It had also the contract to furnish
material for the Chicago Exhibition. Some of the leaders of the men,
knowing these conditions, insisted upon demanding the whole sixty per
cent, thinking the firm would be compelled to give it. The firm could
not agree, nor should it have agreed to such an attempt as this to
take it by the throat and say, "Stand and deliver." It very rightly
declined. Had I been at home nothing would have induced me to yield to
this unfair attempt to extort.
Up to this point all had been right enough. The policy I had pursued
in cases of difference with our men was that of patiently waiting,
reasoning with them, and showing them that their demands were unfair;
but never attempting to employ new men in their places--never. The
superintendent of Homestead, however, was assured by the three
thousand men who were not concerned in the dispute that they could run
the works, and were anxious to rid themselves of the two hundred and
eighteen men who had banded themselves into a union and into which
they had hitherto refused to admit those in other departments--only
the "heaters" and "rollers" of steel being eligible.
My partners were misled by this superintendent, who was himself
misled. He had not had great experience in such affairs, having
recently been promoted from a subordinate position.
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