The River Ran Red

<v David P. Demarest>From all your waters, America, I choose the river with a magical <v David P. Demarest>name, Monongahela. <v David P. Demarest>For the river has a tale to tell. <v David P. Demarest>Even deeper and longer than it is. <v David P. Demarest>Over Homestead's humpbacked houses remain still the pall <v David P. Demarest>of gun smoke, writing the story of the awaited massacre. <v David P. Demarest>And the city's smokestacks of Carnegie will not cover the writing of the gunsmoke <v David P. Demarest>as long as the Monongahela River tells this story to its banks. <v Narrator>At the beginning of 1892, the people of Homestead, Pennsylvania, <v Narrator>had no idea of the upheaval that was about to transform their lives. <v Narrator>They had built a proud and prosperous community upriver from Pittsburgh <v Narrator>in just 10 years. 12000 men, women and children <v Narrator>had settled around the Carnegie steelworks.

<v Narrator>They were setting records in the production of armor plate and structural steel <v Narrator>and transforming America in the process. <v Abraham lincoln>The past and present are known and the record feels every homesteader with pride. <v Abraham lincoln>What of the future? <v Abraham lincoln>It is full of promise. <v Abraham lincoln>Flanked by the greatest industrial city of the union with splendid railroad <v Abraham lincoln>and water facilities, having the most extensive and varied steel mills in the <v Abraham lincoln>country, the future growth of Homestead will undoubtedly be more rapid <v Abraham lincoln>than its past. And before another decade, it will be the largest town <v Abraham lincoln>in western Pennsylvania. <v Narrator>By the end of 1892, Homestead would be known throughout the world, <v Narrator>but not for the reasons its boosters had hoped. <v Narrator>A fierce conflict would erupt that summer, pitting the country's most powerful

<v Narrator>labor union against its largest steelmaker. <v Narrator>The worker's right to organize hung in the balance. <v Narrator>The outcome would shape their lives for generations to come. <v Narrator>In the wake of the civil war, an industrial revolution swept across <v Narrator>America. <v Narrator>Manufacturing flourished and daring entrepreneurs became rich, <v Narrator>very rich. <v Narrator>But for the average factory worker, the revolution meant endless drudgery, long <v Narrator>hours and dangerous work. <v Speaker A>April 2nd, 1892. <v Speaker A>The history of the homestead steelworks is marked with a large number of frightful <v Speaker A>accidents that of last Saturday, wherein one man lost his <v Speaker A>life and seven others received serious injuries, was scarcely less terrible.

<v Speaker A>Molten metal came in contact with moisture, resulting in a terrific explosion. <v Speaker A>Some of it's striking the opposite wall, 70 feet away. <v Narrator>Where machines were present. <v Narrator>Death and injury were commonplace. <v Narrator>A single slip could cost a man his life. <v Narrator>A widow was lucky if the company picked up the cost of the funeral. <v Narrator>Children worked, some falling victim to indifferent machines. <v Narrator>Even three year olds sometimes spend 12 hours shifts at their mother's sides. <v Narrator>City streets, open sewers and foul air <v Narrator>with the trademarks of many factory towns.

<v Narrator>Workers often depended on the company for housing and owed their pay to <v Narrator>the company run stores. <v Narrator>Homestead was radically different, work in the mill was just as hazardous. <v Narrator>But steelworkers had built a powerful union which gave them a say in hiring <v Narrator>wages and how jobs were done. <v Narrator>The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers had 800 <v Narrator>members in Homestead, all skilled craftsmen, <v Narrator>workers, organizations, not the company, dominated civic life. <v Narrator>Many homesteaders own their own houses. <v Narrator>Their taxes were bringing lights and sidewalks to city streets. <v Narrator>Decent pay allow their children to attend school. <v Narrator>And reasonable hours in the mill left them time to run the local government. <v Arthur Gordon Burgyone>The constitution of this country guarantees all men the right to live,

<v Arthur Gordon Burgyone>but in order to live, we must keep up a continuous struggle. <v Narrator>Homesteads elected leader was a union man, John Mclucky. <v Narrator>He had been active in labor politics since his days as a Pennsylvania coal miner. <v Narrator>He believed that every working man should be able to feed and house his family. <v Narrator>Mcluckey could be counted on to stick to his principles. <v Narrator>He got his first job in steel in nearby Braddock. <v Narrator>His employer was Andrew Carnegie, the man he would face <v Narrator>in a bitter confrontation in 1892. <v Narrator>Carnegie was a poor Weaver's son when he left his native Scotland in 1848. <v Narrator>By the eighteen eighties, he had become one of America's leading industrialists.

