Progress in the Mill—A Quartet of Aristocratic Non-Unionists—Sickness Breaks Out—More Arrests—Jack Clifford Suspected of Treachery, but is Held Without Bail for Murder—167 True Bills Returned—Supreme Justice Paxson in the Saddle—He Orders Arrests for Treason and is Generally Condemned—Snowden Favors the Gallows for Homesteaders—Judge Agnew on Treason—Paxson Instructs the Grand Jury and Pronounces the Homestead Men Traitors—Carnegie in Scotland.
DURING the month of August, the mill continued to fill up rapidly with non-union recruits. Among these there was an admixture of worthless characters, who went to Homestead only for the novelty of the thing or for the purpose of securing a few square meals and perhaps a little money from the Company without imposing any special tax on their energies. Men of this type rarely spent more than a day or two in the mill. Once their curiosity or rapacity was satisfied they deserted, threw themselves into the arms of the strikers, represented themselves as having been deluded by the firm's agents and in the majority of cases secured pecuniary aid from the Amalgamated Association. The strikers invariably welcomed desertions and did not always trouble themselves to inquire minutely into the circumstances prompting the sudden change of heart on the part of the deserters. The stories told by the latter to the advisory board eclipsed Munchausen's wildest flights, winding up, as a rule, with the assurance that, owing to bad treatment and breaches of faith regarding the wages to be paid, almost the entire corps of non-union men was preparing to quit work.
The exodus of idlers and incapables did not, however, in any way impair the progress which Superintendent Potter and his new hands were making, despite the reports to the contrary circulated among the strikers. The force of employees increased rapidly and as the wages offered were considerably higher than the average earnings of clerks and young men just beginning a professional career, many representatives of those classes were attracted into the Carnegie Company's service. Among the persons of education and refinement thus enlisted were four once prominent brokers on the Pittsburgh oil exchange, Messrs. Linn L. Dilworth, C. D. Leslie, John McLaughlin and J. L. Agnew. Mr. Dilworth was set to work running an engine, Mr. Leslie became foreman of the cold saw department, and Mr. Agnew was placed in the armor-plate department. Mr. McLaughlin, who was at one time considered the "highest roller" on the Oil City and Pittsburgh floors, accommodated himself to the duties of a subordinate position at fair wages.
The completion of the last piece of armor-plate for the government cruiser Monterey, on September 3, made it plain enough that the works were being operated in earnest and that the expectation that the firm would be unable to execute its contracts with the government, as long as green hands were employed, was destined to be defeated. In any case, there was a special clause in the government contracts providing for an extension of time in the event of labor troubles, so that the firm had nothing to fear from that quarter. The answer of the strikers when confronted with the circumstances was that the material turned out was necessarily defective and must be rejected by the government. This claim, however, was not substantiated.
About this time sickness began to spread among the non-unionists. The Company physicians had their hands full and a large number of men had to be conveyed to the Pittsburgh hospitals. John McGeorge, a resident of Allegheny, was taken to his home and died there, and McGeorge's son, who had been working in the mill with his father, was also stricken down. The attending physician diagnosed the malady in these cases as typhoid fever and assigned as the cause the impurity of the water used for general consumption in the mill. At first the Company hushed up the rumors of the presence of what seemed to be an epidemic among the men, and it was not until many deaths had occurred that the matter was publicly ventilated. Of the mystery involved in this affair and the manner in which it was solved an account will be given in another chapter.
Weekly mass meetings, at which the men were assured that the company was only "making a bluff" and that, sooner or later the old hands would have to be reinstated, the Amalgamated Association recognized and wages kept up to a decent figure, kept life in the strikers' organization for an astonishingly long time. The loyalty of the workingmen to one another and their cheerful confidence in the power of unionist principles and unionist methods to overcome all obstacles were almost sublime. General officers of the Amalgamated Association took part in all these assemblages and distinguished themselves by inculcating a spirit of moderation and respect for the law. Other orators gave full rein to opinions surcharged with bitterness and resentment, and Mr. Frick, the Sheriff and the Common pleas judges came in for many an unmerciful scoring. John Oldshue, leader of the Slavs, figured in every meeting, interpreting for the benefit of his countrymen and delivering exhortations on his own account.
With the exception of an information for murder lodged against Edward Burke, who was already in jail on charges of riot and unlawful assemblage, Secretary Lovejoy's program of prosecutions remained untouched throughout the month of August. At the beginning of September, Mr. Lovejoy warmed up to his work again and caused warrants to be issued for the arrest of Hugh O'Donnell, Hugh Ross, Matthew Foy and William Foy for the murder of Detective John W. Klein. All the defendants were already under $10,000 bonds on the charge of killing T. J. Conners and Silas Wain, and the apparent design was to multiply the amount of bail until the resources of the union leaders were exhausted and confinement in jail could no longer be avoided. Matthew Foy was arrested at once. O'Donnell surrendered two weeks later, on his return from New York. Elmer E. Bales, Harry Bayne and Oscar Colflesh were also arrested on charges of riot and conspiracy.
At the hearing on the conspiracy charge against Hugh O'Donnell, George W. Sarver, David Lynch, William T. Roberts and William McConegy, before Alderman McMasters, a sensation was created by the testimony of George S. Hotchkiss, an assistant superintendent in the employ of the Pinkerton agency. Hotchkiss swore that he had held several conferences with Jack Clifford, of the Homestead advisory board, and obtained from Clifford information incriminating O'Donnell and others. The nature of Clifford's revelations was not made known, objection to the admission of second-hand testimony being raised by attorney Brennen for the defense and sustained by the magistrate; but the report went out that Clifford had turned informer and caused consternation among the strikers. The members of the advisory board, however, defended their associate and explained that he had conferred with the Pinkerton man solely for the purpose of "pumping" him. Subsequent events bore out this assertion. The five men heard before 'Squire McMasters were held for a court trial.
