The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-07-18

boys), ludlclOuSly mixed, make Che
most effective, tractable force you
can find. Scotsmen do very well,
are honest and faithful. Welsh can
he used in limited quantities"
Exploiters Get Fight.
The Amalgamated Association Of
Iron and Steel Workers had a yearly
agreement with Carnegie. Some OF
the men were paid on tonnage
basis, and, for purposes of c9lculat-
ing wages, an arbitrary price was
placed on the ton of steel, The
company, under its new manager,
H. c. Frick, in 1892 cut the price
from S25 to 500, and proposed the
contract should end in January, in
stead Of June.
The strike started July I, 1892.
A strike committee of so was or
ganized, and the situation was
peaceful, with the strikers mass
l,icketing, refusing to let the sheriff
place his deputies in the mills, and
offering to guard them themselves.
Armed Strikebreakers.
On June 20, while negotiations
we're still going on. Prick had bar
gained with Robert A, Pinkerton,
head of the Pinkerton Detective
Agency, for 800 gunner at S.
day per man. They were TO arrive
on July 6, sneak into town by the
water route. smash through the
picket line and break up mass pick
citing. Two barges were prepared
at Ashtabula, armor plated inside.
and stored with $50 Winchester
rifles and an unlimited supply of
pistols, clubs and ammunition.
Two tugs belonging to Cap
tain Rodgers were hired to tow the
barges up the river to Homestead.
The sheriff, William H. McLeary,
was told by the Carnegie people he
was to deputize these Pinkertons.
He always claimed he did not prom
Use to do so, but he sent Deputy
sheriff Gray, with General Super
intendent Potter of the Carnegie
Co., to meet the boats and come up
the river with them
The strikers had foreseen such a
blot. and had picket on horseback
stationed down the river. He gall
loped ahead of the boats, and the
strikers picket boat at Homestead
gave the warning with its whistle.
By the time the barges reached
Homestead, one of the tugboats had
broken down and the boat named
Little Bill" was towing both
barges, somewhat more slowly.
The strikers gathered on the
bank followed the barges toward the
mill and shots were exchanged. The
Larges docked at the Carnegie Co.
rier, and the pickets crashed the
ron fence around the mill and gath
cred on the high bank, between the
Hill and the pier.
Gunmen Attack.
The Pinkortons shot off another
volley and charged up the bank. A
steady fire from the pickets drove
them back The battle started at
4 a. m. and lasted to 5 p. m. The
Pinkertons about noon raised
white flag, and sent number of
dead and wounded away on the
Little Bill"; then they made an
ether attempt to attack. The pick
cts had meanwhile built barbados
of pig iron and other substantial
products of their labor made while
toiling for Carnegie, at an average
wage of IA cents an hour. The at
tack failed and rifle firing con-
tinued.
To break the impasse, Negro
worker, Sam Burgett, led detach
plent of strikers and captured a
cannon belonging TO the river squad.
There was no proper ammunition.
It had to be loaded with scrap iron,
and it burst after several shots.
Although there is no evidence that
the cannon did the armored barge
much damage, it may have shaken
the nerves of Carnegie's Pinker-
tons. They raised the white flag
again at 5 o'clock and surrendered.
The strike committee formed a
Guard to protect them from the
relatives of the strikers they had
murdered in their attack. They
were kept prisoners in the skating
rink for a time and sent to Pitts
turgh.
Seven Pinkertons had been killed
and 80 wounded. Eleven strikers
were killed, an unknown number
Wounded, as, with the prospect of