<v Narrator>He was among the first iron manufacturers in the country to invest in steel, <v Narrator>a stronger and more flexible metal than iron. <v Narrator>Steel proved highly profitable. <v Narrator>It was rapidly replacing iron in railroad, bridge and skyscraper construction, <v Narrator>and revolutionary new technologies made it easier to produce. <v Narrator>The iron industry relied on highly skilled unionized craftsmen. <v Narrator>Far fewer skilled men were needed to make steel. <v Narrator>This left the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers vulnerable <v Narrator>and opened the way for steel manufacturers to seize control of the shop floor. <v Narrator>In mill after mill workers fought back, but few succeeded. <v Narrator>When the original owners of the Homestead mill tried to impose a nonunion contract

<v Narrator>in 1882, Homestead's workers accused them of instituting <v Narrator>a new form of slavery. <v Homestead worker>To the Editors National Labor Tribune. <v Homestead worker>Just think of it, fellow workmen living in a land where not 20 years ago we had <v Homestead worker>a war against slavery in a land where freedom and independence was proclaimed, <v Homestead worker>that we would go on in our right minds and sober senses and sign <v Homestead worker>away our rights as free born American citizens. <v Narrator>The message of the homestead workers resonated up and down the Monongah Hayler River <v Narrator>Valley and Homestead won its fight to remain a union mill. <v Narrator>A year later, Andrew Carnegie purchased the Homestead Works and became America's <v Narrator>biggest steel producer with his working class roots and his public statements <v Narrator>on the rights of labor. Carnegie seemed just the man to oversee Homestead's <v Narrator>workforce.

<v Andrew Carnige>The right of the working man to combine and to form trades unions is no less sacred <v Andrew Carnige>than the right of the manufacturer to enter into associations and conferences with his <v Andrew Carnige>fellows. I did my sooner or later be conceded. <v Narrator>Carnegie made a commitment to use his wealth to improve the lives of his workers. <v Narrator>He built libraries, schools and concert halls, costing huge sums of money <v Narrator>to acquire this wealth. Carnegie increasingly focused on the bottom line. <v Narrator>He began by eliminating most of his industrial competition. <v Narrator>Then he drove the unions out of his mills. <v Narrator>When unionized workers refused to yield, he hired armed guards to <v Narrator>bring in nonunion replacements.

<v Narrator>Homestead alone with Stuart Carnegie's assaults. <v Narrator>In 1889, its powerful union forced the company to negotiate <v Narrator>a three year contract. After thousands of homesteaders confronted county <v Narrator>deputies trying to bring nonunion workers into town. <v Narrator>As the end of that contract approached in 1892, Carnegie <v Narrator>was determined to assert his rights and gain absolute control over the mill <v Narrator>from his home in New York City. <v Narrator>He drafted a notice to the homestead workers that has been <v Narrator>forced upon this firm. <v Andrew Carnige>The question whether its works out to be the union or nonunion. <v Andrew Carnige>As the vast majority of our employees are nonunion. <v Andrew Carnige>The firm has decided that the minority must give way to the majority. <v Abraham lincoln>These workers, therefore, would be necessarily nonunion. <v Abraham lincoln>After the expiration of the present agreement.

<v Narrator>Carnegie sent the notice to the company's officers in Pittsburgh. <v Narrator>But they never showed it to the homestead workers. <v Narrator>Instead, they urged Carnegie to take his annual vacation in Scotland <v Narrator>and leave the matter to the company chairman, Henry Clay Frick. <v Narrator>Frank was a brilliant entrepreneur. <v Narrator>He made his fortune by buying up the region's best coal fields and by building over <v Narrator>a thousand ovens that turned coal into Coke, an essential fuel for making <v Narrator>steel. <v Narrator>The Carnegie Company was Frick's biggest client. <v Narrator>And in 1882, they negotiated a substantial interest in each other's firms. <v Narrator>Frick was an uncompromising foe of organized labor, determined to increase <v Narrator>profits. Carnegie chose him to run the new concern.

<v Speaker A>Frick had smashed the unions in his ?Coke Ovens? At Connellsville. <v Speaker A>And some people said he meant to do a similar job in Homestead while negotiations <v Speaker A>were still ostensibly in progress. <v Speaker A>Forget a tall fence built around the mill and erected searchlight platforms around the <v Speaker A>mill yard. A union man promptly nicknamed the mill Fort Frick. <v Speaker A>A group of carpenters working on the fence heard a rougher call to one of them, do a good <v Speaker A>job on that fence. Charlie [unclear] <v Speaker A>like asking a man to dig his own grave? <v Speaker A>The great convention of the Amalgamated Association opens today. <v Speaker A>It is beyond question the most powerful independent labor organization in the world <v Speaker A>and every movement of the manufacturers seems to aim at its destruction in the coming <v Speaker A>conflict.

<v Narrator>Homestead's unionized workers were given an ultimatum, sign the company's <v Narrator>contract by June 24th or work in the mill on a nonunion <v Narrator>basis. <v Protester>The eyes of a whole world of labor are at present fixed on Homestead. <v Protester>You are entering on a struggle for your rights. <v Protester>If you succeed, the labor of this great country will profit <v Protester>by your success. <v Protester>If you fail, success on their part will be all the harder <v Protester>to gain. <v Narrator>John Mclucky took the floor. <v John Mcclucky>The reduction of wages proposed by Mr. Frick means <v John Mcclucky>that we will receive from 12 to 42 percent less. <v John Mcclucky>This would mean a cessation of public improvements in Homestead, a material <v John Mcclucky>reduction of the prosperity of the town. <v John Mcclucky>And in a great many cases, individual hardship.

