Chapter 2

[C]There is an interesting relief map of the portage railroad of the Pennsylvania Canal in the Carnegie Museum.

Over the mountains in 1839; canal boat being hauled over the portage road

Other railroads came as they were needed. The Baltimore and Ohio received a charter from the State of Maryland on February 28, 1827, but did not reach Pittsburgh until December 12, 1860, when its Pittsburgh and Connellsville branch was opened. The Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad was built into Pittsburgh July 4, 1851, and became part of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway in 1856, that line reaching Chicago in 1859. The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway (the "Pan Handle") was opened between Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio, October 9, 1865. The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, now a part of the New York Central Lines, was opened into Pittsburgh in February, 1879. The Wabash Railway completed its entrance into the city on June 19, 1904.

View of Old Pittsburgh, 1817

In 1784 the town was laid out and settlers, among whom were many Scotch and Irish, came rapidly. The town was made the county seat in 1791, incorporated as a borough in 1794, the charter was revived in 1804, and the borough was chartered as a city in 1816. The first charter granted to Pittsburgh in 1816 vested the more important powers of the city government in a common council of fifteen members and a select council of nine members. In 1887 a new charter was adopted giving to the mayor the power to appoint the heads of departments who were formerly elected by the councils. On March 7, 1901, a new charter, known as "The Ripper," was adopted, under the operations of which theelected mayor (William J. Diehl) was removed from his office, and a new chief executive officer (A. M. Brown) appointed in his place by the governor, under the title of recorder. By an act of April 23, 1903, the title of mayor was restored, and under the changes then made the appointing power rests with the mayor, with the consent of the select council. The following is a list of the mayors of Pittsburgh:

1816-1817, Ebenezer Denny1817-1825, John Darragh1825-1828, John M. Snowden1828-1830, Magnus M. Murray1830-1831, Matthew B. Lowrie1831-1832, Magnus M. Murray1832-1836, Samuel Pettigrew1836-1839, Jonas R. McClintock1839-1840, William Little1840-1841, William W. Irwin1841-1842, James Thomson1842-1845, Alexander Hay1845-1846, William J. Howard1846-1847, William Kerr1847-1849, Gabriel Adams1849-1850, John Herron1850-1851, Joseph Barker1851-1853, John B. Guthrie1853-1854, Robert M. Riddle1854-1856, Ferdinand E. Volz1856-1857, William Bingham1857-1860, Henry A. Weaver1860-1862, George Wilson1862-1864, B. C. Sawyer1864-1866, James Lowry1866-1868, W. S. McCarthy1868-1869, James Blackmore1869-1872, Jared M. Brush1872-1875, James Blackmore1875-1878, William C. McCarthy1878-1881, Robert Liddell1881-1884, Robert W. Lyon1884-1887, Andrew Fulton1887-1890, William McCallin1890-1893, Henry I. Gourley1893-1896, Bernard McKenna1896-1899, Henry P. Ford1899-1901, William J. Diehl1901, A. M. Brown (Title changed to Recorder)1901-1903, J. O. Brown (Recorder)1903, W. B. Hays (Recorder; served about one week under that title)1903-1906, W. B. Hays (Mayor again)1906-1909, George W. Guthrie

A movement to consolidate the cities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny together with some adjacent boroughs, was begun in 1853-54. It failed entirely that year, but in 1867 Lawrenceville, Peebles, Collins, Liberty, Pitt, and Oakland, all lying between the two rivers, were annexed to Pittsburgh, and in 1872 there was a further annexation of a district embracing twenty-seven square miles south of the Monongahela River, while in 1906 Allegheny was also annexed; and, as there was litigation to test the validity of the consolidation, the Supreme Court of the United States on December 6, 1907, declared in favor of the constitutionality of the act.

The first national convention of the Republican party was held in Pittsburgh on February 22 and 23, 1856. While this gathering was an informal convention, it was made for the purpose of effecting a national organization of the groups of Republicans which had grown up in the States where slavery was prohibited. Pittsburgh was, therefore, in a broad sense, the place where the birth of the Republican party occurred. A digression on this subject, in order that the record may be made clear, will probably not be unwelcome.

In 1620, three months before the landing of theMayflowerat Provincetown, a Dutch vessel carried African slaves up the James River, and on the soil of Virginia there was planted a system of servitude which at last extended throughout the Colonies and flourished with increasing vigor in the South, until, in the War of the Rebellion, Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation put an end forever to slavery in America. When the builders of our Government met in the Constitutional Convention of 1787, slavery was a problem which more than once threatened to wreck the scheme for an indissoluble union of the States. But it was compromised under a suggestion implied in the Constitution itself, that slavery should not be checked in theStates in which it existed until 1808. In the meantime the entire labor system of the South was built upon African slavery, while at the North the horror of the public conscience grew against the degrading institution from year to year. By 1854 the men in the free States who were opposed to slavery had begun to unite themselves by political bonds, and in the spring and summer of that year, groups of such men met in more or less informal conferences in Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Iowa, Ohio, and other northern States. But it was at Jackson, Michigan, where the men who were uniting their political fortunes to accomplish the destruction of slavery first assembled in a formal convention on July 6, 1854, nominated a full State ticket, and adopted a platform containing these declarations:

Resolved: That, postponing and suspending all differences with regard to political economy or administrative policy, in view of the imminent danger that Kansas and Nebraska will be grasped by slavery, and a thousand miles of slave soil be thus interposed between the free States of the Atlantic and those of the Pacific, we will act cordially and faithfully in unison to avert and repeal this gigantic wrong and shame.Resolved: That in view of the necessity of battling for the first principles of Republican government, and against the schemes of an aristocracy, the most revolting and oppressive with which the earth was ever cursed or man debased, we will coöperate and be known as "Republicans" until the contest be terminated.

On January 17, 1856, "the Republican Association of Washington, D. C.," referring to the extension ofslavery into Kansas and Nebraska as "the deep dishonor inflicted upon the age in which we live," issued a call, in accordance with what appeared to be the general desire of the Republican party, inviting the Republicans of the Union to meet in informal convention at Pittsburgh on February 22, 1856, for the purpose of perfecting the national organization, and providing for a national delegate convention of the Republican party, at some subsequent day, to nominate candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency, to be supported at the election in November, 1856.

