Homestead : $b A complete history of the struggle of July, 1892, between the Carnegie-Steel Company, Limited, and the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel WorkersBurgoyne, Arthur Gordon
History
Homestead : $b A complete history of the struggle of July, 1892, between the Carnegie-Steel Company, Limited, and the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers
Burgoyne, Arthur Gordon
Homestead Strike, Homestead, Pa., 1892
Secretary Lovejoy contented himself with assuring the newspapers that
the surrender would have no effect on the cases of the strikers under
arrest, as far as the Carnegie firm was concerned.
On Monday the Advisory board disbanded and the dissolution of the
workingmen's once great and powerful organization was complete.
The battle for the preservation of the integrity of this body had been
fought at a fearful cost. The outlay on the side of the Carnegie Company
has never been made known, but it cannot have fallen short of $250,000.
The workmen, in the course of twenty weeks of idleness, lost $850,000 in
wages, and the expense to the state of maintaining the militia at
Homestead was about $500,000. In round numbers then, the total cost of
the strike to all parties involved, allowing for the pay of deputy
sheriffs, the expense of court trials and the relief funds, may be set
down at _two million dollars_, an enormous sum to be paid for the
gratification of Mr. Frick's desire to get rid of unions and unionism.
Inasmuch, however, as but a small portion of this amount came out of the
coffers of the Carnegie Company, Mr. Frick had no reason to feel
dissatisfied. His victory was in reality, a cheap one. Had he not
precipitated a bloody conflict by shipping Pinkertons to Homestead and
in this way secured the support of the entire military force of
Pennsylvania, there is no telling how long the strike might have been
continued and how heavy the loss that might have been inflicted on the
firm by the stoppage of operations.
[Illustration: DISCUSSING THE SURRENDER.]
The last restraint having been removed, hundreds of men who had been
active among the strikers now thronged the mill office and besieged the
officials with applications for positions. Superintendent Schwab began
receiving the applicants at 9 o'clock on Monday morning. At that hour
about 500 men were in line. The men were admitted in groups of five and
those who were not black-listed as dangerous rioters received permits
authorizing them to file their applications with the superintendents of
the various departments. The line of waiting ones kept constantly
growing and it was not until 4 o'clock that Mr. Schwab and his
assistants were enabled to wind up their labors. Unfortunately the
number of vacancies was so small that but few of the old employees could
be accommodated by the superintendents, and fully 2,500 men were left to
keep the wolf from the door as best they could, without the assurance of
early employment. The prospect confronting these unfortunates was
disheartening in the extreme. Most of them were already embarrassed in
consequence of their long idleness. Rent and taxes were unpaid, the
endurance of grocers and butchers was exhausted, and with winter at hand
and no money in sight to purchase the necessaries of life, what was to
become of these destitute workingmen and their families?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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