<v John Mcclucky>We are asking nothing but our rights and we will have them <v John Mcclucky>if it requires force to get them. <v Narrator>On June 24th. Negotiations deadlocked. <v Narrator>The following day, Frick wrote a letter to Robert Pinkerton, head of the Pinkerton <v Narrator>Detective Agency. <v Henry Frick>We will want 300 guards for service at our homestead mills <v Henry Frick>as a measure of precaution against interference with our plan to start the operation <v Henry Frick>of the works again on July six, 1892. <v Narrator>The Pinkerton agency was the most effective strike breaking force in the country <v Narrator>by 1892, Pinkerton's had used spies and armed guards to end <v Narrator>over 70 labor disputes. <v Narrator>So flagrant was their disregard for human life.

<v Narrator>That 11 states had outlawed their employment. <v Narrator>Working people feared and despised them. <v Narrator>On June 28, the Carnegie Company shut down the open hearth furnace and the armor <v Narrator>plate mill, locking out 800 men. <v Narrator>The next morning, the Amalgamated called a mass meeting. <v Narrator>Most of the 3000 who attended were not skilled workers. <v Narrator>They didn't belong to the union, but all agreed to stand firm with the locked out men. <v Narrator>Soon they would have little choice during the meeting, the company shut the mill <v Narrator>down, laying off the entire workforce. <v Narrator>Within days, 600 of the foreign born workers form their <v Narrator>own lodge of the Amalgamated. <v Narrator>By 1892, Homestead had become home to an international working class, <v Narrator>the expanding mail drew Slovaks, Poles and other Eastern Europeans

<v Narrator>just as it had their British, Irish and German coworkers. <v Narrator>Despite the anti-immigrant sentiments which prevailed in western Pennsylvania, <v Narrator>skilled and unskilled union and nonunion, native <v Narrator>and foreign born workers cast their lot together to succeed <v Narrator>or fail as one. <v Narrator>The Amalgamated appointed an advisory committee to direct the workmans actions during <v Narrator>the lockout. For their spokesman, they chose a charismatic young leader, <v Narrator>Hugh O'Donnell. <v Hugh O'Donnell>The committee has decided to organize their forces on a truly military basis. <v Hugh O'Donnell>We will be in touch with every city and hamlet in the United States and we'll hear the <v Hugh O'Donnell>moment. A train of men for the middle leaves other cities. <v Narrator>Newspaper reporters and sketch artists converged on Homestead to see if the nation's

<v Narrator>largest steelmaker and its most militant labor union would come to blows. <v Guest>The locked out men are on picket duty at every possible point of entrance to the works. <v Guest>The country is thoroughly picketed and patrolled for four miles in every direction. <v Guest>No stranger is allowed to remain in town until his credentials have been proved <v Guest>satisfactory. <v Guest>We do not propose that Andrew Carnegie's representative shall bulldoze us. <v Guest>We have our homes in this town. <v Guest>Our churches, our societies and our cemeteries. <v Guest>We are bound to homestead by all the ties that men hold dearest and most sacred. <v Guest>The Carnegie Company has imported men of all nationalities in places that are east <v Guest>of us and west of us and south of us. <v Guest>They never have imported a man into Homestead. <v Guest>And by God, they never will. <v Guest>A suppressed volcano exists among the American workmen.

<v Guest>And someday there will be an uprising that will become history. <v Narrator>The Reverend JJ Miguler here was Homestead's Methodist minister. <v Rev. JJ Miguler>My question is often asked, where would Homestead be <v Rev. JJ Miguler>without the meals? <v Rev. JJ Miguler>Why not ask, where would Andrew Carnegie be without the <v Rev. JJ Miguler>millions he has made from the mills? <v Rev. JJ Miguler>Capitalists should remember that men do not sell their self-respect <v Rev. JJ Miguler>when they sell their labor. <v Narrator>Even Ivy Leaguers absorbed in the weekend's Yale Harvard race follow <v Narrator>the events with increasing alarm. <v Narrator>1892 was a presidential election year, and Homestead posed a <v Narrator>threat to the incumbent Republican Party. <v Narrator>The Republican platform centered around a high tariff policy supported

<v Narrator>by both business and labor. <v Narrator>If the dispute at Homestead could not be settled to the worker's satisfaction, <v Narrator>the party risked losing Labor's vote. <v Guest>July 2nd to The New York Times, the Carnegie Steel Company <v Guest>gave formal notice today that the Homestead mill is to be operated as a nonunion <v Guest>plant. <v Guest>The secretary said any of our old employees may return to work, but they <v Guest>must make application as individuals. <v Guest>All who do not apply will be considered not to desire work, and their places will <v Guest>be filled by Nouman. <v Narrator>On the Fourth of July, Frick's sent a coded cable to Carnegie regarding Plunge, <v Narrator>their codeword for Homestead. <v Henry Frick>Small pond Bonnie Plunge repairing and <v Henry Frick>pony joke watchman arrive.

<v Henry Frick>Plunge. Morning board early. <v Narrator>The following day, Frick's sent a message to the Allegheny County jail. <v Narrator>He asked the sheriff to send 100 deputies to Homestead to secure the mill for nonunion <v Narrator>workers. <v Narrator>The sheriff feared this would cost him workers votes. <v Narrator>But Pittsburgh's political bosses pressured him to do Frick's bidding. <v Narrator>He responded half heartedly, leaving for Homestead with only 12 <v Narrator>men. <v Narrator>When the deputies arrived, the town appeared calm and the mill undamaged. <v Narrator>The Amalgamated volunteered men to be sworn in as deputies, arguing <v Narrator>that the union had a strong interest in protecting the mill. <v Narrator>The sheriff refused, knowing this was not what Frank had in mind.