The Republican party met accordingly for the first time in a national convention in Pittsburgh on the date appointed, and was largely attended. Not only were all the free States represented, but there were also delegates from Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Missouri. John A. King was made temporary chairman, and Francis P. Blair permanent chairman. Speeches were made by Horace Greeley, Giddings and Gibson of Ohio, Codding and Lovejoy of Illinois, and others. Mr. Greeley sent a telegraphic report of the first day's proceedings to the New York "Tribune," stating that the convention had accomplished much to cement former political differences and distinctions, and that the meeting at Pittsburgh had marked the inauguration of a national party, based upon the principle of freedom. He said that the gathering was very large and the enthusiasm unbounded;that men were acting in the most perfect harmony and with a unity of feeling seldom known to political assemblages of such magnitude; that the body was eminently Republican in principle and tendency; and that it combined much of character and talent, with integrity of purpose and devotion to the great principles which underlie our Government. He prophesied that the moral and political effect of this convention upon the country would be felt for the next quarter of a century. In its deliberations, he said that everything had been conducted with marked propriety and dignity.

The platform adopted at Pittsburgh demanded the repeal of all laws allowing the introduction of slavery into free territories; promised support by all lawful measures to the Free-State men in Kansas in their resistance to the usurped authority of lawless invaders; and strongly urged the Republican party to resist and overthrow the existing national administration because it was identified with the progress of the slave power to national supremacy.

On the evening of the second day, a mass meeting was held in aid of the emigration to Kansas. The president of the meeting was George N. Jackson, and D. D. Eaton was made secretary. Horace Greeley and others made addresses, and with great enthusiasm promises of aid to the bleeding young sister in the West were made.

This record seems to show beyond question that the Republican party had its national birth at Pittsburghon February 22, 1856, and that it came into being dedicated, as Horace Greeley described it at that moment, to the principle of human freedom. A later formal convention, as provided for at Pittsburgh, was held at Philadelphia on June 17, 1856, which nominated John C. Fremont, of California, for President, and William L. Dayton, of New Jersey, for Vice-President. This ticket polled a total popular vote of 1,341,264, but was beaten by the Democratic candidates,—James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, for President, and John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for Vice-President, who polled 1,838,169 votes. This defeat of a good cause was probably a fortunate piece of adversity, for the men who opposed slavery were not yet strong enough to grapple the monster to its death as they did when Lincoln was nominated four years later. It was the high mission of the party in 1856 and 1860 to stand against the extension of slavery, and in 1864 against all slavery as well as against the destruction of this Union; and in 1868, against those who wished to nullify the results of the war. Its later mission has been full of usefulness and honor.

Among the eminent men who visited Pittsburgh in bygone days we find record of the following:

1817, President Monroe1825, General Lafayette1833, Daniel Webster1842, Charles Dickens1848, Henry Clay1849, President Taylor and Governor Johnston1852, Louis Kossuth1860, Prince of Wales (now King Edward VII)1861, President Lincoln1866, President Johnson, Admiral Farragut, General Grant, and Secretaries Seward and Welles

1866, President Johnson, Admiral Farragut, General Grant, and Secretaries Seward and Welles

In 1845 (April 10th), a great fire destroyed about one third of the total area of the city, including most of the large business houses and factories, the bridge over the Monongahela River, the large hotel known as the Monongahela House, and several churches, in all about eleven hundred buildings. The Legislature appropriated $50,000 for the relief of the sufferers.

In 1889, the great flood at Johnstown, accompanied by a frightful loss of life and destruction of property, touched the common heart of humanity all over the world. The closeness of Johnstown geographically made the sorrow at Pittsburgh most poignant and profound. In a few hours almost the whole population had brought its offerings for the stricken community, and besides clothing, provisions, and every conceivable thing necessary for relief and comfort, the people of Pittsburgh contributed $250,000 to restore so far as possible the material portion of the loss.

In the autumn of 1908 a series of imposing celebrations was held to commemorate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Pittsburgh.

In 1877, the municipal government being, in its personnel, at the moment, incompetent to preserve the fundamental principles on which it was established, permitted a strike of railroad employees to grow without restriction as to the observance of law and order until it became an insurrection. Four million dollars' worth of property was destroyed by riot and incendiarism in a few hours. When at last outraged authority was properly shifted from the supine city chieftains to the indomitable State itself, it became necessary, before order could be restored, for troops to fire, with a sacrifice of human life.

For some months preceding the riots at Pittsburgh disturbances among the railroad employees, especially the engineers and brakemen of freight-trains, had been frequent on railroads west and east of this city. These disturbances arose mainly from resistance to reductions in the rates of wages, made or proposed by the executive officers of the various railroads, and also from objections of train crews to regulations governing the transportation system.

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, some time after the panic of 1873, reduced the wages of its employees ten per cent., and, on account of the general decline in business, made another reduction of ten per cent. to take effect on June 1, 1877; these reductions to apply to all employees from the president of the company down. The reductions affected the roads known as the Pennsylvania Lines west of Pittsburgh, as well as the Pennsylvania Railroad, and similar alterations were also made on the New York Central and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroads. The changed conditions caused a great deal of dissatisfaction among the trainmen, but a committee was appointed by them, which held a conference with Mr. Thomas A. Scott, President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and agreed to the reduction, reporting its conclusions to the trainmen.

On July 16th an order was issued by the railroad company that thirty-six freight-cars, instead of eighteen, as before, were to be made up as a train, without increase in the number of the crew, and with a locomotive at the end to act as a pusher, assisting the one at the front, making what is technically called "a double header." The train employees looked upon this order as doubling their work under the decreased pay of June 1st, and in its effect virtually tending to the discharge of many men then employed in the running of freight-trains. The strike which followed does not seem to have been seriously organized, but was rather a suddenconclusion arrived at on the impulse of the moment, and was probably strengthened by a wave of discontent which was sweeping over the roads to the east and west, as well as by an undercurrent of hostility toward the railroads exhibited by some of the newspapers. As far back as July 23, 1876, a Pittsburgh paper, in publishing an article headed "Railroad Vultures," had said: "Railroad officials are commencing to understand that the people of Pittsburgh will be patient no longer; that this community is being aroused into action, and that presently the torrent of indignation will give place to condign retribution"; and in another paragraph the same paper had said: "We desire to impress upon the minds of the community that these vultures are constantly preying upon the wealth and resources of the country; they are a class, as it were, of money jugglers intent only on practising their trickery for self aggrandizement, and that, consequently, their greed leads them into all known ways and byways of fraud, scheming, and speculating, to accomplish the amassing of princely fortunes." These intemperate utterances were the first seeds of popular sedition.

