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  • Andrew Carnegie's legacy

    From JAB@21:1/5 to All on Wed Aug 21 18:29:25 2024
    Andrew Carnegie's legacy is steeped in ruthlessness

    When I was a young adult in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Andrew
    Carnegie built his wealth (Letters, 12 April), it was hard to walk a
    block without something attesting to the man's legacy: Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural
    History, Carnegie Science Center, and buses to Carnegie (an entire
    borough). Carnegie libraries dotted every small town in the area.

    Carnegie made his fortune by ruthlessly defending the systems that
    kept extreme poverty rampant during the era - by exposing his workers
    to extreme working conditions with little rest and even less pay. He
    resorted to violence to keep them from securing protections such as
    safety policies, healthy working hours and fair wages. Men, women and
    children were injured or died during the Homestead strike. The money
    that carved institutions in his name came from anything other than
    peace.

    It's easy to admire the infrastructure that he secured before he died,
    saving him from his eventual anonymity in just a few centuries more.
    Please don't mistake his contributions as differing from those of
    modern centibillionaires - they are both extravagant attempts to leave
    a legacy in whatever the trend of the era may be.

    Michelle Bufton
    Ludlow, Shropshire

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/17/andrew-carnegie-legacy-is-steeped-in-ruthlessness

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Anonymous@21:1/5 to JAB on Thu Aug 22 00:58:03 2024
    JAB wrote:
    Andrew Carnegie's legacy is steeped in ruthlessness

    When I was a young adult in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Andrew
    Carnegie built his wealth (Letters, 12 April), it was hard to walk a
    block without something attesting to the man's legacy: Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural
    History, Carnegie Science Center, and buses to Carnegie (an entire
    borough). Carnegie libraries dotted every small town in the area.

    Carnegie made his fortune by ruthlessly defending the systems that
    kept extreme poverty rampant during the era - by exposing his workers
    to extreme working conditions with little rest and even less pay. He
    resorted to violence to keep them from securing protections such as
    safety policies, healthy working hours and fair wages. Men, women and children were injured or died during the Homestead strike. The money
    that carved institutions in his name came from anything other than
    peace.

    The union started the violence at Homestead, and the rest of that paragraph
    is a pack of lies.

    Michelle Bufton
    Ludlow, Shropshire

    Rape her.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JAB@21:1/5 to Anonymous on Thu Aug 22 07:30:08 2024
    On Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:58:03 -0400, Anonymous <anon@anon.net> wrote:

    The union started the violence at Homestead,

    Henry c. Frick

    "In the face of depressed steel prices, Henry c. Frick, general
    manager of the Homestead plant that Carnegie largely owned, was
    determined to cut wages and break the Amalgamated Association of Iron
    and Steel Workers, the nation's largest steelmaker and its largest
    craft union."

    "With the union's three-year contract with Carnegie coming to an end
    in June 1892, Frick announced pay cuts for hundreds of Homestead
    workers. After refusing to negotiate with the union, he shuttered the
    Homestead steel mill on June 29, locking 3,800 workers out."

    "The strike at the Homestead became violent when the company brought
    in armed guards from out of town. The guards were hired partly to
    protect the factory from the strikers. The guards were also expected
    to protect new workers that the company planned to bring in to replace
    the strikers."



    What happened to Henry Frick after the Homestead Strike?

    Berkman decided to assassinate Frick in revenge for his savage
    treatment of workers during the Homestead Strike. Posing as an
    employment agent for strikebreakers, Berkman gained entrance to
    Frick's office on July 23, 1892. He pointed his revolver at Frick's
    head and fired. The bullet struck Frick in the shoulder.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Anonymous@21:1/5 to JAB on Thu Aug 22 20:22:31 2024
    JAB wrote:
    On Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:58:03 -0400, Anonymous <anon@anon.net> wrote:

    The union started the violence at Homestead,

    Henry c. Frick

    "In the face of depressed steel prices, Henry c. Frick, general
    manager of the Homestead plant that Carnegie largely owned, was
    determined to cut wages and break the Amalgamated Association of Iron
    and Steel Workers, the nation's largest steelmaker and its largest
    craft union."

    "With the union's three-year contract with Carnegie coming to an end
    in June 1892, Frick announced pay cuts for hundreds of Homestead
    workers. After refusing to negotiate with the union, he shuttered the Homestead steel mill on June 29, locking 3,800 workers out."

    "The strike at the Homestead became violent when the company brought
    in armed guards from out of town. The guards were hired partly to
    protect the factory from the strikers. The guards were also expected
    to protect new workers that the company planned to bring in to replace
    the strikers."



    What happened to Henry Frick after the Homestead Strike?

    Berkman decided to assassinate Frick in revenge for his savage
    treatment of workers during the Homestead Strike. Posing as an
    employment agent for strikebreakers, Berkman gained entrance to
    Frick's office on July 23, 1892. He pointed his revolver at Frick's
    head and fired. The bullet struck Frick in the shoulder.

    Unresponsive, as usual.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JAB@21:1/5 to Anonymous on Thu Aug 22 22:04:39 2024
    On Thu, 22 Aug 2024 20:22:31 -0400, Anonymous <anon@anon.net> wrote:

    Unresponsive, as usual.
    The union started the violence at Homestead


    When Frick plotted to sneak in 300 Pinkerton agents on river barges
    before dawn on July 6, word spread across town as they were arriving
    and thousands of workers and their families rushed to the river to
    keep them out. Gunfire broke out between the men on the barge and the
    workers on land. In the mayhem that ensued, the Pinkertons surrendered
    and came ashore, where they were beaten and cursed by the angry
    workers.

    At the end of the battle between the Pinkertons and nearly the entire
    town, seven workers and three Pinkertons were dead. Four days later,
    8,500 National Guard forces were sent at the request of Frick to take
    control of the town and steel mill. After winning his victories, Frick announced, "Under no circumstances will we have any further dealing
    with the Amalgamated Association as an organization. This is final."
    And in November, the Amalgamated Association collapsed.

    https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-events/1892-homestead-strike

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)