[CHAPTER XVII.]
The Last Mass Meeting—Strikers Surrender Unconditionally—Cost of the Homestead Dispute to Capital, Labor and the State—Few Old Hands Get Work and Poverty Stalks Abroad—Noble Service of Relief Committees—The Coming of Santa Claus—Congressional Investigations Wind Up Without Accomplishing Anything—A Batch of Useless Reports—The Kearns Anti-Pinkerton Bill Becomes a Law in Pennsylvania.
THE secession of the mechanics and laborers was all that was wanting to complete the discouragement of the tonnage men. The usual mass meeting was held in the rink on Saturday, November 20, but the leaders, perceiving that a crisis was imminent, decided to exclude all who were not members of the lodges and only about 500 strikers took part in the secret deliberations which followed. Addresses were made by Vice Presidents Lynch and Carney, of the Amalgamated Association. Thomas Crawford, Chairman of the Advisory Board, was not present, and the information was conveyed to the meeting that he had resigned in order to take a position in a mill at Uniontown, Pa., and that Richard Hotchkiss, Secretary of the board, had been appointed to fill the vacancy. The discussion turned mainly on the necessity, now self-evident, of abandoning the strike and declaring the Homestead mill open to union men. It was manifestly the sense of the meeting that this step should be taken, but the men recoiled from it, and, after a debate lasting four hours, action was deferred until the following day.
It was a mournful little band that assembled in the rink on Sunday morning. In that memorable meeting-place which had again and again resounded with triumphant oratory and with the plaudits of sanguine multitudes, less than 300 dispirited men now came together to register the confirmation of their defeat. There were some who argued passionately against capitulation. To yield, they said, would be to hasten the disintegration of the Amalgamated Association. Better go naked and starve than sacrifice the principles on the vindication of which the men of Homestead had staked everything. But this reasoning was of no avail. A standing vote was taken on the question of declaring the mill open and the proposition was carried by 101 to 91.
There was no outburst when the result was declared. The men sat and stared at one another for a few seconds, and then dropped out of the hall in twos and threes, some of them giving vent to their feelings in bitter denunciations of the action of the majority.
The news caused little excitement through the town. It was no more than had been expected, and, for the most part, the people were glad of it, for it had long been understood that the continuance of the unequal struggle with the Carnegie Company meant an increased burden of debt and poverty.