It was not until 8.30 o'clock on the morning of the 19th that the real trouble began. Two freight-trains were to start at 8.40, but ten minutes before that the crews sent word that they would not take the trains out. Two yard crews were then asked to take their places, but they refused to do so. The trains were not takenout, and the crews of all the trains that came in, as they arrived, joined the strikers. As the day wore on the men gradually congregated at the roundhouse of the road at Twenty-eighth Street, but did not attempt or threaten any violence. The news of the strike had spread through the two cities, and large numbers of the more turbulent class of the population, together with many workmen from the factories who sympathized with the strikers, hastened to Twenty-eighth Street, and there was soon gathered a formidable mob in which the few striking railroad employees were an insignificant quantity.

When the railroad officials found their tracks and roundhouse in the possession of a mob which defied them, they called upon the mayor of the city for protection, to which Mayor McCarthy promptly responded, going in person with a detail of officers to the scene of the trouble. When the police arrived on the ground they found an excited assemblage of people who refused to listen to their orders to disperse, and the mayor made no serious effort to enforce his authority effectually. There was no collision, however, until a man who had refused to join the strikers attempted to couple some cars, when he was assaulted. An officer of the road who undertook to turn a switch, was also assaulted by one of the mob, who was arrested by the police. His comrades began throwing stones, but the police maintained their hold of their prisoner, andconveyed him to the jail. A crowd then gathered in front of the police station and made threats of rescuing their comrade, but no overt act was committed. The mob, which had by this time become greatly enraged, was really not composed of railroad employees, who had contemplated no such result of their strike, and now generally deplored the unfortunate turn which the affair had taken. It was for the most part composed of the worst element of the population, who, without any grievance of their own, real or imagined, had gathered together from the very force of their vicious inclinations and the active hope of plunder.

The strikers held a meeting that evening, at which they demanded that the ten per cent. should be restored, and the running of double headers abolished. In the meantime, the railroad authorities, perceiving the inefficiency of the local police powers, and alarmed at the still-increasing mob and the vicious spirit which it displayed, invoked the aid of the sheriff of the county. At midnight Sheriff Fife came to Twenty-eighth Street with a hastily summonedposse, a part of which deserted him before he reached the scene of action, and ordered the rioters to disperse, which they, with hoots and jeers, defiantly refused to do. The sheriff then sought aid from the military, and General A. L. Pearson issued an order to the Eighteenth and Nineteenth regiments of the National Guards of Pennsylvania, with headquarters at Pittsburgh, to assemble at halfpast six the next morning, armed and equipped for duty. Sheriff Fife also telegraphed to the State authorities at Harrisburg, stating that he was unable to quell the riot, and asking that General Pearson be instructed to do this with his force; and Adjutant General Latta issued the orders accordingly. General Pearson marched his forces to the Union Depot and placed them in position in the yard and on the hillside above it. The mob was not, however, deterred by this action, as the troops were supposed to be more or less in sympathy with the strikers, and were expected to be disinclined to fire upon their fellow citizens if they should be ordered to do so. The employment of local troops at this moment constituted a grave mistake in the management of the riot.

The governor had, however, been telegraphed to, and had ordered General Brinton's division of troops to leave Philadelphia for Pittsburgh. This became known to the mob, which was still increasing in numbers and turbulence, and the calling of troops from the east drove them to fury. The feeling had spread to the workingmen in the factories on the South Side, where a public meeting was held, and demagogical speeches made, upholding the action of the strikers; and five hundred men came thence in a body and joined the crowd.

At this critical moment the mob received an endorsement that not only greatly encouraged it, but incited itto extreme violence. A local newspaper, on Friday, the 20th, in the course of an editorial headed "The Talk of the Desperate," which formulated what was assumed as the expression of a workingman, used this language:

This may be the great civil war in this country between labor and capital that is bound to come.... The workingmen everywhere are in fullest sympathy with the strikers, and only waiting to see whether they are in earnest enough to fight for their rights. They would all join and help them the moment an actual conflict took place.... The governor, with his proclamation, may call and call, but the laboring people, who mostly constitute the militia, won't take up arms to put down their brethren. Will capital then rely on the United States Army? Pshaw! Its ten to fifteen thousand available men would be swept from our path like leaves in a whirlwind. The workingmen of this country can capture and hold it, if they will only stick together, and it looks as though they were going to do so this time. Of course, you say that capital will have some supporters. Many of the unemployed will be glad to get work as soldiers, or extra policemen; the farmers, too, might turn out to preserve your law and order; but the working army would have the most men and the best men. The war might be bloody but the right would prevail. Men like Tom Scott, Frank Thomson—yes, and William Thaw—who have got rich swindling the stockholders of railroads, so that they cannot pay honest labor living rates, we would hang to the nearest tree.

Although the paper in a later edition suppressed that part of the editorial, and the other papers of the city refrained from any editorials that might increase the excitement, yet the mischief had been done, the unfortunate words had been widely read, and the more intelligently vicious of the rioters proceeded to make the most of them.

The eastern troops left Philadelphia on Friday night and arrived at the Union Depot on Saturday afternoon, tired and hungry. After a scant and hasty lunch they were placed out along the tracks to the roundhouse where the great bulk of the mob was assembled. In order to secure and protect the building and tracks it was necessary that the crowd should be forced back. When the troops undertook this movement some stones were thrown and a few soldiers were hit. Then one of the subordinate officers gave an order to fire, and about twenty persons were killed and thirty wounded, three of whom were children.

