phase Of the situation. They say that
the automatic machinery now in use in
mechanic to become a mill man after a few
weeks of tutoring and they are willing to
break in new men II they, have to. OF
course, all the Amalgamated men will not
move TO other places TO get into the indie
pendent plants. Many of them own their
homes in the towns Sfso where e they me worked !" be-
and many of them are very prosperous.
well-to-do citizens.
negie group of mills and none will be. The
Carnegie people, headed by Schwab, who
is now the m~illion-dollar president of the
big trust. stamped out unionism in their
mills at the time of the bloody Homestead
strike of 1892. Schwab is the relentless foe
of unionism. He does not believe in labor
willing to capitulate a bit and let the
Amalgamated men back as union men if
they will come at once, he has it in mind
the trust and he will bring that condition
about If he remains at the head of the
combination
StiI. the Carnegie people are not so cold
and inkuman as they have been held up to
be. a story l heard here to-day illus
trates this. At the time of the Homestead
riots the Carnegie people wanted TO get
some Pinkerton men into their works.
There was no way of aking them down
by train and Schwab thought they could
get in safely by river. He looked about for
a river man who would take the men TO the
mill. Several refused. Then Schwab went
TO Captain Rogers, who owned the steamer
Aittle Bill. He asked Rogers 10 go. Rogers,
In addition to owning the boat. had a
small interest in a coal mine in the val
ley. Rogers knew Schwab. He consent
ed 10 take the Pinkertons in on the Lit
tie Bill. He did take them in. too. stand
ing In the pilot house himself and steer
ing the boat. The bloody battle occurred
that made the Homestead strike historic
for ferocity, but Rogers got some of his
men in. He was not hurt.
After the strike Andrew Carnegie himself
sent for Captain Rogers and asked about
the output of the little coal mine in which
he was interested. Then he gave the cap
tain a contract for all the coal that could
be mined there, delivered at the Carnegie
mills He fixed the price, too. a shade
better than the market. The Carnegie
mills take all OF Rogerss coal to this day.
I'm addition to this Carnegie helped Rogers
to establish a boat line on the river for
shipping steel rails and structural iron TO
the markets down the Ohio and the Missis-
sippi rivers. and gave him the monopoly
of the business. Every ton OF iron Rogers
takes dOwn the river gives him a profit of