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
An application for the admission of O'Donnell and his companions to bail
was heard by Judge Magee on Saturday, July 23. Attorneys William J.
Brennen and John F. Cox appeared for the defendants on behalf of the
Amalgamated Association, and District Attorney Clarence Burleigh and D.
F. Patterson, Esq. represented the prosecution. The testimony of a
number of Pinkerton detectives, newspaper reporters, deputy sheriffs and
others was taken, showing conclusively O'Donnell's leadership and his
presence at the battle in the mill yard. The defence argued that
O'Donnell's part in the "riot" was that of a peacemaker. Judge Magee
reserved his decision until Monday, when he finally admitted the four
prisoners to bail in the sum of $10,000 each, the case having "within
its possibility a conviction of murder in the second degree."
The succession of arrests had, of course, a depressing effect on the
people of Homestead. A still more discouraging circumstance was General
Snowden's announcement that the troops would be kept in Homestead until
one side or the other should give in. As long as the troops remained the
mill was so securely guarded that the question was not merely of
providing against violence but of preventing the Amalgamated men from
obtaining access to the non-unionists and bringing persuasion to bear
upon them after the manner customary with labor organizations. General
Snowden was denounced without stint for what the men construed as a
desire on his part to play into the hands of the Carnegie Company. But
the General did not seem to mind denunciations. The last attempt to
subjugate him was made by the high constable of the borough on an
occasion when a stray cow had paid the debt of nature within the lines
of the encampment. The constable undertook to storm the enemy's works
with a view to compelling the interment of the cow with the honors of
war, but was seized and incarcerated over night in the guard house.
With the fall of this functionary came the collapse of all that remained
of civil authority in Homestead, and thereafter General Snowden's word
was law.
The advisory committee was sorely perplexed over the disposition to be
made of the guns taken from the Pinkertons. The Attorney General of the
state was addressed on the subject but declined to give advice, and it
was doubtful that the guns could lawfully be retained as the "spoils of
war." Ultimately the individual holders of the weapons settled the
matter in their own way by hiding the trophies where prying detectives
would be unable to find them.
The death of George W. Rutter, at the Homeopathic hospital, Pittsburgh,
on July 18 closed the list of fatalities on the side of the workingmen.
Rutter remained in a delirium until the last, always imagining in his
ravings that he was back on the bank of the Monongahela, fighting
against the Pinkertons. He was buried at Verona, Pa., where his widow
and children resided.
CHAPTER XII.
[Illustration: THE SHOOTING OF FRICK.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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