<v Narrator>Under the circumstances, the advisory committee refused to be held responsible <v Narrator>for the meal and formally disbanded. <v Narrator>As the committee destroyed its records, the sheriff and his men retreated to Pittsburgh <v Narrator>within hours, Frick with Press ahead with his secret plan for the 6th <v Narrator>of July. <v Narrator>At 10 o'clock that night, Pinkerton guards from New York and Chicago <v Narrator>boarded trains for Ohio. <v Narrator>They continued to the outskirts of Pittsburgh, where they boarded barges bound for <v Narrator>Homestead. 50 of the 300 men were Pinkerton <v Narrator>regulars. <v Narrator>Only the officers knew what lay ahead.

<v Narrator>At two a.m., men standing watch down river spotted the barges <v Narrator>as they entered the locks. <v Narrator>One man set off on horseback to warn the townspeople, while the others telegraphed <v Narrator>ahead. <v Speaker A>Homestead, Pennsylvania, July 6th, 1892. <v Speaker A>Like the trumpet of judgment's blew the steam whistle of the electric light works. <v Speaker A>It was the signal for battle, murder and sudden death. <v Speaker A>Not one of the thousands who heard and leaped from their beds to answer its signal <v Speaker A>dreamed of how much blood was to flow in response to its call. <v Speaker A>There was no method, no leadership, a parent. <v Speaker A>It was the uprising of a population, not men alone. <v Speaker A>Women, two women armed with clubs as they joined the throng which streamed <v Speaker A>up the tracks, picking its way with a light footedness born of long practice over the

<v Speaker A>tides. <v Speaker A>The leader of the women, a white haired old Beltram who had seen 40 strikes in her long <v Speaker A>life, strode to the front and brandished the hand barely, which she always keeps about <v Speaker A>her house for just such emergencies. <v Speaker A>Clear as a bell. Far above the roar of the angry crowd came the voice of Hugh O'Donnell <v Speaker A>as hapless and coatless. He tried to check the angry men. <v Protester>It cuts down my good fellow feedback. <v Protester>Pressed down and force them to tomato. <v Narrator>But the crowd surged forward. <v Narrator>Frick's wooden fortress crumbled like paper and hundreds rushed on to the mill <v Narrator>site to confront the Pinkertons at the company landing. <v Narrator>A steelworker's son, Billy Foy, walked brazenly toward the tugboat.

<v Narrator>Standing on deck was the Pinkerton captain, Frederick Kinder. <v Protester>Now, man, we are coming ashore to guard these works <v Protester>and we want to come without bloodshed. <v Protester>There are 300 men behind me and you cannot stop us. <v Protester>Come on. If you come, you come over to my carcus [shooting] <v Narrator>No one knows who fired first. <v Narrator>One bullet struck Billy Foy, another Captain Heindl. <v Speaker A>Then for the first time, the slouch hats took a hand. <v Speaker A>A row of rifles gleaming. <v Speaker A>From the side of the Shorewood vessel and in an instant, more a sheet of flame ran all <v Speaker A>along her clumsy hulk from stem to stern. <v Speaker A>Bad marksmanship has saved one hundred lives here today. <v Narrator>Even so, the first volley proved deadly. <v Narrator>To Pinkerton's and three steelworker's lay mortally wounded,

<v Narrator>dozens more were injured. <v Narrator>O'Donnell escaped with only minor injury. <v Narrator>A bullet grazed his thumb. <v Narrator>But the first shots dashed his hopes of making peace. <v Narrator>The show of force from the barges had released years of pent up rage. <v Narrator>Women and children were forced from the mill site and the men prepared for battle. <v Narrator>O'Donnell and the other strike leaders retreated to Amalgamated headquarters. <v Narrator>With their captain down, the Pinkerton's panicked. <v Narrator>Despite the lull in the fighting, they made no move to seize the mill site. <v Narrator>Instead, they placed Hind and the other wounded guards on the tugboat. <v Narrator>Little bill to be taken to a hospital in Bradham. <v Speaker A>By the time that the little bill was under way for Braddick, the MILLIARD was a series of

<v Speaker A>rifle pits. The bridge trestle girders, heaps of scrap <v Speaker A>iron and half opened doors of the various mills and shops were filled with men <v Speaker A>skilled in the use of arms and burying them in their hands. <v Speaker A>Not one of them from the smooth faced boys who seemed to prevail in numbers. <v Speaker A>Two huge mustached old steel workers who had drawn Carnegie's pay for half <v Speaker A>their lives had any more compunction about killing a Pinkerton than they had about <v Speaker A>stamping on a mill rat. <v Speaker A>The sun rose gloriously and from a distance, the day was serene and quiet as a Sunday, <v Speaker A>Jack Morris stood up at the pumping station and looked out the window. <v Speaker A>A moment later, a Pinkerton ball pierced his four head and he fell headlong out of the <v Speaker A>window and 40 feet below, his bones were broken on the shore. <v Narrator>Morris's companions carried him home to his widow.

