Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1892 — STRIKES ARE COSTLY. [ARTICLE]

STRIKES ARE COSTLY.

A Pittsburg special of;the 29th says: The great ldckout at Homestead is just one month old and has already cost oxer $1,C0),000, bosides the sacrifice of half a score of human lixes-anxi serious injuries to many times that number. Of the. cost ih cash, tlie military hgs cost in round figures $320,000; the "workmen havo lost In wages SIBO,OOO, and tho Carnegies have lost and spent as much more in getting r.oiv workmen. The workmen at Beaver Falls, Duquosno and tire Union mills in Pittsburg havo lo3t aboutsloo,ooo in wages by their sympathetic strike, and the firm is out SIOO,OOO by the idleness of its plants. Added to this will bo tlie county expenses, for deputy sheriffs and murder trials, the

expense to the city for the arrests, audthe Nation for tho Congressional investigation, Another item of no mean significance is the loss to workman and manufacturers in plants Indirectly affected, which havo been forced to close down for want of material. The locked-out workmen havo not as yet been deprived of any or tho necessaries of life, and if tho strike should last several weeks yet there is no danger of any of'the workmen’s families coming to actual want.

Tho Carnegie. Steel Company has prepared a scale for the Union mills and the Beaver Falls plant, which the new men or those of tho former employes who return to work, will bo required to sign. The scale will extend to January, 1894, jand the wages iflU be the samo as .paid the amalgamatedi workirien, but no association will be recognized. The tires have been started in the Union mills, and work will probebly be resumed iu a few days. The strikers are quiet, and no trouble is anticipated. There have been no attempts made as- yet to .resume at I>uquesno or Beaver Falls, and none will be made until the Homestead and Union plauts are in full operation. The trouble with the transportation men at the Edgar Thompson works, Braddock, was settled by Manager Shwab, and the men have returned to work.

the Homestead plant the force Is being steadily increased. Nearly one hundred now men wero sent up on tho Tide Thursday. An Associated Press reporter went through the works 'Thursday and found fully seven hundred men at work. The men are very intelligent, and not a few are college graduates, who, attracted by the reports of high wages in the steel works, prefer learning* trade to settling down to the doubtful expediency of a profession fora livelihood. There a*e, besides, a number of experienced mechanical engineers, who exhibited theirceriificates, • n i really seemed to handle the ponderous machinery very easily. Three heavy plates were rolled before the reporters eyes, and seemingly with as little friction as in any rolling mill. Work is being especially directed toward the naval contracts, and Mr. Fitter says there will be little or no delay fn furnishing the material.