Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 118

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1192

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about thirty others. This act roused the mob to frenzy, and they gathered in around the troops who assembled in the roundhouse. The mob proceeded to burn them out. Cars loaded with oil were set on fire and sent down the track to the building. A piece of artillery in possession of the mob was trained upon the roundhouse and several volleys were fired. The appeals of General Brinton for the mob to desist were unheeded, whereupon he ordered a detail of soldiers to fire upon the men in charge of the cannon. This was done, and several were killed and wounded. The mob was checked by this act, but they still continued to surround and threaten the soldiers. The reign of terror now commenced. Trains of cars were rifled and burned. The troops continued to hold their position until Sunday morning, when they retreated to Sharpsburg and encamped. They were followed by several thousand persons, who occasionally fired upon them. During Saturday night and Sunday morning the mob had almost total possession of the city. They broke open several armories and gun stores to supply themselves with arms and ammunition. Banks and other depositories of treasure were in danger of being pillaged. On Sunday morning the roundhouse and the locomotives therein were burned. The Union Depot, the Pan-Handle Depot, the Adams Express building, the Grain Elevator and other buildings were also destroyed by fire. The fire department was prevented from extinguishing the flames. At this time the mob seemed to be without leader, organization or prudence, and was composed of the worst elements of the city. At a meeting called by the mayor to enroll 500 special police, few were found willing to assume the responsibility. This proved that, although the people generally deprecated the lawlessness of the mob, they sympathized thoroughly with the strikers, or were afraid to oppose them. The reign of terror continued from Saturday night until Monday morning, during which time innumerable acts of lawlessness were committed. On Monday morning a meeting of the citizens was held, and a committee of public safety appointed. An address was issued which did much to quiet the mob. Negotiations were opened with the rioters, and gradually rioting and lawlessness were suppressed. A large force of citizens was enrolled, and several thousand troops were ordered to Pittsburg by the Governor. This measure served the purpose of gradually dispersing the rioters. In addition to the property mentioned there were burned 1,383 freight cars, 104 locomotives and 66 passenger coaches. The county commissioners afterward settled all claims for $2,772,349.53, of which sum $1,600,000 was paid to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Twenty-five persons were killed during the riot.

In 1889 a severe strike, accompanied with bloodshed, was conducted by the employes of the Carnegie Company at Homestead, but a peace was estab- lished on the basis of a sliding scale of wages. In 1892 the market price of steel billets dropped from $28 to $22, whereupon the wages of employes under the sliding scale were reduced. Both sides were arbitary and persistent. Three ques- tions of great importance were involved: (I) A reduction in the minimum of the sliding schedule from $25 to $23 per ton for Bessemer steel billets; (2) A change in the date of the expiration of the scale from June 30th to December 3Ist; (3) A reduction in the tonnage rates at the mills where the introduction of labor-saving machinery had greatly increased the earnings of the employes. Numerous meetings were held, but no settlement satisfactory to both sides could be obtained. The crisis was reached July Ist when the strikers took pos- session of the Carnegie works, and refused all persons, including the owners, admission thereto without a permit from the advisory committee. At the request of the owners the sheriff endeavored to gain possession of the works, but his deputies were threatened and his notices torn down. Three hundred watchmen sent by him to gain the works were met a mile from town and fired upon