Shortly after O'Donnell and his companions had been disposed of, Clifford was arrested on a second charge of murder, preferred by the industrious Lovejoy, and committed to jail. He was also held for conspiracy, but gave bail on this charge. Next day his application for bail on the murder charge was brought before Judge Ewing, as was also that of Matthew Foy. Foy, against whom there was practically no evidence, was released on $10,000 bail. The testimony against Clifford, however, was very damaging. Captain John Cooper, of the Pinkerton agency, swore that when the Pinkerton barges approached the mill landing at Homestead, he saw Clifford among a crowd of strikers with a pistol in his hand, and heard him shout, "You —— —— ——, don't come ashore, or we'll kill all of you." Clifford, he said, was the man who approached the barges with a white flag and arranged for the surrender. Samuel Stewart, a clerk in the employ of the Carnegie Company, testified that he saw Clifford attach a fuse to a piece of dynamite fixed in an iron pipe and hurl this crude bomb at the barges, and that he noticed a revolver sticking out of the defendant's pocket. On the strength of this testimony, Clifford was committed for trial without bail. Judge Ewing refused to hear evidence as to who fired the first shot and said in his opinion: "The parties on the shore had no duties to perform except to go away, or as good citizens, to put down the crowd that this defendant, Clifford, was with. There is no question—there can be no question—of self-defense about it. I say that we will not go into it, especially in this preliminary matter."
On September 21, the grand jury returned true bills in all the Homestead cases presented to that body, 167 in number. The following is the list:
Murder of Silas Wain—James Close, Charles Martz, George Diebold, —— Sanderson, Edward McVay, Peter Allen, Sr., Jack Clifford, Matthew Foy, Hugh O'Donnell, John McLuckie, Sylvester Critchlow, Anthony Flaherty, Samuel Burkett, James Flannigan and Hugh Ross.
Murder of T. J. Conners—James Close, Charles Martz, George Diebold, —— Sanderson, Edward McVay, Peter Allen, Sr., Jack Clifford, Matthew Foy, Hugh O'Donnell, John McLuckie, Sylvester Critchlow, Anthony Flaherty, Samuel Burkett, James Flannigan and Hugh Ross.
Murder of J. W. Kline—Jacob Stinner, Edward Burke, Jack Clifford, Hugh O'Donnell, Matthew Foy, William Foy and Hugh Ross.
Aggravated Riot—Hugh O'Donnell, G. W. Brown, Thos. H. Baynes, Isaac Byers, Harry Buck, Mark E. Baldwin, M. Cush, Frank Clark, Isaac Critchlow, Thos. J. Crawford, John Corcoran, John Dally, John Dierken, Jas. Dunn, John Edwards, Thos. Godfrey, W. H. Gaches, Jas. S. Hall, U. S. Grant Hess, —— Hennessey, Reid Kennedy, Thos. Kelly, Geo. W. Laughlin, H. H. Layman, Robt. G. Layman, Jack Lazear, Paddy McCool, David Maddigan, Owen Murphy, John McGovern, Wm. McLuckie, Punk, alias Pete McAllister, —— McLaughlin, William Oeffner, Dennis O'Donnell, John Alonzo Prim, Jack Prease, P. J. Rorke, Richard Scott, David H. Shanian, Newton Sharpe, John Sullivan, Oden Shoemaker, —— Taylor, George Holley or Wilkinson, Joseph Wayd, Peter Moran, Lewis Lewis, Patrick Fagan, W. H. Williams, Mike Naughton, Patrick Hayes "and certain other evil-disposed persons with force and arms, then and there, in manner and form aforesaid did make an aggravated riot, to the great terror and disturbance of all good citizens of the commonwealth, to the evil example of all others in like cases offending, contrary to the form of the act of the general assembly in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania."
Aggravated Riot—Peter Allen, Joseph Akers, Thos. Antes, Oliver P. Antes, Charles L. Atwood, E. G. Bail, Harry Bickerton, Wm. Bakely, Jack Bridges, Samuel Burkett, Ed. Burke, James Close, Jack Clifford, Thos. Connelly, Sylvester Critchlow, Robert Dalton, George Diebold, Fred. Gunston, Anthony Flaherty, James Flannigan, Matthew Foy, David Inchico, Evan Jones, E. C. McVay, John Murray, Peter Nan, Hugh Ross, Benjamin Thomas, —— Sanderson, H. Troutman, W. Edward Williams, Oliver C. Coon, W. Mansfield.
Conspiracy—Hugh O'Donnell, Thos. N. Baynes, E. Bail, Isaac Byers, Wm. Bayard, G. W. Brown, Thos. J. Crawford, George Champeno, Isaac Critchlow, Miller Colgan, John Boyle, Jack Clifford, Dennis Cash, Oscar Colflesh, Wm. Conneghy, Mike Cummings, Wm. Combs, John Dierken, Pat Fagan, W. H. Gatches, Matthew Harris, Reed Kennedy, David Lynch, John Miller, O. S. Searight, John Murray, John McLuckie, Hugh Ross, Wm. T. Roberts, George Ryland, D. H. Hannon and George W. Sarver.
Having exhausted its catalogue of murder, riot and conspiracy charges, obtained true bills against 167 strikers, and buried the leading spirits among the Homesteaders beneath an avalanche of bail bonds, Mr. Frick now proceeded to play what he considered to be his trump card. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, of which at this time Hon. Edward Paxson, a close friend of C. L. Magee, was Chief Justice, came to Pittsburgh to hold its annual session. It was deemed possible that the Homestead affair might come before this body in some shape, after the lower courts disposed of it, but to nobody aside from the members of the Carnegie Company and their attorneys did it occur that the superior judiciary would, of its own motion, undertake to deal with the labor trouble at first hand.