When the rioters beheld their associates attacked, their rage passed all control, and the troops were closed in upon and driven into the roundhouse. Encouraged by this retreat, the mob took steps to burn them out. Many cars loaded with whisky and petroleum were set on fire and sent down the track against the building, and fire was opened on it with a cannon which the crowd had seized from a local armory. General Brinton came personally to one of the windows of the roundhouse and appealed to the mob to desist, warning them that if they did not he must and would fire. The rioters paid no attention to his appeal, but continued their assaults, whereupon General Brinton gave orders to his men to fire at those who were handling the cannon, and several of them were killed and wounded. Incendiarism, having been inaugurated, went on through thenight, whole trains being robbed and then burned. The troops held their position until Sunday morning, and then retreated out Penn Avenue to Sharpsburg, where they went into camp.

During Saturday night and Sunday morning the mob seemed to have taken possession of the city. They broke open several armories and gun stores, and supplied themselves with arms and ammunition. The banks were threatened, and the city seemed about to be pillaged, the business part of the city being filled with bands of rioters who uttered threats of violence and murder. On Sunday morning the roundhouse and all the locomotives which it contained were destroyed by fire. The Union Depot, the grain elevator, the Adams Express building, and the Pan Handle depot were also set on fire and consumed. The firemen who hastened to the scene and attempted to extinguish the flames were met by armed men and driven back. At half past twelve on Sunday morning a committee appointed by a citizens' meeting tried to open a consultation with the mob, but were promptly driven away. The committee found that they were not dealing with dissatisfied railroad employees but with a mob of the worst of the city's population, there being neither organization nor leader, but each man or party of men doing what the frenzy of the moment suggested. When it seemed as if the whole city was to be destroyed, some of the original strikers were persuaded to attend ameeting of the citizens at four o'clock and arrange to aid in suppressing the incendiarism, and they did this with such a good spirit as showed that the railroad strikers were not a part of the mob and did not countenance its violence. At this meeting the mayor was authorized to enroll five hundred police, but the accounts of the day show that the ranks filled up slowly. The state of terror continued through all of Sunday night, and on Monday morning the mob was still in an unorganized control.

Throughout the thirty-six hours from Saturday night until Monday morning a most unusual state of public mind developed here and there which seemed like a moral epidemic. There was almost a wholesale appropriation of goods from the burning cars by men and even women who would at other times have shuddered at the idea of robbery; and after the riot was suppressed goods were for some time voluntarily returned by persons who had taken them unreflectingly, having at length recovered their moral perceptions, which had seemingly been clouded by the vicious influence of the mob.

On Monday morning, however, the uprooted law seemed to be recovering a portion of its dissipated majesty. During the night posters had been placed conspicuously throughout the city, on which was printed the law under which the citizens of Allegheny County were liable for all the damage done by the mobor arising from its actions. At eleven o'clock in the morning, a meeting of citizens was called at the Chamber of Commerce, to form a Committee of Public Safety to take charge of the situation, as the city authorities, the sheriff, and the military seemed powerless to control it. This committee presented the following address to the public:

The Committee of Public Safety, appointed at the meeting of citizens held at the Chamber of Commerce July 23d, deeming that the allaying of excitement is the first step toward restoring order, would urge upon all citizens disposed to aid therein the necessity of pursuing their usual avocation, and keeping all their employees at work, and would, therefore, request that full compliance be accorded to this demand of the committee. The committee are impressed with the belief that the police force now being organized will be able to arrest and disperse all riotous assemblages, and that much of the danger of destruction to property has passed, and that an entire restoration of order will be established. The committee believe that the mass of industrious workmen of the city are on the side of law and order, and a number of the so-called strikers are already in the ranks of the defenders of the city, and it is quite probable that any further demonstration will proceed from thieves and similar classes of population, with whom our working classes have no affiliation and will not be found among them.It is to this end that the committee request that all classes of business be prosecuted as usual, and our citizens refrain from congregating in the streets in crowds, so that the police of the city may not be confused in their effort to arrest rioters, and the military be not restrained from prompt action, if necessary, from fear of injuring the innocent.

While the rioters had by this time been somewhat restrained by the resolute action of the committee, yetthey were, although dispersed as a body, holding meetings and still breathing sullen threats of further outrage and murder. The strike had spread to the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway, and its trains were for two or three days virtually stopped; in other sections of the country the railroad troubles were increasing, and the committee thought best to call Major-General Joseph Brown and Colonel P. N. Guthrie, of the Eighteenth National Guards, into consultation. Under their advice a camp of the military was formed at East Liberty, to be held in readiness for any further outbreak. Mayor McCarthy, at last inspirited by the determined men who urged him to his duty, enrolled five hundred extra police, and issued a proclamation in which he said:

I have determined that peace, order, and quiet shall be restored to the community, and to this end call upon all good citizens to come forward at once to the old City Hall and unite with the police and military now organizing. I call upon all to continue quietly at their several places of business and refrain from participating in excited assemblages.

A proclamation had also been issued by Governor Hartranft, and he had come to Pittsburgh to address the rioters, and subsequently two or three thousand troops were ordered by him to Pittsburgh, and were encamped near East Liberty for several days.

Under these vigorous measures quiet was in a fewdays restored, although the Committee of Public Safety continued to hold sessions and to take steps not only to prevent any further demonstrations, but to arrest and bring to punishment a number of the prominent rioters.

Claims for losses in the riot were made on Allegheny County in the sum of $4,100,000, which the commissioners settled for $2,772,349.53. Of this sum $1,600,000 was paid to the Pennsylvania Railroad, whose claim for $2,312,000 was settled for that sum. In addition to the buildings already specified as burned, there were 1,383 freight-cars, 104 locomotives, and 66 passenger coaches destroyed by fire. Twenty-five persons in all were killed.

The lesson was worth all it cost, and anarchy has never dared to raise its head in the corporation limits since that time.

The Homestead strike and riot of 1892 is another incident of false leadership in industrial life which must be chronicled here.

For many years the Carnegie Steel Company, whose principal works were situated at Homestead, just outside the present boundaries of the city, had employed a large number of skilled workmen who belonged to the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, and had contracted for theiremployment with the officers of that Association. On July 1, 1889, a three years' contract was made which was to terminate at the end of June, 1892. The workmen were paid by the ton, the amount they received depending on the selling price of steel billets of a specified size which they produced. If the price of these billets advanced, the wages they received per ton advanced proportionately. If the price declined, their wages also declined to a certain point, called a minimum, but a decline in the selling price below this minimum caused no reduction in wages. The minimum was fixed in the contract at $25.00 per ton. At the date the contract was made the market price of the billets was $26.50 per ton.