<v Narrator>The sight of his shattered bodies sparked cries for revenge. <v Narrator>Seeing the impossibility of controlling the situation. <v Narrator>Sheriff McCleery wired Governor Paterson requesting assistance from the state <v Narrator>militia. <v Narrator>Workers votes had been crucial to Patterson's election and he declined to <v Narrator>intervene. <v Narrator>By mid-morning, the strikers had witnessed so much blood. <v Narrator>They were determined to make the Pinkerton's pay. <v Narrator>They fired an old civil war cannon, then poured burning oil on the river, <v Narrator>hoping to ignite the barges. <v Narrator>The Pinkertons knew they couldn't hold out much longer. <v Pinkerton>We were pinned in like rats. Four times we put up a flag of troops and four times we shot

<v Pinkerton>away. And then we're crazy with Frank crying like babies. <v Pinkerton>Those in charge were the worst of the lot. <v Speaker A>A tall, brawny workman waved two sticks of dynamite high above his head. <v Speaker A>Men of Homestead and fellow strikers. <v Speaker A>Our brothers have been shot down before our eyes by hired thugs. <v Speaker A>Younger in these boats are hundreds of men who have murdered our friends and would ravage <v Speaker A>our homes. Not one must escape alive as he spoke. <v Speaker A>He flourished the dynamite. <v Speaker A>A score of men raised their clubs and followed him. <v Speaker A>They were not savages. <v Speaker A>They were good, strong men wrought up by the sight of blood and ready <v Speaker A>to take the lives of those who threatened them and theirs. <v Narrator>At last, the amalgamated leaders returned to the battle site. <v Narrator>O'Donnell urged the reluctant crowd to accept a Pinkerton's surrender. <v Narrator>They agreed, but only on the condition that the guards be turned over to the sheriff

<v Narrator>and charged with murder. <v Pinkerton>It was a relief to us when we saw a man coming down the banks, holding up his hands to <v Pinkerton>us. He told us that we had better give in and we agreed with him <v Pinkerton>as soon as was announced that we would surrender. <v Pinkerton>The strikers came down upon us. <v Pinkerton>They took our money, our traveling bags and our watches and then clubbed us. <v Pinkerton>We were driven ashore on the mast of the town with something horrible. <v Pinkerton>We were clubbed at every step. Sticks, stones and dirt were thrown at us. <v Pinkerton>The women pulled us down, spat in our faces, kicked us and tore clothing off while the <v Pinkerton>crowd jeered and cheered. <v Pinkerton>Our dead and wounded were carried on litters and they were maltreated as well as the rest <v Pinkerton>of us. <v Pinkerton>I don't know how we ever manage to climb that hill in the jail. <v Pinkerton>It was a relief when we finally reached their more dead than alive. <v Narrator>After a decade of Pinkerton victories.

<v Narrator>Ordinary people had finally even the score. <v Narrator>But 10 men lay dying. <v Narrator>And the outcome of the strike was as uncertain as ever. <v Speaker A>The forces of the 19th century are capital and labor united. <v Speaker A>They transformed the desert into a garden. <v Speaker A>In collision, they convert the garden into a waste. <v Narrator>There was no celebrating in Homestead. <v Narrator>The day after the battle, everyone expected more Pinkerton's to arrive. <v Narrator>McLucky closed the saloons and the townspeople remained armed and vigilant <v Narrator>as they buried their dead.

<v Narrator>The slain men were laid to rest on the hill above town. <v Narrator>Most of the laborers were placed in unmarked graves. <v Narrator>Jack Morris had been a member of the International Order of Oddfellows. <v Narrator>He was buried in the societies plot. <v Narrator>Reverend Miguler gave the eulogy. <v Rev. JJ Miguler>This town has been bathed in blood and tears, and <v Rev. JJ Miguler>it was all brought on by that one man, Carnegie's manager. <v Rev. JJ Miguler>He was the only man with little enough blood to do it. <v Rev. JJ Miguler>There is no more sensibility in that man than there is in a toad. <v Rev. JJ Miguler>Of what use can combinations of capital and trusts be without

<v Rev. JJ Miguler>the broad shoulders and horny hands of the toilers? <v Rev. JJ Miguler>These are the bone and sinew of the land. <v Rev. JJ Miguler>These are they that make its wealth and give it its prosperity. <v Narrator>The county coroner's office listed another six workman dead as a result <v Narrator>of the battle. <v Narrator>The last to die was George Rutter, civil war veteran and a longtime <v Narrator>union activist. <v Narrator>At 46 years old, he had already outlived most of the steelworkers of his generation. <v Narrator>There were three confirmed Pinkerton deaths, but the papers reported that a fourth <v Narrator>man committed suicide as a result of his experiences on the 6th of July. <v Narrator>The remaining guards escaped the unions plan to have them charged with murder.