This, however, was what Mr. Frick counted on as the culminating stroke which was to break the back of the Homestead strike. The step from the alderman's office to the supreme court room was one which probably no other individual or corporation in the state would have dreamt even of suggesting; but Mr. Frick managed to take it seemingly with as much ease as his secretary exhibited in getting a ward constable to lock up a few dozen of workingmen for riot or conspiracy.
The blow fell on the morning of September 30. The Chief Justice and his six associates met in the supreme court chamber of the county court house and held an hour's conference, at the expiration of which Judge Paxson sent for District Attorney Clarence Burleigh, and P. C. Knox, Esq., principal counsel for the Carnegie Company. When these two gentlemen arrived another hour was spent in consultation. Judge Paxson then sent for County Detective Harry Beltzhoover, whom he instructed to subscribe to an information made before him (Paxson) and to arrest the persons named therein. The information was worded as follows:
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
versus
David H. Shannon, John McLuckie, David Lynch, Thomas J. Crawford, Hugh O'Donnell, Harry Bayne, Elmer E. Ball, Isaac Byers, Henry Bayard, T. W. Brown, George Champene, Isaac Critchlow, Miller Colgan, John Coyle, Jack Clifford, Dennis M. Cush, William McConeghy, Michael Cummings, William Combs, John Durkes, Patrick Fagan, W. S. Gaches, Nathan Harris, Reid Kennedy, John Miller, O. O. Searight, John Murray, M. H. Thompson, Martin Murray, Hugh Ross, William T. Roberts, George Rylands and George W. Sarver.
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, County of Allegheny.
Before me, the subscriber, Edward H. Paxson, chief justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania and ex-officio justice of the court of oyer and terminer of Allegheny county, and a justice of the peace in and for the county of Allegheny, in the state of Pennsylvania, personally came Harry Beltzhoover, county detective, who upon oath administered according to law, deposeth and says that heretofore, to-wit, on or about the first day of July, A. D. 1892, the defendants above named, being inhabitants of and residents within the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and under protection of the laws of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and owing allegiance and fidelity to the said commonwealth of Pennsylvania, not weighing the duty of their said allegiance, but wickedly devising and intending the peace and tranquility of the said commonwealth to disturb and stir, move and excite insurrection, rebellion and war against the said commonwealth of Pennsylvania, did at the borough of Homestead, and in the township of Mifflin, both within the county of Allegheny and state of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere within the state of Pennsylvania and beyond the borders of the state, unlawfully, falsely, maliciously and traitorously compass, imagine and intend to raise and levy war, insurrection and rebellion against the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and in order to fulfil and bring into effect the said compassings, imaginations and intentions of them, the said defendants, afterward, to-wit, on the first day of July, A. D. 1892, and at divers other times at the borough of Homestead and in the township of Mifflin, with a great multitude of persons, numbering hundreds, armed and arrayed in a warlike manner, that is to say, with guns, revolvers, cannons, swords, knives, clubs and other warlike weapons, as well offensive as defensive, did then and there unlawfully, maliciously and traitorously join and assemble themselves together against the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and then and there with force and arms did falsely and traitorously and in a hostile and warlike manner, array and dispose themselves against the said commonwealth of Pennsylvania and did ordain, prepare and levy war against the said commonwealth of Pennsylvania to the end that its constitution, laws and authority were defied, resisted and averted by the said defendants and their armed allies, contrary to the duty of allegiance and fidelity of the said defendants.
All of which the deponent states upon information received and believed by him, and he therefore prays that a warrant may issue, and the aforesaid defendants may be arrested and held to answer this charge of treason against the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The law under which the proceeding was brought is the Crimes act of 1860, under which the penalty for treason is fixed at a fine not exceeding $2,000 and imprisonment by separate and solitary confinement at labor, not exceeding twelve years.
It was announced that Judge Paxson would hear in person the application of any of the accused strikers for bail; that when the cases came before the grand jury he would instruct the jurymen as to what constitutes treason under the statutes of Pennsylvania, and that, if the cases should be brought to trial, he would sit on the bench in the court of oyer and terminer and try them himself. In short, Edward H. Paxson, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, was master of the situation. The court of last resort had been by a Frickian turn of the wrist, converted into a court of preliminary resort, intermediate resort and all other known varieties of resort, and the strikers were led to understand accordingly that with Paxson armed to the teeth and ready to bring them to bay at all points, they might as well throw up the sponge at once and be done with it.
Detectives Farrell and Mills, assisted by a half dozen deputy sheriffs, were detailed to capture the defendants named in Beltzhoover's information. The task was not an easy one, for most of the reputed "traitors," realizing the difficulty of procuring bail, went into hiding and their friends took care to throw the officers off the track. Five of the men—Thomas Crawford, George Rylands, T. W. Brown, W. H. Baird and John Dierken—were caught on Friday, the day on which the warrant for their arrest was issued.
On Saturday, Attorneys Brennen and Cox went before Judge Paxson with a petition for the admission of the accused to bail. Messrs. Burleigh and Knox were called in, and, after a consultation, the Chief Justice made an order authorizing the release of any of the defendants on $10,000 bail at the discretion of any judge of the oyer and terminer court. Judges Kennedy and Porter heard the applications, but rejected the bondsmen offered except in the case of William Baird.
Despite the supposedly sacred character of the supreme bench, criticism of Judge Paxson's extraordinary action was freely indulged in by the members of the Pittsburgh bar and reproduced in the public press. Hardly a voice was raised in commendation of the Chief Justice's arbitrary interference, and the consensus of legal opinion, as mirrored in the newspapers, was to the effect that the disturbance at Homestead, being a purely local affair and directed against a private corporation, could not be construed as treason against the state.
