Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1892 — GREAT SHUT-DOWN. [ARTICLE]

GREAT SHUT-DOWN.

One-Hundred and Fifty Thousand Men Quit Work. two Hundred Iron-Works Closed—The Cause of AU the Trouble—Carnegie’s Great Combine. When the clock tolled twelve on th* night of June 30, and the first day of July made its appearance, nearly one hundred and fifty thousand workmen at Pittsburg, | Pa., who had toiled almost incessantly the past year were out of * employment, The j scales in force during the year expired at midnight, and in all mills, tho proprietors | which have not signed the scalo for the | ensuing year, work ceased . entirely at that tiffie. Another class of workmen accepted their release with comparative pleasure. These ywere the employed of various glass factories throughout the United States, On the last- day of June of each year the glass factories all shut down, according to custom, for from four to eight weeks, to make repairs, lay in stock, etc. The men employed in those places look forward to this annual shut down with great satisfaction. The glasshouse workers are only idle temporarily, and will resume their old positions at the next fire. It has also been tho enstom for several years past for the iron and steel masters to adlppt similar policy to the glass manufactflrers, and : heretofore they have closed their mills for two weeks, beginning with the first Monday in July. That such a custom must prevail was embodied iii a rule of the Amalgamated Association, which has been abrogated, and all manufacturers can run their mills continuously, providing the scale has been signed by them. , The number of iron and steel mills that closed down on the Ist is estimated at upwards of 400. There are 460 rolling mills in the United States, 425 of whHth have trains of rolls connected with their establishments. Tweuty-iivo or fifty of these have- been in operation till Thursday night. Nearly 30Q are situated west of the Allegheny mountains.. . Quite a number of these have signed the scale, leaving abouc 250 mills which are at present lying idle. These employ upw&:4s of 100,000 men. The number of glass factories which are not in Operation is placed at two hundred, and tho men are estimated at nearly fifty thousand. On and after July Ist tbs extensive operations in iron and steei, formerly conducted under the firm name of Carnegie’s Brothers & Co. (limited); Allegheny Bessemer Steel Company, and the Keystone Bridge Company, the Edgar Thomson furnaces, the Edgar Thompson steelworks, Duquesne steel-frorks, Homestead steel-works, Lucy furnaces, Keystone Rridgo-wo rks, Upper Union mills, Lower Union mills, Beaver Falls mills, Scioto or« mines, Larimer coke-works and Youghiogheny coke works will be carried on by the Carnegie Steel Company, limited. The general offices of the sew firm will be in this city, while the branch offices are situated in all the principal cities of the’ United States. None of the details of the transaction will be made public by the j firm at present, and they will wait until the troubles at their works are settled before filing the papers of record. The capital will be $25,000,000. The company will haye in its employ upward of forty thousand men. '