<v Narrator>The sheriff gave in to political pressure and put them on an eastbound train <v Narrator>in the early morning hours of July 7th. <v Narrator>Henry Clay Frick was conspicuously absent from the battle site. <v Narrator>He remained in his office smoking cigars and refused to meet with the amalgamates <v Narrator>president who was ready to concede almost anything to stop the <v Narrator>fighting. <v Narrator>When Carnegie learned of the battle, he wired Frick from Scotland. <v Andrew Carnige>All anxiety gone since you stand firm, never employ one of these rioters, <v Andrew Carnige>let grass grow over the works. <v Narrator>The events at Homestead prompted Congress to hold hearings. <v Narrator>The Pinkerton agency was already under investigation for its role in

<v Narrator>suppressing strikes nationwide. <v Narrator>Has Congress convened its hearings on Homestead, Pinkerton's were battling <v Narrator>workers once again in the Idaho mining town of Cordelia. <v Narrator>Anti tariff Democrats lambasted corporations for using hired <v Narrator>guns to settle their labor disputes. <v Narrator>One senator asserted that large companies should be looked upon as public entities <v Narrator>with the owners rights subject to the rights of their workers. <v Narrator>The iron and steel industry was outraged. <v Speaker A>The issue has developed not into a question of wages, but into the recognition of a <v Speaker A>principle whether the owner of works has a right to manage them himself <v Speaker A>subject to the law. There is no greater or more arrogant tyrant than <v Speaker A>organized labor when it is powerful enough to enforce its decrees. <v Narrator>Labor came out to champion the homestead strikers, workmen rallied in

<v Narrator>Chicago and New York and hundreds of dollars in donations poured <v Narrator>in. <v Narrator>Forty five hundred workers at Carnegie's Mills in Pittsburgh, Dukane in Beaver <v Narrator>Falls struck in sympathy with the locked out men. <v Narrator>At the best restaurant in Homestead, the cook and waitresses refused to serve. <v Narrator>Suspected strikebreakers, they walked off the job when the town became so <v Narrator>crowded they could no longer tell who was who. <v Narrator>Andrew Carnegie confined himself to the remote fishing lodge he had rented for two <v Narrator>thousand dollars a week when the press finally located him. <v Narrator>He had little to say. <v Andrew Carnige>I must positively declined to enter into any discussion of the case. <v Andrew Carnige>The news grieved me more than I can tell you.

<v Andrew Carnige>It came upon me like a thunderbolt in a clear sky. <v Narrator>In New York City, two Russian anarchists had been following the news <v Narrator>from Homestead. <v Narrator>Alexander Burkemen and Emma Goldman were certain that American workers were on the brink <v Narrator>of revolution. <v Narrator>They believed that violence was justified in the fight against exploitation. <v Narrator>The events at Homestead were beckoning them to act on their beliefs. <v Narrator>Just days after the battle, Burkeman boarded a train for Pittsburgh. <v Narrator>Goldman stayed behind. <v Emma Goldman>His face spent low to mine land. <v Emma Goldman>He whispered, Comrade, you will be with me to the last. <v Emma Goldman>You will proclaim that I gave what was dearest to me for an

<v Emma Goldman>ideal for the great suffering people. <v Narrator>Berkman had only 15 dollars in his pocket within the week. <v Narrator>Goldman would wire him another 20 to purchase a new suit and a gun. <v Alexander Brookman>The country looks young and alluring in the early morning sunshine, <v Alexander Brookman>but my thoughts are busy with Homestead. <v Alexander Brookman>The removal of a tyrant is not merely justifiable. <v Alexander Brookman>It is the highest duty of every revolutionist. <v Alexander Brookman>Human life is indeed sacred and inviolate. <v Alexander Brookman>But the killing of a tyrant, of an enemy of the people is in no way to be considered <v Alexander Brookman>as the taking of a life. <v Narrator>As Berkman's train sped toward Pittsburgh, an order flashed across the wires. <v Robert E. Patterson>Put the division under arms and move at once with ammunition to the support

<v Robert E. Patterson>of the sheriff of Allegheny County at Homestead, Robert E. <v Robert E. Patterson>Patterson. Governor. <v Narrator>Pittsburgh's political bosses had been pressuring the governor, given the sheriff's <v Narrator>failure to gain control of the mill. <v Narrator>Patterson agreed to call out the state militia. <v Narrator>The Amalgamated and the local government had continued to patrol the town and <v Narrator>maintain order after the battle, even going so far as to repair Frick's fence. <v Narrator>But they were not prepared for the arrival of troops. <v Protester>You must show the world that you desire to maintain the peace along <v Protester>with your rights. Come the soldiers. <v Protester>They are our friends. <v Protester>Don't you believe it, man? <v Protester>They are coming here because that damn murderer frequents wants them. <v Protester>We have made the damn company rich and now they send the soldiers here to shoot us down <v Protester>like the Pinkerton thugs have tried to give.

<v Protester>There is a good deal of truth and what the brother before me said. <v Protester>I'm afraid it's bad to let them in. <v Protester>The blacklegs might be hiding in the rear. <v Protester>But then again, you can't stand up against them. <v Protester>They are not Pinkerton's and we can't fight the government of <v Protester>Pennsylvania. <v Narrator>The following morning on July 12, the entire community stood <v Narrator>ready at the train station. <v Narrator>They had prepared an elaborate welcome, hoping to convince the soldiers to defend <v Narrator>their rights rather than the companies. <v Narrator>Two hours later, General Snowdon and 8000 troops finally appeared. <v Narrator>But not as expected. <v Narrator>Avoiding the homestead station, the soldiers debarked outside of town, <v Narrator>marched in on foot and immediately surrounded the male.

