to strike in midwinter and in that case they would not be
able to resist a further reduction in wages. Upon receiving this
statement the company locked out its employees and the battle began.

The steel works were surrounded by a fence three miles long, fifteen
feet in height, and covered with barbed wire. It was called "Fort
Frick," and the three hundred detectives were to be brought down the
river by boat and landed in the fort. Morris Hillquit gives the
following account of the pitched battle that occurred in the early
morning hours of July 6: "As soon as the boat carrying the Pinkertons
was sighted by the pickets the alarm was sounded. The strikers were
aroused from their sleep and within a few minutes the river front was
covered with a crowd of coatless and hatless men armed with guns and
rifles and grimly determined to prevent the landing of the Pinkertons.
The latter, however, did not seem to appreciate the gravity of the
situation. They sought to intimidate the strikers by assuming a
threatening attitude and aiming the muzzles of their shining revolvers
at them. A moment of intense expectation followed. Then a shot was fired
from the boat and one of the strikers fell to the ground mortally
wounded. A howl of fury and a volley of bullets came back from the line
of the strikers, and a wild fusillade was opened on both sides. In vain
did the strike leaders attempt to pacify the men and to stop the
carnage--the strikers were beyond control. The struggle lasted several
hours, after which the Pinkertons retreated from the river bank and
withdrew to the cabin of the boat. There they remained in the sweltering
heat of the July sun without air or ventilation, under the continuing
fire of the enraged men on the shore, until they finally surrendered.
They were imprisoned by the strikers in a rink, and in the evening they
were sent out of town by rail. The number of dead on both sides was
twelve, and over twenty were seriously wounded."[17]

These events aroused the entire country, and the state of mind among the
working people generally was exceedingly bitter. It was a tension that
under certain circumstances might have provoked a civil war. Both the
Senate and the House of Representatives immediately appointed committees
to inquire into this movement from state to state of armed men, and the
employment by corporations of what amounted to a private army. It seems
to have been clearly established that the employers wanted