The boldness with which this view of the case was stated by competent authorities gave much encouragement to the strikers, and at the regular weekly mass meeting, on Saturday, October 2, Vice-President Carney, of the Amalgamated Association, and other orators were emphatic in their claims that the treason charge was trumped up as a measure of intimidation and would fall to the ground if ever put to the test of a court trial. The strikers were, therefore, advised to stand their ground, and the Carnegie Company was warned that, when all the members of the advisory board were imprisoned, there would be other men to take their places, and that if all the men in Homestead were cast into jail the women would still be there to keep up the fight for the rights of organized labor. These sentiments were received with clamorous approval.
No little surprise was created by the publication of a statement from Major-General Snowden setting forth that he was originally responsible for the treason prosecution. During his sojourn at Homestead in command of the militia, General Snowden said, he had suggested to the Carnegie attorneys, Messrs. Knox and Reed, that the advisory committee was guilty of treason. The lawyers pooh-poohed the idea, but evidently thought better of it, for three weeks prior to the issuance of warrants by Judge Paxson, Mr. Knox met the General in Philadelphia and asked his help in the preparation of briefs. General Snowden responded that it would hardly be wise for him, while serving as commander of the state forces, to appear as counsel for the Carnegie Company. When the brief was prepared, however, it was sent to him to be passed upon and received his indorsement. General Snowden did not hesitate to say for publication that, in his opinion, death would be rather a mild penalty for members of the advisory committee.
Perhaps the most significant deliverance of the hour on the subject of the treason charge was that embodied in a letter written to the Pittsburgh Commercial-Gazette by the veteran jurist, Hon. Daniel Agnew, ex-chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Judge Agnew declared that the Homestead affair was riot and not treason. "It is easy," he said, "to distinguish treason from riot. It lies in the purpose or intent of the traitor to overthrow the government or subvert the law or destroy an institution of the state. Riot is a breach or violation of law, but without a purpose against the state."
Those of the Homestead men charged with treason, who were not already held for murder, managed, for the most part, to find bail. Many continued in hiding. Burgess McLuckie, tired of running after bondsmen, had betaken himself to Youngstown, O., and, acting on the advice of Attorney W. T. Anderson, of that city, refused to return without a requisition. Honest John was lionized by the Youngstown people, delighted them with his speeches about high tariff and high fences and could have found a body guard any time to defy the Carnegie Company, the Supreme Court, the militia and all the other powers in Pennsylvania.
On the morning of Monday, October 10, the grand jury of Allegheny County assembled in the criminal court room, which was thronged with attorneys curious to watch the development of Judge Paxson's program. At 9.30 A. M., the Chief Justice entered accompanied by Judges Stowe, Kennedy, McClung and Porter, of the county courts, all of whom took seats on the bench while Judge Slagle sat with District Attorney Burleigh behind the clerk's desk.
The gravity of the occasion was felt by everyone and dead silence prevailed as Judge Kennedy opened the day's proceedings with a few words to the jurors stating that, in view of the unusual nature of the treason cases, Judge Paxson had "kindly consented" to instruct the jury.
The Chief Justice began his charge by explaining that his intervention was due to the supreme importance of furnishing an authoritative interpretation of the law in the Homestead cases and that he acted at the invitation of the county judges. He then entered upon a review of the conditions and events at Homestead. "The relation of employer and employee," he said, "is one of contract merely. Neither party has a right to coerce the other into the making of a contract to which the mind does not assent. The employer cannot compel his employee to work a day longer than he sees fit nor his contract calls for, nor for a wage that is unsatisfactory to him. It follows that the employee cannot compel his employer to give him work or to enter into a contract of hire, much less can he dictate the terms of employment. When the negotiations between the parties came to an end, the contract relations between them ceased. The men had no further demand upon the company, and they had no more interest or claim upon its property than has a domestic servant upon the household goods of his employer when he is discharged by the latter or when he voluntarily leaves his service, nor does it make any difference that a large number were discharged at one time; their aggregate rights rise no higher than their rights as individuals. The mutual right of the parties to contracts in regard to wages, and the character of the employment, whether by the piece or day, whether for ten hours or less, is as fixed and clear as any other right which we enjoy under the constitution and laws of this state. It is a right which belongs to every citizen, laborer or capitalist, and it is the plain duty of the state to protect them in the enjoyment of it."
The organization and plan of campaign of the Advisory Committee were reviewed at length, its chief object being stated as "to deprive the company of the use of its property and to prevent it from operating its works by the aid of men who were not members of the Amalgamated Association." Then followed a narrative of the Sheriff's preliminary manœuvres and of the Pinkerton expedition, as viewed from a strictly Paxsonian standpoint. After recounting the details of the battle at the mill landing, the surrender of the Pinkertons, and the occupation of Homestead by the military, the Chief Justice went on to say:
"We can have some sympathy with a mob driven to desperation by hunger as in the days of the French Revolution, but we have none for men receiving exceptionally high wages in resisting the law and resorting to violence and bloodshed in the assertion of imaginary rights, and entailing such a vast expense upon the taxpayers of the commonwealth. It was not a cry for bread to feed their famishing lips, resulting in a sudden outrage, with good provocation; it was a deliberate attempt by men without authority to control others in the enjoyment of their rights. * * * It is much to be feared that there is a diseased state of public opinion growing up with regard to disturbances of this nature, and an erroneous view of the law bearing upon these questions has found lodgment in the public mind. This is evidenced by the accounts of portions of the press, and it finds expression in the assurances of demagogues who pander to popular prejudices and in the schemes of artful politicians."