<v Narrator>With the troops in town, the Carnegie Company was able to begin operations <v Narrator>managers and clerks pitched in from the start. <v Narrator>Bunkhouses and canteen's were built for the new workforce. <v Narrator>With few exceptions, former employees were not among the new <v Narrator>hires. <v Hugh O'Donnell>Mr. Carnegie may be able to get nonunion laborers, but without roller's <v Hugh O'Donnell>heaters, sharers, cutters and other skilled workmen, the mills cannot start. <v Hugh O'Donnell>And it is this class of men who will hold out till the last. <v Narrator>Contrary to O'Donnell's prediction, on July 15th, smoke could be <v Narrator>seen rising from the Homestead mill for the first time since the lockout. <v Narrator>Thanks to the mill's high degree of mechanization, the new unskilled workforce <v Narrator>was producing steel. <v Narrator>On July twenty third, Henry Clay Frick returned from lunch to finish off a routine

<v Narrator>day's work. <v Narrator>Posing as an employment agent, Alexander Berkman had been trying to see him all morning. <v Narrator>Outside Frick's office, the anarchists nervously paced the hall by two o'clock. <v Narrator>He could no longer stand the wait. <v Narrator>He pushed his way into Frick's office and fired two shots. <v Alexander Brookman>Dead, I wonder. <v Alexander Brookman>I must be sure. <v Alexander Brookman>My eyes meet Frick's. <v Alexander Brookman>His face is ashen and gray. <v Alexander Brookman>Blood is losing from his neck. <v Alexander Brookman>A strange feeling of shame comes over me. <v Alexander Brookman>But the next moment, I am filled with anger at this sentiment so unworthy of a <v Alexander Brookman>revolutionist. <v Narrator>A crowd gathered, as Burkemen was restrained behind the second story window <v Narrator>when the doctors arrived. <v Narrator>Frick refused anesthesia in order to help them locate and remove the bullets. <v Narrator>Then he signed some letters before leaving for home.

<v Narrator>The attempt on Frick's life shocked the nation, <v Narrator>but the man himself remained unshaken. <v Henry Frick>I do not think I shall die. <v Henry Frick>But whether I do or not, the company will pursue the same policy <v Henry Frick>and it will win. <v Pinkerton>Three cheers for the man who shot Frick. <v Narrator>Private W L Ines, a young militia man stationed in Homestead, <v Narrator>applauded Berkman's act. <v Narrator>His commanding officer did not tolerate his candor items <v Narrator>was strung up by the thumbs until he lost consciousness, then drummed out <v Narrator>of town with his head shaved. <v Narrator>In a fashionable section of Pittsburgh, Frick lay in bed recovering from his <v Narrator>wounds.

<v Narrator>Across the hall, Mrs. Frick convalescing as well. <v Narrator>Two days after the battle, she had given birth to a son. <v Narrator>Neither mother nor child was well. <v Narrator>Despite his doctor's orders to rest, Frick continued to attend to company <v Narrator>business and to personally supervise the situation in Homestead. <v Narrator>The Republican Party fear that the crisis would endanger President Harrison's reelection. <v Narrator>They sent party regular John Milholland to meet with Frank. <v John Milholland>Arriving in Pittsburgh, I learned that the Iron Master was in bed, still suffering <v John Milholland>severely from the effects of his wounds. <v John Milholland>Entirely courteous. Mr. Frick made it clear that even if Mr. Carnegie's

<v John Milholland>consent was reinforced by the Cabinet, the Senate and the House of Representatives, <v John Milholland>he Frick would not deviate one iota from the lines he <v John Milholland>had laid out to follow. <v John Milholland>His powerful jaws came together like a steel trap when he referred to <v John Milholland>the murderous exhibitions of the strikers. <v John Milholland>Yet as he lay there as white, almost as the sheet itself, I <v John Milholland>realized that I was talking to a man of absolute nerve with a will of <v John Milholland>iron, one who knew his own mind and indulged in no illusions <v John Milholland>as to the difficulties in the way of carrying out his purposes. <v Narrator>On August 3rd, Frick's newborn son died. <v Narrator>A link between the battle and the infant's death formed in the public's mind. <v Narrator>It brought sympathy to the grieving father whose own life had been endangered. <v Narrator>The Amalgamated denounced Burkeman even before the assassination attempt.

<v Narrator>The union had thrown several anarchists out of town for agitating among the strikers. <v Narrator>Still, the public held the people of Homestead responsible for the shooting. <v Narrator>O'Donnell feared the worst. <v Hugh O'Donnell>It would seem that the bullet from Bachman's pistol failing and its foul intent. <v Hugh O'Donnell>Went straight through the heart of the homestead strike. <v Narrator>The strikers were also facing a legal assault. <v Narrator>The company had had warrants issued for McLucky ODonnell and five other <v Narrator>men charging them with the murders of two Pinkerton guards during the battle <v Narrator>on July six. <v Narrator>McLucky, who had worked hard to keep Homestead's sober, surrendered at the courthouse <v Narrator>in a state of drunken bravado. <v Narrator>He was locked up and bail was set at ten thousand dollars, severely <v Narrator>straining the union's resources.

