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
Rev. Mr. McIlyar told how easily the difficulty between the Carnegie
firm and its employees might have been adjusted had arbitration been
resorted to. "But," he added, "this town is bathed in tears to-day and
it is all brought about by one man, who is less respected by the
laboring people than any other employer in the country. There is no more
sensibility in that man than in a toad." While the minister was speaking
the sobs of Morris's broken-hearted widow interrupted his address, and
her grief found a sympathetic echo in the hearts of all present.
Crowds lined the route to the cemetery and watched with tear-dimmed eyes
the passage of the funeral cortege. On the way the hearse that bore the
remains of Peter Farris fell into line. After the last sad rites had
been performed over the graves of Morris and Farris, another procession
was formed and all that was mortal of Silas Wain was removed to its
resting-place.
Towards evening a stir was created by the appearance on the streets of a
little band of anarchists from Allegheny City, who, like vultures
attracted by the scent of prey, were drawn to the scene of trouble by
the hope of fomenting still greater disorders. The unbidden guests
proceeded to distribute incendiary circulars, setting forth that the
mills were the rightful property of the workingmen and should be seized
as such, and calling on the good people of Homestead to become
anarchists and strike for liberty hand-in-hand with their "brothers."
Two of the agitators were placed under arrest and confined in the
lock-up. The rest were promptly shipped out of town with an admonition
not to return. It caused the workmen much concern to suppose that they
might be credited with anarchistic tendencies; and, as a consequence, a
species of censorship was established over the newspaper correspondents,
with a view to preventing the publication of reports describing the
Homestead defenders as a set of cut-throats and desperadoes, whereas,
they wished the whole world to know that they were honest men, fighting
for bread for themselves and their wives and children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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