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repeatedly and prevented from landing. They returned the fire, and several were killed and wounded on both sides. He insisted on doing his duty, but the leaders of the strikers professed to see no reason for his interference, as no violence had occurred. The company insisted on the right to occupy and operate their works; on their right to use force, if necessary, to regain possession, and on their right to hire non-union men. The strikers took the position that no non-union men should operatc the works; that the strikers themselves wcre entitled to say how much they should be paid, and that the works should not start at all until a settlement had been reached upon the basis of their demands. Mr. McCleary, the sheriff, made cvery endeavor to adjust the difficulty and place the owners in possession of their works, until July roth, when he reported to Governor Pat- tison that he could do no more. He had madc every endeavor to secure a posse of the citizens, but was unable to do so, as none wished to become involved in the difficulty. Governor Pattison called out the National Guard of the State, and ordered 8,000 men, under General Snowden, to place the company in possession of their works. On July 12th General Snowden, at the head of 3,000 soldiers, with 5,000 more in reserve, marched to Homestead and took pos- session of the grounds without the slightest interference from the strikers. In fact the latter wished to give the soldiers a grand and formal reception, but this offer was curtly refused by the commander. The 300 watchmen sent to regain possession of the works were in the employ of Pinkerton. This outside interference was resisted to the utmost by the strikers, who determined that the "Pinkertons," as they were called, should never see the works. A hot fire was opened upon them from the river banks, and when they attempted to land every man was shot down as soon as he tried to leave the barges. The strikers barricaded the adjacent streets and houses and poured a continuous and deadly fire upon the boats, even when no one was in sight. The Pinkertons were at last compelled to surrender, and many of them were abused shamefully when they left the boats. The soldiers remained in possession until all danger was passed. Gradually the strikers went back to work. Eleven persons were killed and many were wounded during this memorable strike. The leaders of the strikers were indicted for murder, but no convictions resulted. Of the 3,800 men on the pay-roll of the company at the Homestead works, the strike was really inaugurated by about 325 who had received, it was afterward shown, daily wages varying from $6 to $10. The strike was unquestionably the result of the inflammatory views and doctrines of the walking delegates and leaders. It may be said to have terminated in the attack of the anarchist Berkmann upon Henry C. Frick, of the Carnegie Company. Though taken wholly by surprise and severely wounded by revolver and knife, Mr. Frick succeeded, with the help of Mr. Leishman, in overpowering the assassin and turning him over to the police. Berkmann was sent to the penitentiary for a short term.

The Allegheny Observatory is well known to the scientific world. It stands on Observatory Hill, 400 feet above the rivers, and is well supplied with instruments and apparatus. The observatory had been for a number of years in charge of Professor James E. Keeler, but in March, 1897, he was appointed a director of Lick Observatory, Mount Washington. John H. Brashear's fac- tory of astronomical instruments stands near the observatory.

Intense feeling has been kindled in Pittsburg in recent years over the ques- tion of municipal government. The matter culminated for the time being in 1897 by an attempt to put through the Legislature a new charter for the Pitts- burg municipality. The movement was supported by the Civic Federation and opposed by local office-holders and their friends. The Legislature failed to pass the bills desired.

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The most remarkable circumstance in the recent history of Pittsburg and environs is the consolidation of capital and interests, and the consequent tend- ency toward a suppression of competition. It is a common occurrence for several concerns engaged in the same pursuit to pool issues and interests, even to the extent of a restraint of both trade and competition. When once the market is secured prices can be placed at any figure the pool desires. This will undoubtedly lead in the end to prudent legislation directed against monopoly. All such concerns will be compelled to incorporate and place a portion of their stock in the hands of many citizens, as is done in effect by the Dollar Savings Bank.

CHAPTER XXXV.

RESOURCES AND NATURAL ADVANTAGES OF PITTSBURG-1TS LOCATION-ITS RE- SOURCES AS A MANUFACTURING CENTER - IT'S TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES AND COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE-PICTURESQUE

SURROUNDINGS AND SOCIAL ATTRACTIONS.

The business of mankind is divided among three grand divisions, sometimes called worlds and occasionally kingdoms. These divisions are Agriculture, Com- merce and. Manufacturing, the latter including mining. The familiar symbols representing these great industries are figured upon the coat-of-arms of many States of the American Union, and are in striking contrast with the lions, eagles and castles emblazoned on the escutcheons of European States. They signify that America speaks for civilization, progress and peace in contrast with the armaments of Europe, which do not belie the emblems of the nations which they were created to serve.

Strange, it now appcars, Pennsylvania in her heraldry recognizes but two worlds for human exploit. Her ship, her plow, and her three sheaves of wheat, standing for commerce and agriculture. Manufacture was omitted, but this was to have been expected when it is recalled that good, pious William Penn brought the bricks with him from England to build his house on Letitia Street in Philadelphia. He might have been told there was clay in the great province deeded to him by Charles; but he was not a man to take chances. However, this exploit of his was fully paralleled several generations later by the first enter- prising merchants of Chicago, who imported wheat and flour from Erie, in this State.