<v Narrator>By the end of October 2000, men were at work in the mill. <v Narrator>Two hundred of them were former employees. <v Narrator>In spite of continued support from across the nation. <v Narrator>The unity of the forces at Homestead began to crumble. <v Narrator>During the first week of November, many of the nonunionized mechanics deserted <v Narrator>the amalgamated. Winter was fast approaching and a settlement <v Narrator>seemed unlikely. <v Narrator>Black workers traditionally excluded from steel making it homestead <v Narrator>were brought into the mill by company agents, although they represented <v Narrator>a small fraction of the nonunion workforce. <v Narrator>They were singled out for attack. <v Narrator>Hundreds of townspeople vented their frustration in a vicious riot that

<v Narrator>ended with calls for lynching. <v Narrator>On November 8th, Americans went to the polls and voted for the Democratic challenger, <v Narrator>Grover Cleveland, as the Republicans had feared. <v Narrator>President Harrison and his high tariff policy were defeated. <v Narrator>On November 18th, Sylvester Critchlow became the first home's dead man to go <v Narrator>to trial. The jury deliberated for just one hour before returning its <v Narrator>verdict. <v Narrator>Not guilty, but the strikers vindication came too late. <v Narrator>While Critchlow sat on trial, two thousand mechanics and laborers proposed <v Narrator>that the union call an end to the strike. <v Narrator>At first, the union man balked at the thought of giving in. <v Narrator>But after two days of dispirited debate, many were convinced that holding

<v Narrator>out would be futile by a narrow margin. <v Narrator>They voted to end the strike. <v Speaker A>Strike declared off yesterday. <v Speaker A>Our victory is now complete and most gratifying. <v Andrew Carnige>Life worth living again. <v Andrew Carnige>The first Tuppy Morton since July. <v Narrator>The following day, over two thousand strikers lined up at the Millgate. <v Narrator>Only 406 were rehired. <v Narrator>The strike organizers were barred from working in the mill and the company <v Narrator>circulated a blacklist that kept them out of the industry nationwide. <v Narrator>O'Donnell became a reporter and moved to Chicago.

<v Narrator>Alexander Burkeman spent 14 years in prison before rejoining the anarchist <v Narrator>movement. He and Emma Goldman were deported to Russia in <v Narrator>1919. <v Narrator>McLucky remained a political organizer, but his work was sporadic and <v Narrator>poorly paid. <v Narrator>He eventually settled in Mexico and took a job on the Sonora Railway. <v Narrator>By the close of 1892, the Amalgamated had lost <v Narrator>its jurisdiction in all the Carnegie Mills. <v Narrator>A decade later, the union had been driven from every major steel plant <v Narrator>in the nation. <v Narrator>Unionism in the steel industry had been crushed at Homestead. <v Narrator>Before disbanding the homestead, men issued this statement.

<v Homstead Men>The most evident characteristic of our time and country is the control <v Homstead Men>of each of our great national industries by one or a few men. <v Homstead Men>It is a power which though expressed as the right of employers to manage their business, <v Homstead Men>to suit themselves, is coming to mean nothing less than the right to manage <v Homstead Men>the country, to suit themselves. <v Narrator>In the year following the battle, 10 more states enacted laws banning <v Narrator>the use of private armies. <v Narrator>Businesses increasingly relied on state militias to quell their labor disputes. <v Narrator>Long after his retirement, Frick continued to defend his role in the strike. <v Henry Frick>The demands of modern life called for such work as ours. <v Henry Frick>And if we had not met the demands, others would have done so.

<v Henry Frick>Even without us, the steel industry of the country would have been just as great as it <v Henry Frick>is, the old man would have used other names in speaking of its leaders. <v Narrator>Homestead haunted Andrew Carnegie to the end of his days. <v Narrator>He had built himself a reputation as a friend of the working man, but he <v Narrator>could not wash his hands of the blood spilled on July six. <v Narrator>He would return to Homestead in 1898 to present the town with a library. <v Narrator>His employees who worked 12 hour days, seven days a week. <v Narrator>Found little time to use it. <v David P. Demarest>On the flats close to the water's edge, there were masses of great <v David P. Demarest>sheds sealed off, which Grimm's smokestacks rose with a desolate effect. <v David P. Demarest>Higher up, the tenement houses stood in dingy rows, alternating with vacant

<v David P. Demarest>blocks. <v David P. Demarest>The sidewalks were sunken sway. <v David P. Demarest>Full of holes everywhere, the yellow mud of the street lay needed into <v David P. Demarest>a sticky mass through which the groups of pale lane men slouched <v David P. Demarest>in faded garments, grimy with the soot and grease the mills. <v Narrator>This description of Holmestead appeared less than two years after the strike. <v Narrator>Another four decades would pass before the creation of industrial unions <v Narrator>would substantially improve the lives of Homestead's workers. <v David P. Demarest>But, oh, it was awful that day at the homestead when the river ran

<v David P. Demarest>red on its way to the sea. <v David P. Demarest>When brave men were falling and women were weeping and riot <v David P. Demarest>was king of the land of the free.