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.