CARNEGIE HOMESTEAD STEEL STRIKE RIBBON BADGE AND PAPERWEIGHT.
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Winning Bid:
$649.00
(Includes 18% Buyer's Premium)
Bidding Ended:
Tuesday, November 2, 2021 9:00:00 PM (20 Minute Clock Begins At Tuesday, November 2, 2021 9:00:00 PM)
Item Description
9.5" long ribbon including metallic fringe and rosette. Silk has "Thos. Marlow Lodge" above the "Amalgamated Assn. Of Iron & Steel Workers" (AA) logo w/text "No. 56 PA. Homestead" below. Well flattened diagonal folds and moderate even soiling from use. VF. 3.25" dia. paperweight w/union logo has wear from use including scattered chips. Fine. See next two lots for related material. The notoriously anti-union Henry Clay Frick was charged w/running Andrew Carnegie's steel operations. In June of 1892, while Carnegie was hiding out in Scotland, Frick locked out Homestead plant workers. AA union members took control of the area around the plant preventing any from entering. When local authorities couldn't take the plant back on July 5th, Frick enacted 300 Pinkerton strike breakers to barge in along the Monongahela River. Fire fights broke out between the Pinkerton agents and strikers leading to several deaths and multiple injuries. The Pinkerton guards surrendered to the strikers who turned them over to the sheriff. By July 9, though the AA union claimed law and order had been restored to the area, Gov. Robert Pattison put the town under martial law and on July 12 8,000 troops arrived collapsing the strike. Public sentiment for the strikers took a further hit as Anarchist Alexander Berkman broke into Frick's office shooting him three times and stabbing him in the ensuing melee. Frick survived the attack and Berkman was sentenced to 14 years for attempted murder. Though the strike was a failure for the AA union, the events helped sway public opinion away from the use of Pinkerton agents w/over half of US states passing laws against hired strike breakers in the ensuing years.
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