As the time drew near for the contract to expire, the Carnegie Company, through its chairman, Mr. Henry C. Frick, submitted to the workmen belonging to the Association a proposition as the basis of a new contract. The three most important features of the proposed contract were, first, a reduction in the minimum of the scale for billets from $25.00 to $22.00; second, a change in the expiration of the date of the scale from June 30th to December 31st; third, a reduction of tonnage rates at those furnaces and mills in which, by reason of the introduction of improved machinery, the earnings of the workmen had been increased far beyond the liberal calculation of their employers. At those places where no such improvements had been made, no reduction intonnage rates was proposed. The company gave as a reason for reducing the minimum that the market price of steel had gone down below $25.00 per ton, and that it was unfair for the workmen to have the benefits of a rise in the market above $25.00, and share none of the losses of the company when the market price fell below that figure. Indeed, the company contended that there ought to be no minimum as there was no maximum under the sliding scale. The workmen insisted that there ought to be a minimum to protect them against unfair dealing between the company and its buyers, as they had no voice or authority in selling the products of their labor.

The reason for changing the time for closing the contract was that the company's business was less active at the end of the calendar year than in midsummer, and that it was easier to complete new arrangements for employment at that time. Another reason was that the company often made sales for an entire year, and consequently contracts for labor could be more safely made if they began and ended at times corresponding with contracts made with their customers. The workmen opposed this change in the duration of the contract on the ground that in midwinter they would be less able to resist any disposition on the part of the company to cut down their wages, and that in the event of a strike, it would be more difficult to maintain their situation than it would be in summer. They claimed, therefore,that the change in time would be a serious disadvantage to them in negotiating with their employers. They proposed to the company, as a counter proposition, that the contract should end the last of June, as had formerly been the case, and that if any change was to be demanded, three months' notice must be given them, and that, if this was not done, the contract, which was to run for three years, should continue for a year longer; in other words, from June 30, 1895, until June 30, 1896. This suggestion was rejected by the company. But the company then proposed to make the minimum $23.00 per ton for steel billets, and the Association, through its committee, named a price of $24.00, refusing to concede any more.

While these negotiations were pending, the superintendent of the Homestead Steel Works had concluded contracts with all the employees, except three hundred and twenty-five of the highest skill, who were employed in three of the twelve departments. All the others were to be paid on the former basis of remuneration without any reduction whatever. Of the three hundred and twenty-five high-priced men with whom contracts had not been made, two hundred and eighty would have been affected by the tonnage reductions and about forty-five more by the tonnage reductions and scale minimum.

Under the proposed readjustments those who received the low grades of compensation and the common laborers would not have been touched in their earnings.The actual controversy was thus narrowed down to a small number of men, less than ten per cent. of those employed at Homestead.

During the remainder of the month of June other steps were taken to effect an agreement, but the relations between the officers of the company and the workmen, instead of improving, grew worse. On the 28th the company began to close the different departments, and on the last day of the month work in all of them ceased. On July 1st the striking workmen congregated about the gates, stopped the foremen and employees who came to work, and persuaded them to go away. The watchmen of the company were turned away from the works; guards were placed at all the entrances, the river, streets and roads entering the town were patrolled by strikers, and a rigid surveillance was exercised over those who entered the town or approached the plant. When the sheriff came on July 4th and attempted to put deputies of his own selection in possession of the works, to guard them for the company, he was opposed by a counter force, the striking workmen proposing to place guards of their own and give indemnity for the safety of the property; but this the sheriff declined because it would enable the strikers to keep any new non-union men from taking their places. On July 5th, when the sheriff sent twelve deputies to take possession of the works, they were driven away.

In the meantime Mr. Frick had begun negotiations as early as June 20th with Robert A. Pinkerton, of New York, for the employment of three hundred watchmen to be placed in the works at Homestead. They were brought from Ashtabula to Youngstown by rail, thence to Pittsburgh by river. On the evening of July 5th, Captain Rodgers' two boats, with Deputy Sheriff Gray, Superintendent Potter, of the Homestead works, and some of his assistants, on board, dropped down the river with two barges in tow, until they met the Pinkerton men. When the boat, with the barges in tow, approached Homestead in the early morning of the 6th, they were discovered by a small steamer used by the strikers as a patrol, and the alarm was given. A short war of words was followed by firing on each side, which resulted ultimately in the death of three of the Pinkertons and seven of the workmen, and the wounding of many on each side. After a brief fusillade those on shore fled in various directions, and the Pinkerton men retreated into their barges. About five o'clock in the afternoon the Pinkertons surrendered, being allowed to take out their clothing, but their arms and supplies fell into the possession of the Homestead people. The barges were immediately set on fire and burned, and in their burning the pump-house belonging to the Carnegie Company was also destroyed. The Pinkerton men, now being practically prisoners of war, were marched up-town to the skating-rink for temporaryimprisonment. The sheriff was notified, and he came down that night and took the prisoners away. He then informed the governor of Pennsylvania of what had occurred, and called upon him for troops to enforce the law and restore public order. Governor Pattison made a prompt response to this appeal, as his duty under the law required him to do. On the morning of the 12th the soldiers of the State militia entered Homestead. As soon as they arrived the Carnegie Company took possession of its works, and began to make preparations to resume work with non-union men. It was difficult to secure employees, and several months passed away before the company was able to obtain all the men it desired. At first the new employees were fed and housed within the enclosure, and this plan continued for several weeks until their number had increased to such a degree that they felt secure in going outside for their meals with the protection afforded by the sheriff's deputies.

The company made an effort to employ their old workmen and fixed a time for receiving applications for employment from them. When the time had expired, however, which was on July 21st, not one participant in the strike had returned. At a later period many of the old employees returned to work. By the close of July, nearly a thousand men were at work at Homestead. On July 23d Mr. Frick was shot in his office by Alexander Berkman, an anarchist, who was not, and never had been, an employee. The chairman recovered from hiswounds and his assailant was sent to the penitentiary.

The last of the troops were not withdrawn until October 13th. At that time the mill was in full operation with non-union men.