While speaking of kingdoms a word should be said of the kings. We have seen King Cotton dethroned and King Wheat installed in his stead, with his royal court in Chicago, for the present. We say at present, because this king- dom is inclined to be peripatetic, and the king must follow the plows and the scythes, and the votes of his subjects may some day determine it to be expedi- ent to locate his throne elsewhere. Duluth, it is said, is already looking out for a suitable place within her borders to unfurl the golden colors. Alexander the Great picked out the island of Pharos, which had before been a den of thieves and pirates, and made it the Eastern world's most famous grain mart, and it remained noted for more than twenty-two centuries, but at last the con- struction of the Suez Canal carried away its scepter.

In Commerce (speaking now of foreign trade) the king dwells where the 'best harbor is found, and may remain as long as his lines of communication with the interior are well maintained. Philadelphia enjoyed the distinction of being the greatest commercial emporium in the Western World until Dewitt Clinton (lug the ditch, yclept a canal, across New York, a work which was a physical impossibility in Pennsylvania, at least to make a canal equal to the present demands of commerce. Consequently New York City captured the prize.

Not so capricious and so dependent upon man's will and energies is the throne of the great King Coal, the master of the wheels, the anvils and the furnaces. His limitations are defined by nature, and his residence, at least his official headquarters, cannot be moved by man's will. This king has a genii

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always at his beck and call whose name is Energy, and its abode is under- ground.

Rebellious subjects sought the gas wells of the West, which proved to be a veritable ignis fatuus. Western Pennsylvania has as good and reliable wells as those they sought for elsewhere. But in the event of their failure, and re- luctantly, it is to be admitted, their failure is certain, King Coal has an inex- haustible supply of the very best fuel which can be shoveled into furnaces, at a cost of about eighty cents per ton. In fact the coal used for producing steam in most mills and factories is nothing more than slack, or the fine coal which was formerly regarded as waste. This costs only about forty cents a ton, which makes it the cheapest fuel in the world. Formerly it was regarded as a great nuisance by miners, as it had to be whecled out and dumped where it would be least in the way. These dumps, or slack piles, often took fire, and sometimes burned slowly for years. Now there is a local demand for every ton of it.

As statistics are forbidden in polite literaturc, we must say nothing about the 15,000 miners and their annual product of 15,000,000 tons of genuine Pitts- burg coal and coke, and as for that miserable slack referred to, no account is taken of it; at the best it is fit only to be cast into furnaces and burned, though formerly it was deposited in mountainous hcaps along the river banks with the hope that the floods would carry it off.

Not long ago an attaché of one of the European embassies visited Pittsburg from Washington, and becoming interested in the fuel question, he was told that coal from the Pittsburg vein was rated as the best general bituminous coal in America. "Ah, yes, that is a local prejudice, I presume. I see that all you Americans are alike." The attaché was right, for the notion of the superior- ity of the Pittsburg coal is a mere American local prejudice. Several millions of tons of it are annually shipped to the Mississippi Valley, as far as New Orleans, and it is burned on steamers plying the Gulf of Mexico; so also from the upper Monongahela it is frequently shipped to Denver, and for special purposes some of it to San Francisco. It makes the gas for St. Louis, Chicago and Milwaukee, as well as for Philadelphia, New York and Washington, and it both lights and warms Cincinnati and Cleveland, and does part of these duties for Buffalo, and Toronto, Canada, and everywhere this "local" prejudice regarding its superiority is entertained.

A company is being organized, it is creditably stated, to ship this coal to Rio de Janeiro, South America, and it is affirmed by Lake Superior and Lake Michigan dealers, who supply the vast coalless areas of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Dakota, that if some cheaper means for its transportation than railroads could be opened up across the neck of 130 miles which separates Pittsburg from the great lakes, Pittsburg would have virtual control of the Northwestern coal trade along the lakes, where there is now consumed 17,000,000 tons of fuel annually, most of which comes from Ohio, Illinois and elsewhere, and much of which Pennsylvania geologists would rate as carboniferous slatc.

