[CHAPTER XIV.]
A Suppressed Congressional Report—Sympathy Strikes Prove a Failure—Gompers as a Boycott Wielder—The Slavs Weaken—Plans of the Republican National Committee—Smooth Mr. Milholland Enlists Hugh O'Donnell—Honest John McLuckie Refuses to be Muzzled—The Milholland Scheme Falls Through—Outbreaks at Homestead—The Search for Pinkerton Guns—Mr. Frick Revisits the Mill.
FOR reasons which were never fully disclosed, the House committee on Homestead, which entrusted to Representative Oates the preparation of a report to the general judiciary committee, rejected the report when completed and decided to let the whole matter drift over to the next session of Congress. Mr. Oates found that the differences between the Carnegie Company and its men might have been adjusted, had Mr. Frick stated to the conference committee the "bottom facts" prompting the demand for a reduction of wages, but the officers of the company invited trouble by failing to exercise "patience, indulgence and solicitude," and that Mr. Frick, in particular, was "too stern, brusque and somewhat autocratic." He condemned the employment of Pinkertons and argued that the company might have prevented bloodshed by relying solely on the constituted authorities for protection, although he conceded the inefficiency of Sheriff McCleary. He condemned also as unlawful the action of the workmen in turning away the sheriff and in hanging in effigy Messrs. Frick and Potter, denied the right of the Amalgamated Association to bar non-union men out of employment, and held that the men of Homestead had no legal right to resist the Pinkerton invasion and were answerable accordingly to the Pennsylvania courts. In conclusion, Mr. Oates found that congress had no power to dispose of the questions involved. A satisfactory arbitration law could not be enacted and it was a debatable question whether or not congress could do anything to regulate or suppress Pinkertonism.
On August 3, Vice-President Morton appointed a committee of senators, composed of Messrs. Gallinger, Pfeffer, Hansbrough, Felton, Sanders, White and Hill to investigate the Pinkerton corporation. Action by this body was deferred until after the Presidential election, the chairman being a stalwart Republican and averse to the opening of proceedings which might furnish campaign material to the Democrats.
It was not long until the backbone of the sympathy strikes declared at the Carnegie mills at Lawrenceville, Duquesne and Beaver Falls showed signs of weakening. At Lawrenceville, the company took precautions similar to those taken at Homestead. An eight-foot board fence was built round the mill yard and no person was admitted without a pass from the superintendent. The strikers placed pickets on guard, but, despite their vigilance, several hundred non-union men were spirited in and on August 1, the plate mill was started. One hundred and fifty uniformed policemen and the entire force of city detectives were detailed, at the request of the firm, to protect the mill property at this time. After one day's service the majority of the officers were withdrawn, but enough were left on duty to guard all entrances and approaches to the mill. For the accommodation of the non-unionists, who dared not venture out, cots were set up in the carpenter shop, a rough-and-ready cuisine was improvised, and beer was brought in from the neighboring breweries. The force of "scab" employees increased rapidly, and in a short time, the watchers without began to lose heart and relax their vigilance. Nevertheless the Lawrenceville strike was prolonged for a year, or twice as long as the strike at Homestead, although the Lawrenceville men had signed a contract with the Carnegie Company and had no grievance of their own. When the strike was ultimately declared off, few of the men who went out were employed again by the firm and many of them found themselves reduced to poverty.