Though the strike was ended in October, its formal termination by the Amalgamated Association was not declared until November 20th, when the disposition of the strikers to return to work was very general. Assuming that the strike lasted nearly five months, as the monthly pay-roll of the mill was about $250,000, the loss to the striking employees for that period was not far from $1,250,000. No estimate of the loss sustained by the company has been published. The cost to the State in sending and maintaining the National Guard at Homestead was $440,256.31.

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Pittsburgh has thus passed through many battles, trials, afflictions, and adversities, and has grown in the strength of giants until it now embraces in the limits of the county a population rapidly approaching one million. This seems a proper moment, therefore, turning away from the romantic perspective of history, to attempt a brief description of Pittsburgh as we see her to-day. In order to give value to the record it will be necessary to employ certain statistics, but the effort will be to make these figures as little wearisome as possible. The present population after the annexation of Allegheny (December 6, 1907) is estimated at 550,000, and if we were to add McKeesport with its tube mills, Homestead with its Carnegie works, and East Pittsburgh with its Westinghouse plants, all of which lie just outside of the present corporate limits, the population would be 700,000. In 1900 we can give the populationdefinitely (omitting Allegheny) at 321,616, of whom 85,032 were foreign born and 17,040 were negroes. Of these foreign born 21,222 were natives of Germany, 18,620 of Ireland, 8,902 of England, 6,243 of Russian Poland, 5,709 of Italy, 4,107 of Russia, 3,553 of Austria, 3,515 of German Poland, 2,539 of Wales, 2,264 of Scotland, 2,124 of Hungary, 1,072 of Sweden, 1,025 of Austrian Poland, and 154 Chinese.

Pittsburgh, showing the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers

It has already been said that the city is a gateway from the East to the West and South, and as such it is the center of a vast railway system. The principal railroads serving Pittsburgh are the Pennsylvania, Baltimore and Ohio, the New York Central Lines, and the Wabash System, and she has also a numerous fleet of boats plying the three rivers. Coal is brought to the city by boats as well as by rail, and great fleets of barges carry it and other heavy freight down the Ohio. A ship canal for the establishment of water transportation between Pittsburgh and Lake Erie (127.5 miles) has been projected. The railroads carry through Pittsburgh over eight per cent. of all the railroad traffic of the United States; and have a particularly heavy tonnage of coal, coke, and iron and steel products; while a large proportion of the iron ore that is produced in theLake Superior region is brought here to supply Pittsburgh manufactures. The total railway and river tonnage is greater than that of any other city in the world, amounting in 1906 to 122,000,000 tons, of which about 12,000,000 tons were carried on boats down the Ohio. Her tonnage is equal to one half the combined tonnage of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The following table will be very interesting as showing the extraordinary fact that the tonnage of Pittsburgh exceeds the combined tonnage of the five other greatest cities in the world (1902):

Pittsburgh86,636,680 tonsLondon17,564,110 tonsNew York17,398,000 "Antwerp16,721,000 "Hamburg15,853,490 "Liverpool13,157,720"Total80,694,320"Pittsburgh's excess5,942,360 "

Pittsburgh has freight yards with a total capacity for more than 60,000 cars. Its harbor has a total length on the three rivers of twenty-eight miles, with an average width of about one thousand feet, and has been deepened by the Davis Island Dam (1885) and by dredging. Slack water navigation has been secured on the Allegheny River by locks and dams at an expense of more than a million and a quarter dollars. TheMonongahela River from Pittsburgh to the West Virginia State line (91.5 miles) was improved by a private company in 1836, which built seven locks and dams. This property was condemned and bought by the United States Government, in 1897 for $3,761,615, and the Government is planning to rebuild and enlarge these works.

Pittsburgh is surrounded by the most productive coal-fields in the country. The region is also rich in petroleum and natural gas, and although the petroleum in the immediate vicinity has been nearly exhausted, it is still obtained through pipes from the neighboring regions. The first petroleum pipe line reached Pittsburgh in 1875.

Pittsburgh is also a port of entry, and for the year ending December, 1907, the value of its imports amounted to $2,416,367.

In 1806 the manufacture of iron was begun, and by 1825 this had become the leading industry. Among the earlier prominent iron industries was the Kensington Iron Works, of which Samuel Church (born February 5, 1800; died December 7, 1857), whose family has been resident in Pittsburgh from 1822 to the present day, was the leading partner. In the manufacture of iron and steel products Pittsburgh ranks first among the cities of the United States, their value in 1905 amounting to $92,939,860, or 53.3 per cent. of the total of the whole country. Several towns in the nearneighborhood are also extensively engaged in the same industry, and in 1902 Allegheny County produced about 24 per cent. of the pig iron; nearly 34 per cent. of the Bessemer steel; 44 per cent. of the open hearth steel; 53 per cent. of the crucible steel; 24 per cent. of the steel rails, and 59 per cent. of the structural shapes that were made that year in the United States. In 1905 the value of Pittsburgh's foundry and machine-shop products amounted to $9,631,514; of the product of steam railroad repair shops, $3,726,990; of malt liquors, $3,166,829; of slaughtering and meat-packing products, $2,732,027; of cigars and cigarettes, $2,297,228; of glass, $2,130,540; and of tin and terne plate, $1,645,570. Electrical machinery, apparatus, and supplies were manufactured largely in the city, to a value in 1905 of $1,796,557. The Heinz Company has its main pickle plant in Pittsburgh, the largest establishment of its kind in the world.

Pittsburgh's first glass works was built in 1797 by James O'Hara. In 1900, and for a long period preceding, the town ranked first among American cities in the manufacture of glass, but in 1905 it was outranked in this industry by Muncie, Indiana, Millville, New Jersey, and Washington, Pennsylvania; but in the district outside of the limits of Pittsburgh much glass is manufactured, so that the Pittsburgh glass district is still the greatest in the country. In Pittsburgh or its immediate vicinity the more important plants of theUnited States Steel Corporation are located, including the Carnegie Works at Homestead. Just outside the limits also are the plants of the Westinghouse Company for the manufacture of electrical apparatus, of air-brakes which George Westinghouse invented in 1868, and of devices for railway signals which he also invented.

