THE names of two famous Scots exiles are sadly linked in the violent
and bloody end to a steelworks strike which stains the early industrial
relations record of the United States.
When Andrew Carnegie, the great ironmaster, visited his home town of
Dunfermline this week in 1912 it was as the greatest benefactor Scotland
had ever known. In every sense he was a local hero.
After the family emigrated to Pittsburgh in 1848 Andrew worked to
amass a staggering fortune. In his later years much of this was
dispersed through a multitude of health and educational projects both in
Britain and in the United States. It has been calculated that he
literally gave away something in the region of #70m.
But if Andrew Carnegie (who as a child declared the overtly republican
goal of ''killing a king'') had a blank spot it was surely in the field
of labour relations. Despite his paternalistic outlook as an employer,
he abhorred the idea of the ordinary worker ''getting organised.''
In 1892 his employees at the sprawling Homestead Steelworks struck for
higher pay while Carnegie was on holiday in Scotland and his partner
Henry C. Frick was minding the store. The management brought in a team
from the Pinkerton Detective Agency, founded by the late Allan
Pinkerton, a Glasgow cooper, who had been head of the American secret
service.
It is said that in an effort to break the strike these hard men
organised a street battle which left 10 dead and up to 100 injured.
Cowed, the workforce returned on half pay and the debacle resulted in a
life-long split between Frick and Carnegie.
Two interesting ironies attach themselves to this tale. The Carnegies
were so poor on leaving Dunfermline that the mother of the man who was
to be the richest of his generation had to borrow their passage money of
#20 before they could set sail for New York. Pinkerton, born in Glasgow
in 1819, had been a Chartist in the days of his youth and active in the
reform movement before sailing into the new world of big business.
On the international stage this week one of Venice's most famous
artists Jacopo Robusti, better known as Tintoretto, was born (September
29, 1518); Hungarian composer Bela Bartok died (September 26, 1945); and
Samuel Pepys drank his first cup of tea (September 25, 1660).
In Scotland:
September 24
1606 -- Sir William Douglas, keeper of Mary Queen of Scots during her
imprisonment at Lochleven Castle, died.
1858 -- Death reported of Miss Dunlop, aged 86, at Bloomfield near
Ayr; probably the last beauty celebrated by Burns, in the poem ''New
Year's Day.''
1962 -- Scottish Interplanetary Society launched a space awareness
project but admitted that the first Scots astronaut was ''still far in
the future.''
September 25
1856 -- Labourer jailed for 10 days for stealing two slices of bread
(unbuttered) and four (buttered) from a Glasgow shipyard; his plea was
one of hunger.
1912 -- Multi-millionaire Andrew Carnegie visited his home town of
Dunfermline to open a Women's Institute and lay the foundation stone of
a College of Hygiene.
September 26
1861 -- First British Open golf championship held at Prestwick and won
by Tom Morris.
1975 -- Ten young Scottish Territorial soldiers drowned when their
boat plunged over a weir during an exercise on the River Trent.
September 27
1798 -- Glasgow advocate Thomas Muir who sympathised with the French
revolutionaries and was sentenced to 14 years' transportation to
Australia for sedition, died at Chantilly, France, aged 33.
1938 -- Queen Elizabeth -- the largest passenger liner ever built --
launched at Clydebank by the now Queen Mother; officials were distressed
to see the liner begin her slide before the launch speech.
1979 -- Clydebank guitarist Jimmy McCulloch who played with Paul
McCartney's group Wings, found dead in his London home.
September 28
1760 -- Gilbert Burns, brother of the national bard, born at Alloway,
Ayrshire.
1908 -- Formidable American anti-drinks campaigner Miss Carrie Nation,
known as ''The Saloon Smasher,'' came to Glasgow.
September 29
1891 -- Three painters killed when scaffolding collapsed on the Forth
rail bridge.
1981 -- Bill Shankly, legendary Scots manager of Liverpool FC, died
aged 66.
September 30
1896 -- Six people died in a panic following a fire at music hall in
Aberdeen.
1907 -- Animal lovers in Scotland delighted by the arrival of
commercial motor vehicles which meant the end to the daily grind for
thousands of cart horses.
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