The argument has been advanced that this splendid natural resource of Western Pennsylvania, which is to be found in an area of about 3,000 square miles in the southwestern corner of the State, with an equal area alongside of it in Western Virginia, ought to be husbanded at home, and that then all the manufacturing world would center here. King Coal has a warmer heart in him than the advocates of such a proposition imagine. He says to those at a distance, "Like Mahomet's mountain I cannot go to you, but you may come to me and help yourselves. You should know, of course, that no matter how cheap the rates of transportation may become, some time in the future the cheapest rate is still something of a handicap upon many branches of your

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manufacturers. A carload of my like is charged on the railroads at present for a hundred miles as much as it cost to produce it from the bowels of the earth and load it on the cars. This is monstrous, 'tis true, but the railroad people truly affirm that this is the best they can do and live."

Such has been Coal's lifelong belief and desire to serve Americans every- where, but his honest words have not always been believed, and even a rebellion arose about two years ago in opposition to his mandate that all other products should come to him. This rebellion was inaugurated by Mr. Iron Ore, of Lake Superior, backed by the City of Cleveland. Ore protested that he would no longer pay court to Coal, and insisted that Coal must come to him, otherwise no pig-iron or steel would be seen in the markets. Lake Transportation also joined in this fray against Coal, and for a time the dust created by the skirmishers prevented a clear view of the field. It was "life or death for Pittsburg," said many Lake Erie men, and grass, it was prophesied by some of them, would be cut on Smithfield Street. Finally, however, the cloud raised and the picture dis- closed showed four new gigantic furnaces on the Monongahela River, the largest in the world, and another railroad from Lake Erie to Pittsburg, carrying Lake Superior iron ore to the aforesaid furnaces, with an additional number of policemen on Smithfield Street, to protect pedestrians from accidents due to the ceaseless tide of traffic on said thoroughfare.

The world's supremacy in the metallurgical art is now conceded to Western Pennsylvania, but what this fact betokens, not only for Pennsylvania but for the nation at large, cannot at present be foretold. Allegheny County's present popu- lation of 600,000 will ere long be a million of souls. The United States is too small a field of consumption even now for the products of this district, and Pittsburg is pressing with its thousands of tons upon the scales balancing the foreign trade of the country, which are tipping in favor of the United States, and when fairly down once, there they will remain so long as American skill, enterprise and intelligence endure and human freedom is guaranteed in the land. Cheap fuel and cheap transportation are doing this for America, and in the wake of the bulky coal and iron trades will follow a development of numerous other branches of commerce and manufacturing.

If any one department of manufacturing can be singled out as the weather- gauge of prosperity, it is that of iron and the pulse of the iron market. Both in this country and in England it is constantly being referred to by the financiers. Although iron is a metal in universal use, and in constant demand, no individuals, or trusts, attempt to forestall the markets to any considerable extent. Such attempts have been successful with sugar, and to some extent even with flour and beef, which are also great staple commodities, but why they have not been so successful with iron is not easily explained. The facts, however, clearly demonstrate that the welfare of Pittsburg is not in the keeping of any individual or corporation, and that its material prosperity is a reliable index of national prosperity.

Upon the site of Pittsburg was begun a war which determined the fact that to the Anglo-Saxon, and not to the Latins, North America was to belong. Had the Saxon been vanquished, a large portion of our territory might have been on a par with Cuba of to-day. Upon the same ground, a century and a half later, is now being settled the question whether America or Europe shall take the lead in the world's commercial and manufacturing activity. It may seem boastful to refer to this locality as being the pivot upon which such momentous results turn, yet where is the axis if it be not here? A beef axis, or a flour, dry goods, or raw cotton axis, is out of the question. Iron it must be in this country, as iron it has been in England for these many decades.

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"My father was mighty Vulcan, I am a smith of the land and the sea, The cunning spirit of Tubal Cain Came with my marrow to me.

"I think great thoughts, strong-winged with steel, I coin vast iron acts; And weld the impalpable dream of seers Into utile lyric facts."