Alexander Johnston Cassatt, one of the greatest of the Pennsylvania Railroad presidents, and perhaps the most far-seeing and resourceful of all our captains of industry of the present generation, was born here. James McCrea, the present wise and conservative president of that road, lived here for twenty years. Andrew Carnegie, Henry Phipps, and Henry C. Frick were the strongest personalities who grew up with the Carnegie steel interests. George Westinghouse, whose inventive genius, as shown in his safety appliances, has so greatly reduced the hazards of railway travel and of operation, has long been one of the industrial and social pillars of the community. John A. Brashear, astronomer and educator, the maker of delicate instruments, is a well-beloved citizen.

Pittsburgh ranks high as a banking center. She is the second city in the United States in banking capital and surplus, and leads all American cities in proportion of capital and surplus to gross deposits, with 47.1 per cent., while Philadelphia ranks second with 26 per cent. In 1906, there were one hundred and seventy-ninebanks and trust companies in the Pittsburgh district with a combined capital of $72,058,402, and a surplus of $87,044,622. The gross deposits were $395,379,783, while the total resources amounted to $593,392,069. Pittsburgh, with clearing-house exchanges amounting to $2,640,847,046, ranks sixth among the cities of the United States, being exceeded by the following cities in the order named: New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and St. Louis, and often on a given day exceeds those of St. Louis.

The tax valuation of Pittsburgh property is $609,632,427. She mines one quarter of the bituminous coal of the United States. With an invested capital of $641,000,000, she has 3,029 mills and factories with an annual product worth $551,000,000, and 250,000 employees on a pay-roll of about $1,000,000 a day, or $350,000,000 a year. Her electric street-railway system multiplies itself through her streets for four hundred and ninety-two miles. Natural-gas fuel is conveyed into her mills and houses through one thousand miles of iron pipe. Her output of coke makes one train ten miles long every day throughout the year. Seven hundred passenger trains and ten thousand loaded freight cars run to and from her terminals every day. Nowhere else in the world is there so large a Bessemer-steel plant,crucible-steel plant, plate-glass plant, chimney-glass plant, table-glass plant, air-brake plant, steel-rail plant, cork works, tube works, or steel freight-car works. Her armor sheaths our battle-ships, as well as those of Russia and Japan. She equips the navies of the world with projectiles and range-finders. Her bridges span the rivers of India, China, Egypt, and the Argentine Republic; and her locomotives, rails, and bridges are used on the Siberian Railroad. She builds electric railways for Great Britain and Brazil, and telescopes for Germany and Denmark. Indeed, she distributes her varied manufactures into the channels of trade all over the earth.

The Pittsburgh Country Club

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But while these stupendous industries have given Pittsburgh her wealth, population, supremacy, and power, commercial materialism is not theultima thuleof her people.

Travelers who come to Pittsburgh, forgetting the smoke which often dims the blue splendor of its skies, are struck with the picturesque situation of the town, for they find rolling plateaus, wide rivers, and narrow valleys dropping down from high hills or precipitous bluffs throughout the whole district over which the city extends. Yet the surpassing beauty of nature is not more impressive to the thinking stranger than the work of man who has created and dominates a vast industrial system. The manufactories extend for miles along the banks of all three rivers. Red fires rise heavenward from gigantic forges where iron is being fused into wealth. The business section of the city is wedged in by the rivers, its streets are swarming with people, and there is a myriad of retail houses, wholesale houses,banks, tall office buildings, hotels, theaters, and railway terminals; but right where these stop the residence section begins like another city of happy homes—an immense garden of verdant trees and flowering lawns divided off by beautiful avenues, where some houses rise which in Europe would be called castles and palaces, with scarce a fence between to mark the land lines, giving an aspect almost of a park rather than of a city. There are many miles of asphalt streets set off with grass plots. On the rolling hills above the Monongahela River is Schenley Park (about four hundred and forty acres) with beautiful drives, winding bridle paths, and shady walks through narrow valleys and over small streams. Above the Allegheny River is Highland Park (about two hundred and ninety acres), containing a placid lake and commanding fine views from the summits of its great hills. It also contains a very interesting zoölogical garden. Close to Schenley Park are Homewood and Calvary Cemeteries and near Highland Park is Allegheny Cemetery, where the dead sleep amidst drooping willows and shading elms. Connecting the two parks and leading to them from the downtown section is a system of wide boulevards about twenty miles in length. On the North Side (once Allegheny) is Riverview Park (two hundred and seventeen acres), in which the Allegheny Observatory is situated. A large number of handsome bridges span the rivers. The Pittsburgh Country Club provides a broad expanse of rolling acres for pastoral sports.

