Another cause of disquietude was a sudden change of base on the part of the Homestead _Local News_, which was originally the mouth-piece of the advisory board. In its issue of October 15, the _News_ editorially reviewed the situation, setting forth that there were now over 2000 workmen in the mill, 200 of these being former Homestead employees, that recruits were daily being received and preparations being made to accommodate a large additional number of non-unionists; and that businessmen and intelligent members of the Amalgamated Association privately admitted that the battle was lost. In conclusion the article held these two conclusions to be indisputable: "First--The Carnegie Company is gradually succeeding. Second--The great Homestead strike is gradually dying out." The treachery of the _News_, as the men regarded it, provoked unbounded indignation among the strikers. Nevertheless the truth of the statement made by the paper was privately conceded by many Homestead people, and especially by the store-keepers, whose capacity for doing business on trust was being taxed to an extent threatening some of them with bankruptcy. The sympathies of these people were entirely with the Amalgamated Association; but, on the other hand, the prospect of heavy loss to themselves, in case the strike should be a failure, stared them in the face, and the apparent success of the Carnegie Company in manning its works boded ill for the prospect of their recouping themselves. One assertion made by the _News_, viz.: that 200 former Homestead employees had returned to work, was stigmatized as an absolute falsehood by the union leaders, who insisted that not one union man had forsaken his allegiance. Two days later, a quartet of unionists, including a heater, a mechanic, an engineer and a laborer, applied for and obtained work. This was the first break in the ranks of the strikers that was openly made and admitted at Amalgamated headquarters. A visit from Gompers at this time was a positive godsend. The pugnacious chief of the Federation arrived in state on October 21 and was met by a brass band and almost the entire population of the town. A procession was formed and the welcome visitor was escorted to the rink to the inspiring strains of "See, the Conquering Hero Comes." All representatives of the press, with the exception of the correspondent of the Pittsburgh _Leader_, were excluded from the meeting which followed, the preference given the _Leader_ being due to the reputation exclusively enjoyed by that journal for giving fair treatment to organized labor. Thomas Crawford presided over the assemblage. Mr. Gompers made a vigorous speech, in the course of which he said: