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