Proceeding to the law in the case, the Chief Justice held that when the Carnegie Company employed watchmen to guard its works, "it mattered not to the rioters, nor to the public, who they were, nor whence they came. It was an act of unlawful violence to prevent their landing on the property of the company. That unlawful violence amounted at least to a riot upon the part of all concerned in it. If life was taken in pursuance of a purpose to resist the landing of the men by violence, the offense was murder, and perhaps treason."
The legal definition of treason was then read and its supposed application to the Homestead conflict pointed out as follows:
"A mere mob, collected upon the impulse of the moment, without any definite object beyond the gratification of its sudden passions does not commit treason, although it destroys property and attacks human life. But when a large number of men arm and organize themselves by divisions and companies, appoint officers and engage in a common purpose to defy the law, to resist its officers, and to deprive any portion of their fellow citizens of the rights to which they are entitled under the constitution and laws, it is a levying of war against the state, and the offense is treason; much more so when the functions of the state government are usurped in a particular locality, the process of the commonwealth, and the lawful acts of its officers resisted and unlawful arrests made at the dictation of a body of men who have assumed the functions of a government in that locality; and it is a state of war when a business plant has to be surrounded by the army of the state for weeks to protect it from unlawful violence at the hands of men formerly employed in it. Where a body of men have organized for a treasonable purpose, every step which any one of them takes in part execution of their common purpose is an overt act of treason in levying war. Every member of such asserted government, whether it be an advisory committee, or by whatever name it is called, who has participated in such usurpation, who has joined in a common purpose of resistance to the law and a denial of the rights of other citizens, has committed treason against the state. While the definition of this offense is the designing or accomplishment of the overturning of the government of the state, such intention need not extend to every portion of its territory. It is sufficient if it be an overturning of it in a particular locality, and such intent may be inferred from the acts committed. If they be such that the authority of the state is overturned in a particular locality, and a usurped authority substituted in its place, the parties committing it must be presumed to have intended to do what they have actually done. It is a maxim of criminal law that a man must be presumed to have intended that which is the natural and probable consequence of his acts. Thus, if a man assaults another with a deadly weapon, or aims a blow at a vital part, the law presumes that he intended to take life. Aliens domiciled within the state, and who enjoy its protection, owe temporary allegiance to it and are answerable for treason."
In conclusion, Judge Paxson said: "We have reached the point in the history of the state when there are but two roads left us to pursue; the one leads to order and good government, the other leads to anarchy. The great question which concerns the people of this country is the enforcement of the law and the preservation of order."
While the events narrated in this chapter were in progress, while the workmen of Homestead were being taken to jail in batches and charge after charge heaped upon them, and while the Supreme Court of the state was engineering the last grand coup by which the revival of an obsolete offense was to be made instrumental in winding up the strike at Homestead, Mr. Andrew Carnegie was busily at work reaping encomiums for his philanthropy, which at this particular time found vent in the donation of a memorial library to the town of Ayr, in Scotland. The corner-stone of this edifice was laid by Mrs. Carnegie two days after the treason warrants were issued at Pittsburgh. An address of thanks was made by the mayor, to which Mr. Carnegie replied, part of his remarks being as follows: "I feel more strongly bound than ever to devote the remaining years of my life less to aims ending in self and more to the service of others, using my surplus wealth and spare time in the manner most likely to produce the greatest good to the masses of the people. From these masses comes the wealth which is entrusted to the owner only as administrator." A few groans and cries about Homestead were all that reminded the audience which heard this generous-spirited speech that, at the very moment when Mr. Carnegie was speaking, the wealth-givers in his own employ were being hunted down as traitors, locked up in jail and supplanted by cheaper workmen.
CHAPTER XVI.
More Prosecutions—The Soldiers Withdraw—A Non-Union Hotel Dynamited—Homestead Figures in Parades and Gives a Democratic Majority—Slavs Weakening—The "Local News" Predicts Defeat—Gompers Again—Sheriff McCleary Is Harassed and Increases His Corps of Deputies—Lawyer Jones in Trouble—Schwab Succeeds Potter as Superintendent—Homestead's Last Riot—Striker Roberts Hints at Defeat—Mechanics and Laborers Go Back to Work.
AS an offset to the activity of Secretary Lovejoy, Burgess John McLuckie went before Alderman F. M. King on Wednesday, September 21, and lodged information for aggravated riot and conspiracy against H. C. Frick, George Lauder, Henry M. Curry, John G. A. Leishman, Otis Childs, F. T. F. Lovejoy, Lawrence C. Phipps, John A. Potter, G. A. Corey, J. F. Dovey, Nevin McConnell, William Pinkerton, Robert Pinkerton, John Cooper, C. W. Bedell, Fred Primer, W. H. Burt, Fred Heinde and others. In the information for conspiracy the defendants were charged with conspiring to "depress wages" and to incite riot by feloniously importing a force of armed men. No arrests were made on these informations. Blank bail bonds were signed by the Mellon banking firm and filled in by the defendants.
Sheriff McCleary, while he no longer experienced trouble in procuring a sufficient number of deputies at $2.50 a day, to patrol every street in Homestead and enforce order when necessary, found it a hard matter to induce these emergency policemen to attend to their duties. Non-union men coming out of the mill at noon for dinner, were repeatedly assaulted, the intractable element among the strikers caring little for the presence of the sheriff's officers. Early in September, Mr. McCleary quietly investigated the methods of his underlings, and ascertained that many of them were simply taking a holiday at the county's expense. The force was then reorganized, the loafers being summarily discharged. It was only now that the sheriff's pent-up feelings found vent. He was utterly disgusted, he said, and had come to the conclusion that, even if the salary of the sheriff were increased to $15,000 a year, the man who sought the office would be an idiot. The show of authority which Mr. McCleary made had a visible effect and when the deputies bestirred themselves order was sufficiently restored, for the time being, to elicit from Provost Marshal Mechling the opinion that, if the sheriff kept on attending to business, the troops would be withdrawn within two weeks.
