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.
THE FERRY AT MUNHALL.
John McLuckie.