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
On cross-examination witness stated that he also saw Anthony Flaherty,
Joseph A. Hall and James Flannagan shoot from behind the barricade. He
stuck firmly to his story in the face of Mr. Brennen's questioning.
Stewart's examination ended the Saturday night session.
When the trial was resumed on Monday morning, Detective Malley was again
placed on the stand and swore to having seen Critchlow on the river bank
with a gun in his hands and to have heard him called by name.
Photographs of the burning barges, the barricades and the mill yard,
taken by order of the Carnegie Company on July 6, were put in evidence,
and here the commonwealth rested.
Attorney George W. Argo made the opening speech for the defense. He
explained that he and his colleague, Mr. Irwin, had been sent by the
laboring element of the Northwest to assist in the defense of the
Homestead men. "As far as I am concerned," he said, "I was not selected
on account of any extraordinary ability, but because for years I have
been in touch with labor. At one time I was a barge builder near this
city. My parents resided in Washington County."
In setting forth the reasons for demanding an acquittal, Mr. Argo
enlarged upon the enlistment of armed men to invade Homestead "within
two days of the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of
Independence" and, after describing the expedition of the Pinkertons
went on to say:
"These men were not laboring men. It was an invasion of armed
men employed by a man named Frick; it was an assault upon this
grand old commonwealth; it was an assault upon the state in
which the Declaration of Independence was signed; this armed
body of men who invaded this state and trampled upon the soil
made sacred by the feet of Washington; these men were not under
the command of any regular officer of this county; they were men
who could not be sworn in as deputies or special officers. Under
the evidence in this case these men made an attack upon the
people of Homestead; there is not any evidence that Frick owned
one dollar's worth of property in Homestead. These men sneaked
in on a dark, foggy night; they were met, not by strikers, for
there is no evidence that there was a strike, but by the good
people of the town, who, when the armed foe attempted to land
told the latter not to come ashore; begged of them not to
interfere with their rights, begged of them not to attempt to
land. Not a particle of evidence has been given that these
foreign emissaries had any right there. The men, the peaceable
citizens, attempted to defend their rights. A young man named
Foy went down to the gang-plank to plead with the men not to
come ashore. He was met by a lot of armed men. Becoming alarmed
he turned to go back, when he slipped and fell across the plank.
As he fell he was shot in the back by some one on the barges.
That was the beginning of the terrible battle. It will appear in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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