In Schenley Park is the Carnegie Institute, with its new main building, dedicated in April (11, 12, and 13), 1907, with imposing ceremonies which were attended by several hundred prominent men from America and Europe. This building, which is about six hundred feet long and four hundred feet wide, contains a library, an art gallery, halls of architecture and sculpture, a museum, and a hall of music; while the Carnegie Technical Schools are operated in separate buildings near by. It is built in the later Renaissance style, being very simple and yet beautiful. Its exterior is of Ohio sandstone, while its interior finish is largely in marble, of which there are sixty-five varieties, brought from every famous quarry in the world. In its great entrance hall is a series of mural decorations by John W. Alexander, a distinguished son of Pittsburgh. The library, in which the institution had its beginning in 1895, contains about 300,000 volumes, has seven important branches, and one hundred and seventy-seven stations for the distribution of books. Mr. Edwin H. Anderson inaugurated the library at the time of its creation, and, after several years of successful service, was followed by Mr. Anderson H. Hopkins, and he by Mr. Harrison W. Craver, who is now the efficientlibrarian. The Fine Arts department contains many casts of notable works of architecture and sculpture, sufficient to carry the visitor in fancy through an almost unbroken development from the earliest times in which man began to produce beautiful structures to the present day. It is now the aim of this department to develop its galleries on three lines: first, to gather early American paintings from the very beginning of art in this country; second, to acquire such portraits of eminent men as will, in the passage of years, make these halls to some extent a national portrait gallery; and, third, to obtain such pieces of contemporary art as will lead to the formation of a thoroughly representative collection of modern painting. The Art Gallery is already rich in this latter purpose, and is renowned for its annual competitive exhibits which are open to the artists of all countries for prizes offered by the Carnegie Institute. Mr. John W. Beatty, Director of Fine Arts, has made the building up of this department his ripest and best work. The Museum embraces sections of paleontology, mineralogy, vertebrate and invertebrate zoölogy, entomology, botany, comparative anatomy, archæology, numismatics, ceramics, textiles, transportation, carvings in wood and ivory, historical collections, the useful arts, and biological sciences. Its work in the department of paleontology is particularly noteworthy as it has extended the boundaries of knowledge through its many explorations in thewestern fossil fields. The success of the Museum is largely due to the energy and erudition of Dr. W. J. Holland, its amiable director. In the music-hall, a symphony orchestra is maintained, and free recitals are given on the great organ twice every week by a capable performer. When the orchestra began its work thirteen years ago, it is doubtful if there were very many persons in Pittsburgh, other than musical students, who knew the difference between a symphony, a suite, a concerto, and a fugue. To-day there are thousands of people in this city who can intelligently describe the shading differences in the Ninth Symphony and give good reasons for their preference as between the two movements of the "Unfinished." The first conductor of the orchestra was Frederic Archer, for three years, who was followed by Victor Herbert, for three years, and then came Emil Paur, who is now in charge. The Technical Schools embrace a School of Applied Science, a School for Apprentices and Journeymen, a School of Applied Design, and a School for Women, and already possess a capable faculty of one hundred and fifteen members, and a student body numbering 1,916. Dr. Arthur A. Hamerschlag is an enthusiastic and capable director of this educational scheme. The Institute is governed by a Board of Trustees, of which William N. Frew is President, Robert Pitcairn, Vice President, Samuel Harden Church, Secretary, and James H. Reed, Treasurer. Charles C.Mellor is chairman of the Museum committee, John Caldwell, of the Fine Arts committee, George A. Macbeth, of the Library committee, and William McConway, of the Technical Schools committee.

Panther Hollow Bridge, Schenley Park

The annual celebration of Founder's Day at the Carnegie Institute has become one of the most notable platform occasions in America, made so by the illustrious men who participate in the exercises. Some of these distinguished orators are William McKinley and Grover Cleveland, former Presidents of the United States; John Morley and James Bryce, foremost among British statesmen and authors; Joseph Jefferson, a beloved actor; Richard Watson Gilder, editor and poet; Wu Ting Fang, Chinese diplomat, and Whitelaw Reid, editor and ambassador. At the great dedication of the new building, in April, 1907, the celebration of Founder's Day surpassed all previous efforts, being marked by the assembling of an illustrious group of men, and the delivery of a series of addresses, which made the festival altogether beyond precedent. On that occasion there came to Pittsburgh, as the guests of the Institute, from France, Dr. Leonce Bénédite, Director Musée du Luxembourg; Baron d'Estournelles de Constant, Member of the French Senate and of the Hague Court of Arbitration; Dr. Paul Doumer, late Governor-General of Cochin China, and Dr. Camille Enlart, Director of the Trocadero Museum; from Germany, upon the personal suggestion of his Majesty,Emperor William II, His Excellency Lieutenant-General Alfred von Loewenfeld, Adjutant-General to his Majesty the Emperor; Colonel Gustav Dickhuth, Lecturer on Military Science to the Royal Household; Dr. Ernst von Ihne, Hof-Architekt Sr. Maj. d. Kaisers; Dr. Reinhold Koser, Principal Director of the Prussian State Archives, and Prof. Dr. Fritz Schaper, sculptor; from Great Britain, Mr. William Archer, author and critic; Sir Robert S. Ball, Director of Cambridge Observatory; Dr. C. F. Moberly Bell, manager London "Times"; Sir Robert Cranston, late Lord Provost of Edinburgh; Sir Edward Elgar, composer; Mr. James Currie Macbeth, Provost of Dunfermline; Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, Secretary Zoölogical Society of London; Sir William Henry Preece, Consulting Engineer to the G. P. O. and Colonies; Dr. John Rhŷs, Principal of Jesus College, University of Oxford; Dr. Ernest S. Roberts, Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University; Mr. William Robertson, Member Dunfermline Trust; Dr. John Ross, Chairman Dunfermline Trust, and Dr. William T. Stead, editor "Review of Reviews"; and from Holland, Jonkheer R. de Marees van Swinderen, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States, and Dr. Joost Marius Willem van der Poorten-Schwartz ("Maarten Maartens"), author.

Entrance to Highland Park

Mr. Andrew Carnegie has founded this splendid Institute, with its school system, at a cost alreadyapproximating twenty million dollars, and he must enjoy the satisfaction of knowing it to be the rallying ground for the cultured and artistic life of the community. The progress made each year goes by leaps and bounds; so much so that we might well employ the phrase used by Macaulay to describe Lord Bacon's philosophy: "The point which was yesterday invisible is to-day its starting-point, and to-morrow will be its goal." The Institute has truly a splendid mission.

The University of Pittsburgh was opened about 1770 and incorporated by the Legislature in 1787 under the name Pittsburgh Academy. In 1819 the name was changed to the Western University of Pennsylvania, but, holding to the narrower scope of a college, it did not really become a university until 1892, when it formed the Department of Medicine by taking over the Western Pennsylvania Medical College. In 1895 the Departments of Law and Pharmacy were added and women were for the first time admitted. In 1896 the Department of Dentistry was established. In 1908 (July 11th) the name was changed to the University of Pittsburgh. The several departments of the University are at present (1908) located in different parts of the city, but a new site of forty-three acres has beenacquired near Schenley Park on which it is planned to bring them all together. These new plans have been drawn under the direction of the chancellor, Dr. Samuel Black McCormick, whose faith in the merit of his cause is bound to remove whole mountains of financial difficulties. The University embraces a College and Engineering School, a School of Mines, a Graduate Department, a Summer School, Evening Classes, Saturday Classes, besides Departments of Astronomy, Law, Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dentistry. It now has a corps of one hundred and fifty-one instructors and a body of 1,138 students.

The author ventures to repeat in this little book a suggestion which has been made by him several times, looking to a working coöperation or even a closer bond of union between the Carnegie Institute and the University of Pittsburgh. In an address delivered at the Carnegie Institute on Founder's Day, 1908, the author made the following remarks on this subject:

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