Adjutant General Greenland was very severe on the sheriff, whose incompetency, he said, was productive of continual harassment to the troops. In General Greenland's opinion, it was in the sheriff's power, with twenty-five deputies under his personal direction, to keep the peace at Homestead and enable the militia to withdraw.
The improvement in the work of the deputies had such a marked effect that, in the third week of September, the Fifteenth regiment was ordered home, and, on the last day of the month four companies of the Sixteenth regiment broke camp, leaving but four companies on the ground, one of which was posted on the hillside across the river from Homestead. Two weeks later, on October 13, the last of the militia received orders to leave, the first intimation of the good news being conveyed to the men when the band struck up "Home, Sweet Home" at the morning reveille. Tents were struck and baggage packed in short order, and at 10 A. M. the last vestige of the encampment was removed, and with a cheer that re-echoed among the hills the boys in blue marched to Munhall Station and were soon on the way to their homes in the oil country. The Homesteaders watched the departure without showing much feeling, although many of them, doubtless, experienced a consciousness of relief now that, after ninety-five days of military surveillance, the town was restored to the hands of the civil authorities. Henceforward the preservation of the peace was exclusively in the hands of the sheriff's deputies, thirty in number.
An outrage which caused considerable indignation about this time was the attempt made by unknown desperadoes to blow up the Mansion House, a hotel situated at the corner of Fifth avenue and Amity street, in the most populous quarter of Homestead. The establishment was conducted by Mrs. Marron, a widow who had been induced to come from Pittsburgh in order to provide boarding for employees of the Carnegie firm. She secured 40 boarders from among the clerks and non-union steelworkers employed in the mill. On the night of October 6, when the occupants of the hotel were sleeping, an explosive of some kind was thrown through a window of the dining-room on the ground floor. The missile exploded with great force, tore a hole through the floor and penetrated the cellar. Beyond the wrecking of an empty room, however, no damage was done. Mrs. Marron naturally laid the blame for the occurrence on the strikers, but they stoutly disclaimed responsibility and contended that the damage had been done by a natural gas explosion and not by a bomb thrown with intent to kill and destroy. Another theory which found favor among the men was that some wily foe to organized labor had done the mischief in order to discredit the cause of the strikers and hasten the end of the strike by altering the drift of public sympathy. Mr. Frick offered $1,000 for the arrest of the supposed dynamiter and $100 additional was offered by the advisory committee, but the reward was never earned.
The night of October 8 was made memorable by Homestead's share in the greatest Democratic parade held in Pittsburgh during the presidential campaign. Preparations for this event had been in progress for some time. In previous years Homestead had been a Republican stronghold, giving heavy majorities for high tariff candidates, but as has been signified in the preceding pages, political sentiment in the town had undergone a complete revulsion, and the men were determined to make this fact conspicuous in the Pittsburgh demonstration. Under the command of David Lynch and Charles Guessner, 600 of the strikers marched in the parade, and were greeted with cheers all along the route. When the Homestead men arrived opposite the court house, they halted and gave three rousing cheers for Hugh O'Donnell and others of their associates who were confined in the county jail. Passing down Fifth Avenue, the Carnegie offices were reached. Here the marchers gave vent to their feelings in a chorus of groans.
Some of the transparencies carried in this notable procession spoke volumes for the influence of the Homestead trouble as a political factor. One bore a picture of a rooster and the inscription:
On another appeared the query, "Who protects the 2,200 locked-out men in Lawrenceville?" and the response, "Ask McKinley," while on the reverse side was the defiant invitation:
The maker of this couplet may have been weak in the matter of rhythm, but the deadliness of his low tariff logic challenged and received admiration from the crowd.
Yet another legend worth noting was: "The Three (Dis) Graces—Protection for Carnegie, Persecution for his men and Pinkertons for support." At every glimpse of the mottoes quoted, the mob of on-lookers cheered lustily and it looked on that October night very much as though Pittsburgh, the headquarters of high tariff sentiment, had become suddenly inoculated with free-trade virus. There could be no mistaking the opinion of the crowd as to Mr. Frick and the Pinkertons. Evidently the friends of these worthies had accepted discretion as being the better part of valor and remained at home.
The eclat with which the Homesteaders performed their part of the political display in Pittsburgh encouraged them to repeat the demonstration still more energetically in their own town. October 23 was fixed as the date on which the cession of Homestead to the Democracy was to be celebrated. On that evening the town was profusely decorated, Chinese lanterns, bunting, starry flags and red fire contributing to the picturesqueness of the scene. The parade, held in honor of Cleveland and Stevenson, was headed by the best known Republicans in the district, including such notables as Thomas J. Crawford, W. T. Roberts, Captain O. C. Coon and William Gaches. Prominent among the emblems carried was a live sheep painted black, beside which stood a man arrayed as a negro wench. On the float occupied by this group was the motto, "This is Protection." As the float moved along the street, men, women and children strained their lungs with the cry of "Carnegie's Blacksheep!" The success of the Homestead demonstration was the "last straw," and Republican missionaries visited the benighted town no more.
The Hungarians continued to grow more and more restless as they saw the number of men in the mill increase and the chances of their getting back their jobs diminish correspondingly. All these foreigners belonged to the laboring class and it was especially hard for them to stand the strain of a long period of idleness. Arnold Frank, a representative of the race who continued in the employ of the Carnegie Company, devoted himself to quiet missionary work among his compatriots and took frequent occasion to inform the newspapers that a break in the ranks of the Slavs might be looked for at any time. Mr. Frank claimed to be the recipient of daily applications for jobs from Hungarian strikers and that these men were sick and tired of hardships endured for the benefit of an organization which did not even admit them to membership. Slav leaders, who were loyal to the Amalgamated Association, rebutted Mr. Frank's statements, alleging that their fellow-countrymen received their full share of strike benefits and were just as steadfast as any other class among the strikers.