Some day a great artist like Doré will illustrate Richard Realf's "Hymn of Pittsburg," and each line will be worthy of a separate page in the splendid book it will make.

Pittsburg's resources are but little understood, even by those usually accounted well-informed citizens. Statistics are bewildering and meaningless to many persons outside of the lines of their own occupations. To tell strangers when visiting Pittsburg that here is the greatest tube works in the world, or that here is the largest furnace, has little meaning if they are not familiar with similar works elsewhere. And yet it is a fact that our 600,000 population produce from mines, furnaces and mills a tonnage four times greater than that of Chicago from her 1,500,000; six times geater than from Paris with her 2,500,000 population. These figures give some idea of the standing of Pittsburg in the commercial world. More loaded freight cars are annually received and sent out from here than from any other city in the world (a). The trade of a single firm in iron ore, fuel, limestone and finished product amounts to a greater tonnage than the combined cotton product of the Southern States. These are some of the "utile lyric facts" to be picked up in journeying around Pittsburg, and yet all this, traffic had its beginning only about a century ago.

For many years Pittsburg was served with packhorses across the mountains from the seaboard. Never was there a good wagon-road to Philadelphia, but a canal entered Pittsburg from the East, having a portage railroad over the moun- tains, up which cars were pulled with hempen cables, but from Johnstown the canal passed down the Kiskiminetas to its mouth; thence crossing the Alle- gheny River near Freeport, it continued to Allegheny City on the right bank of the river, and, by means of another aqueduct across the river, entered Pittsburg at Eleventh Street, near where stands the present Union Depot. The canal only accommodated boats of a capacity about equal to that of a modern freight car, viz., sixty tons. About 1855, after the canal had been in use twenty-two years, the railroads caught up with the little four-feet deep water ditches which had done so much for the development of Central and Western Pennsylvania. These were afterward sold by the State to the railroad companies.

It is not generally known that "Pittsburg" is the name given by geologists to a particular vein of coal, the outcrop of which happens to terminate near this city, but which extends in an unbroken body into West Virginia. There are other veins of very good coal both above it and below it, but the Pittsburg vein is the most valuable. The same geological strata are found in the Con-

(a) The National Association of Car Service Managers reported the movement of rail- road cars in their several districts for 1895 as follows, full carloads of freight received or loaded being alone taken into account:

Name of

No. of Cars.

Name of

No. of Cars.

Association or District.

Year 1895.

Association or District.

Year 1895.

Pittsburg

. 1, 504,036

Western New York (Buffalo) 559,3II

Philadelphia 1,233,485

New York and New Jersey 595.483

Chicago.

514,769

---- -

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HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

nellsville coking district, from which the celebrated Connellsville coke is made. This industry alone employs 10,000 men and requires nearly 20,000 ovens, and yields a daily product of 1,500 carloads. It may be worth mentioning that 1,500 cars of coke would make a train more than ten miles long. The railroad facili- ties are such that all of this material destined for the West, besides much other freight, is passed through the city without keeping people standing on the side- walks waiting for the trains to pass. This could hardly be possible were it not for railroad tunnels under the city and outside connecting lines.

The "Pittsburg" vein forms the best coal in the Western Maryland semi- bituminous fields, and it is recognized as one of the best veins in the anthracite region of Eastern Pennsylvania. Along the Monongahela River, for more than 100 miles south of Pittsburg, this particular coal is found in its most accessible form. The river is so improved with locks and dams, maintained by the United States Government, free of toll, that coal loaded in boats at the mines can be transported in fleets to New Orleans, a distance of 2,000 miles, at a total cost of $1.50 per ton, including the expense of mining and loading into boats.

Pittsburg is classed as an inland city, and yet it lays claim to the ownership of a greater vessel tonnage than any other city in America. Steamers from Pitts- burg have reached Fort Benton, Montana, which is a thousand miles longer voyage than that between New York and Liverpool. In order to meet the increasing demand for greater and cheaper shipping facilities the improvement of Western rivers is being urged vigorously.

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Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 118

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co. Number of Pages: 1192

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1192