1892 - Commerce

Commerce

A coal mine explosion January 8 at McAlister, Oklahoma, kills 100 workers.

Pittsburgh iron and steel magnate Henry W. Oliver hears about the iron-ore discoveries north of Duluth in Minnesota's Mesabi range 2 years ago (see Oliver, 1888). He rushes to inspect the diggings, Leonidas Merritt shows him specimens of high-grade ore lying almost on the surface, says the iron can be scooped up with a steam shovel at 5ยข per ton in labor cost, and has no trouble persuading Oliver to lease a vast tract. Organizing the Oliver Mining Company with a $600,000 cash investment, Oliver builds a railroad to Lake Superior and begins shipping the ore from lake ports to Pittsburgh. Andrew Carnegie is skeptical, but Carnegie Steel Company head Henry Clay Frick flouts Carnegie's orders and joins forces with Oliver to exploit the Mesabi deposits (see Rockefeller, 1893; United States Steel, 1901).

Idaho mineowners reduce wages for unskilled workers, even after railroads reduce freight rates for ores March 15 (see 1891). Unionized workers strike, the owners lock them out in an effort to break the union, and some 800 non-union miners arrive by June, enabling the mines to reopen. One union discovers in July that one of its most trusted men is working undercover for the Pinkerton agency, strikers dynamite the Frisco Mill at Coeur d'Alene July 11, union and non-union miners exchange gunfire July 12, a non-union guard and three union men are killed, the state's governor orders in six companies of the National Guard, federal troops augment the guard, and 600 union men are arrested (see 1899).

Homestead, Pennsylvania, steel workers strike the Carnegie-Phipps mill in June while Carnegie is in Scotland and are refused a union contract by managing head Henry Clay Frick, who hire 300 Pinkerton guards to suppress the strike (see 1888). Barges bring the Pinkerton men 10 miles up the Monongahela River, where they encounter armed strikers, both sides open fire, 10 men are killed and 60 wounded before the governor can obtain an order declaring martial law; Frick himself is shot and stabbed by Vilna-born anarchist Alexander Berkman (originally Ovsei Osipovich Berkkan), 21, who gets into his office, shoots Frick three times, and stabs him twice with a poisoned knife (he will be convicted of attempted murder, draw a 22-year prison sentence, and serve 14, many of them in solitary confinement). Frick writes a note before being given medical attention to reiterate his position that the union will not be recognized even if he dies, but he recovers. Union organizers are dismissed, and the men go back to their 12-hour shifts November 20 after nearly 5 months of work stoppage. At a time when a middle-class family can live comfortably with servants on $2,000 per year, when a factory worker earns about $446 per year, a clerk about $885, a railroad worker $563, a miner $393, and a schoolteacher $273, Andrew Carnegie's income for the year is $4 million, down only $300,000 from 1891 (see 1888; Carnegie Steel, 1899).

Idaho declares martial law July 14 as silver miners strike.

"American workmen are subjected to peril of life and limb as great as a soldier in time of war," says President Harrison.

Australia has a bitter strike that closes down ports, mines, and sheep-shearing stations and is ended only by military intervention. The 7-year-old Broken Hill Proprietary Company and other mining companies will not make peace with the unions until 1923.

United States Rubber Company is created by an amalgamation of four major companies under the direction of Maine-born importer Charles R. (Ranlett) Flint, 42, who 6 years ago arranged to import Brazilian rubber and will put together trusts in other kinds of businesses.

Economic depression begins in the United States, but the New York Tribune publishes a list of the country's 4,047 millionaires, a number that has grown from fewer than 20 in 1840.

Financier Cyrus W. Field dies at New York July 12 at age 72, having lost most of his fortune; financier Jay Gould dies at New York December 2 at age 56, leaving an estate valued officially at nearly $73.225 million but generally thought to be more like $145 million. His eldest son, George, 28, takes over Gould's business interests.