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:
"On a former occasion I explained the purpose underlying this contest, but a new feature has since developed. The militia has been withdrawn and the civil authority prevails. But we see the judges on the bench trying to distort the laws against the people of Homestead and against justice. Judge Paxson, holding the most honored position on the bench of this state, recently, in charging the grand jury regarding the men of Homestead, impressed upon their minds that these men were guilty of treason. When that charge was published in the press of the country it not only shocked the laboring men, their wives and children, but even the lawyers who could not or would not depend on his action.
"I am not a lawyer, but I don't think it necessary to be one to know what constitutes treason and what patriotism. Shall patriotism be measured by the yard-stick of the Carnegie firm or be weighed as their pig iron? Is it because these men in those latter days like those in Boston harbor, declared they had some rights and dared maintain them that they shall be declared traitors? The men who lost their blood and limbs on the field of battle to maintain and preserve this country and knock off the shackles of millions of slaves can not be construed as traitors, Judge Paxson's charge notwithstanding. Now some of your men are in prison, others out on bail, but you are now out three and one-half months on strike with your ranks practically unbroken. I would not ask you to stand out one moment longer than your rights demanded, but are there not some acts of the Carnegie firm that show you that you are working in a winning cause? Because you are here in Homestead you don't know the great victory you have won. In all great lock-outs there are certain inconveniences to suffer and these must be endured, but if you were to end the struggle to-day you have won a victory. There are employers fair and unfair, and when they think of offering a reduction of wages to their employees in the future the fight you have waged will have some effect in the carrying out of this resolve. Don't you think your stand will have its effect on the workmen of this country? Not only here, but throughout the civilized globe, this fight will have its effect. The fraternity of the wage-workers of the civilized world is at hand. Be true to yourselves, one to the other, open and above board; and above all confer with those who are leading you and have your interest at stake and act with them jointly. No matter whether they may appear the enemies of our constitution or our country's institutions, it matters little. We propose to defend our country, its flag with its stars and stripes, in the face of those who would tear it down, for it represents our sovereign rights. We want to maintain the rights of the people and their manhood and we can only do this by organization—ready to stand by one another, ready to defend our constitution, the people of this country, the wage-workers and especially those of Homestead."
President Sheehan and Vice-President Carney, of the Amalgamated Association and others followed with brief addresses, declaring the fight to be practically won by the strikers and exhorting them to stand firm to the end. The men were much encouraged by these exhortations and comforted themselves with the reflection that when so many competent authorities predicted victory, the expectation of defeat must be merely the chimera of a diseased imagination.
Towards the end of October assaults on non-unionists became very frequent. Men were waylaid and beaten while going to and from work, and the non-union boarding houses were bombarded with bricks and stones. The attacking parties were seldom arrested, the deputies being rather disposed to keep under cover than to do aggressive detective work. A detail of coal and iron police was brought in to assist in quelling the disorders, but without improving the state of affairs to any perceptible extent, as many as six non-unionists being attacked with slung-shots and other weapons in a single evening, despite the vigilance of deputies and policemen combined.
At length Sheriff McCleary, perceiving that a dangerous crisis was threatened, added 50 deputies to his force and thus succeeded in checking the tendency to lawlessness. Ninety-one of the non-union workmen were also sworn in as deputies.
The sheriff attributed the spread of insubordination mainly to the influence of Hon. D. R. Jones, an attorney who had at one time been president of the Miners' Union and who had served two terms in the legislature. Mr. Jones was called in to defend James Holleran, who had resisted arrest for disorderly conduct and been aided by a number of strikers at whose hands the deputy sheriffs received rough usage. At the hearing, which was held before 'Squire Oeffner, Mr. Jones said that "the person under arrest and all others not only exercised a right but performed a sacred duty in resisting unless the officer had a warrant for the arrest." The defendant was held in $500 bail for court, but his friends construed Attorney Jones' remarks as exonerating Holleran and all others who undertook to resist a deputy venturing to make an arrest without a warrant. In this way, the sheriff contended, the disorderly element was incited to misconduct and Mr. Jones should be held responsible. Application was made before Judge McClung by the sheriff's attorney asking that Mr. Jones be summoned to explain his action in court. An order was made accordingly and Mr. Jones in response set up the defense that his utterances had been misrepresented and misunderstood and that he had not aimed at kindling disaffection and lawlessness. This explanation was accepted and the matter dismissed.
The prevalence of disorder caused a meeting of protest to be held by the leading professional and businessmen of Homestead, and resolutions were adopted calling upon the sheriff, in case the trouble continued and he should be unable to suppress it, to apply to the Governor for aid. The members of the advisory board also condemned the disposition to defy the law and used their best efforts to put a stop to the misdeeds of the rougher element.
William Gaches, treasurer of the strikers' organization, was kept busy, day in and day out, receiving and disbursing funds for the relief of the strikers, although as time wore on, the golden stream of contributions began to dwindle unpleasantly. A goodly lift was given to the relief fund by the celebration of "Homestead Day" in Chicago, on October 29, when each of the 90,000 union workmen in that city was expected to contribute a day's wages. The receipts from this source were estimated by the newspapers at $40,000. Even that sum, however, was only a stop-gap. A mint of money was needed to support the 4,000 idle men at Homestead, and, however generous the subscriptions from abroad, it was impossible that the enormous expense of maintaining this army of unemployed persons could be kept up much longer.
