Our rule never to employ new men,
but to wait for the old to return, had not been violated so far. In
regard to the second opening of the works, after the strikers had shot
the sheriff's officers, it is also easy to look back and say, "How
much better had the works been closed until the old men voted to
return"; but the Governor of Pennsylvania, with eight thousand troops,
had meanwhile taken charge of the situation.
I was traveling in the Highlands of Scotland when the trouble arose,
and did not hear of it until two days after. Nothing I have ever had
to meet in all my life, before or since, wounded me so deeply. No
pangs remain of any wound received in my business career save that of
Homestead. It was so unnecessary. The men were outrageously wrong. The
strikers, with the new machinery, would have made from four to nine
dollars a day under the new scale--thirty per cent more than they were
making with the old machinery. While in Scotland I received the
following cable from the officers of the union of our workmen:
"Kind master, tell us what you wish us to do and we shall do it for
you."
This was most touching, but, alas, too late. The mischief was done,
the works were in the hands of the Governor; it was too late.
I received, while abroad, numerous kind messages from friends
conversant with the circumstances, who imagined my unhappiness.
Pages:
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311