Mr. Frick was a steady visitor to the works and made arrangements for elaborate improvements. He rather surprised the strikers by removing John A. Potter from the superintendency and substituting Charles M. Schwab, who had been serving as manager of the Braddock mill. As Mr. Schwab was known to be a genial and amiable gentleman, and Mr. Potter was the reverse of popular, the strikers formed the conclusion that the removal of the latter was intended to placate them, and perhaps to serve as a means of hastening desertions from the Amalgamated ranks. Mr. Potter lost nothing by the change, inasmuch as he was appointed chief mechanical engineer of the Carnegie Company, a transfer which was equivalent to a promotion.
The first week of November was marked by a feeling of unusual uneasiness among the Amalgamated men. Dissatisfaction was rife among the mechanics and desertions from their ranks began to multiply rapidly. Superintendent Schwab labored industriously among the old hands, holding out extraordinary inducements to tempt back to work those whose superior skill rendered their services almost indispensable.
The Federation officials sought to buoy the men up and revive the determined spirit which had been exhibited in the early stages of the conflict. Mr. Gompers taxed his powers of oratory to the utmost. William Weihe, Chris. Evans, David Lynch and others made stirring appeals; but all without avail. Disaffection had found a lodgment and it was too late now to prevent the stampede which every one felt was soon to come.
Such was the condition of things when election day, November 8, was ushered in. The grand effort by which Homestead was to discard Republicanism as a rebuke to advocates of one-sided protection was to be the last combined effort of any kind that the workingmen of the devoted town were to make. Hugh O'Donnell, then confined in the county jail, was the only Homesteader of prominence that refused to go over to the Democracy. Hugh was, of course, debarred from voting, but he made up for this deprivation by sending out for publication a letter in which he said: "All the enemies of the locked-out men at Homestead are Democrats from Governor Pattison down, including General Snowden, Chief Justice Paxson, the New York Sun and other Democratic papers."
The election returns gave Homestead to the Democrats by an average majority of 137. David Lynch, who was a candidate for the legislature, received the highest vote, his majority being 300. The strikers were jubilant over the result and held high carnival on the day after election.
On Sunday, November 14, Homestead saw its last riotous demonstration. The affair arose out of an altercation between two colored non-unionists and a striker. The striker knocked down one of the negroes and was joined in an instant by a crowd of men, women and children, eager to lend a hand. The negroes drew revolvers and fled, firing into the crowd as they ran. At City Farm Lane, six more negroes joined the fugitives, and the whole party ran to their boarding-house and barred themselves in. An angry mob surrounded the house, tore down the fence and was about to burn the place, when a posse of deputies and borough officers arrived and placed the negroes under arrest. While the prisoners were on their way to the lock-up they were assailed with stones and clubs, and it was only by drawing revolvers and threatening to fire that the deputies succeeded in protecting themselves and the poor wretches in their custody. The striker who was concerned in the beginning of the outbreak and one of his companions were also placed under arrest. These men, as well as most of the negroes, were pretty severely wounded.
The usual Saturday afternoon meeting on November 13 was marked by symptoms indicating only too plainly that the end was near at hand. William T. Roberts, fresh from a campaigning tour in the East, made an address substantially conceding that the cause of unionism at Homestead was on its last legs. He spoke of the desertion of the finishers from the ranks of the Amalgamated Association as an assault on the integrity of organized labor inspired by the Carnegie people for the purpose of defeating the Homestead men and added, "In view of the confidence you have placed in me, I don't propose to come here and tell you that everything is rosy when it is not. If you think with this combined opposition in your own ranks you can fight it out to the end, I am with you." The men, being asked what they wished to do, shouted with one voice, "Fight it out to the end!" There were few among them, however, that did not comprehend the intent of Mr. Robert's words. The first doubt of ability to go on with the strike had been openly expressed by one of their own leaders and listened to without protest. This was the beginning of the end.
Another circumstance showing that a crisis was at hand was the convocation of the advisory boards of Homestead, Lawrenceville and Beaver Falls at the Pittsburgh headquarters of the Amalgamated Association, to consider the question whether or not the strikes at those places should be declared off. It could not be ignored that enthusiasm was flagging, and the flow of contributions falling off to a degree that was positively perilous. The committeemen, nevertheless, could not nerve themselves to face the consequences of ordering a discontinuance. Had they done so the failure of the strikes would undoubtedly have been charged up to their account by the majority of their fellow-workmen, and they would be in the position of making a thankless sacrifice.
The reader has already been informed of the manner in which the Lawrenceville and Beaver Falls strikes came to an end. At Homestead, the mechanics and laborers were the first to weaken. These men, to the number of about 2000, met on the morning of Thursday, November 18, and appointed a committee to wait upon the Amalgamated men and submit the proposition that the strike be declared off and the mechanics and laborers be released from further obligations. The Amalgamated men met in the evening, with President Weihe in the chair.
The proposition of the mechanics and laborers was rejected by a vote of 106 to 75.
A ballot was then taken on the advisability of continuing the strike and resulted in an affirmative decision by a vote of 224 to 129.
A committee was appointed to notify the mechanics and laborers that they could act as they liked, but that the Amalgamated Association would not be responsible for their actions.
Next morning the mechanics and laborers reconvened, received the report of the committee of the Amalgamated Association, and agreed unanimously to return to work, but under no circumstances to accept tonnage jobs, as by so doing they would trespass on the rights of the Amalgamated men.
The meeting adjourned quickly, and the men proceeded at once to the mill and put in their applications for reinstatement. More than half of the mechanics were turned away, as the number of vacancies was limited, but the laborers were all put to work or assured of employment in a few days. So great was the rush of returning prodigals that two clerks were required to make out passes for the applicants. Chairman Frick was on hand to supervise the re-employment of the old men and enjoyed, in his undemonstrative way, the successful culmination of his plans to break up unionism in Homestead.