610 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



struction of the new State insane asylum at 

 Wernersville reported that they believed the 

 foundations would not bear half the weight to be 

 supported. The contract provided that the walls 

 should be constructed of local material, but it is 

 said that much of the stone used was picked up 

 in the fields in the vicinity of the asylum. Mem- 

 bers of the committee said that in some places 

 they were able to pull round stones out of the 

 walls with their hands. They recommended that 

 the entire structure be pulled down. The report 

 caused surprise because the building commission 

 appointed by the Governor had announced that 

 the structure was well built and in good condi- 

 tion. 



School for Soldiers' Orphans. The Legis- 

 lature made provision for an industrial school 

 for indigent soldiers' orphans. The per capita 

 rate of appropriation for the education and 

 maintenance of the children admitted to the in- 

 dustrial school shall not exceed $200 a year. 

 Scotland, in Franklin County, was chosen as the 

 site of the school. The ground will cost $12,500. 

 The commission expects to have the new school 

 ready for occupancy within a year. Applications 

 are already on file for the admission of a large 

 number, including those now in the soldiers' or- 

 phans' schools, eligible to admission. At present 

 the schools are almost filled to their capacity. 

 There are 215 pupils at the Chester Springs 

 school, 149 at Hartford, 177 at Uniontown, 1 in 

 St. Paul's Home. Philadelphia, and 2 in the train- 

 ing school for feeble-minded children at Elwyn. 

 The schools are in good condition and the chil- 

 dren are reported to be happy and contented. 

 The building now planned will accommodate 

 250 to 300 children. 



The Columbian Exposition. Pennsyl- 

 vania's appropriation for her exhibit was $300,- 

 000, of which all but $3.438.86 was expended. 

 The commission decided to sell the building. 

 The highest bid for it was $2,500, and it was 

 sold for that. Sales of furniture and other arti- 

 cles brought up the amount to $8,700. 



Rain and Floods. Heavy rains in May 

 caused unprecedented floods in the northwestern 

 part of the State. Meadville, Erie, Newcastle, 

 and Titusville were amon<j the places under 

 water. Trains were stopped and business sus- 

 pended, and immense damage was done to prop- 

 erty. 



Mining. Reports of accidents for 1893 in the 

 mining districts show that it was marked by a 

 smaller number of fatal accidents than is usual, 

 though the list is still very large. Six of the 

 7 anthracite districts (the seventh not having 

 been reported at the end of the year) show a 

 total of 1,291 accidents, and 352 lives lost. 



Labor Troubles. There was a general strike 

 of the employees of the Lehigh Valley Railroad 

 Nov. 18, which affected the whole line from New 

 York to Buffalo, with the greatest trouble, ap- 

 parently, at Wilkesbarre. The cause was ex- 

 plained to be that articles which were agreed 

 upon at Bethlehem in August at a conference 

 were not posted on the bulletin board and car- 

 ried into effect. In addition to this, the chair- 

 man of the grievance committee said it was 

 agreed that engineers in round-yard service 

 were to have a uniform rate of $3.25 a day ; but 

 the bulletin classified them at $2.75, $3, and 



$3.25 a day. The manager denied that any 

 agreements made had not been posted. Later, 

 it appeared that the superintendent refused to 

 receive a committee of employees who desired to 

 discuss the alleged disregard of the concessions 

 granted at the conference in the summer. Three 

 employees had been discharged, the committee 

 said in their letter, without an investigation or 

 a hearing. On the superintendent's refusal, the 

 strike was ordered. Nonunion men were em- 

 ployed to some extent, but many of them weie 

 induced by the strikers to give up their places. 

 The employees of the Erie road refused to handle 

 Lehigh valley freight. The strike prevented the 

 moving of coal, and thus threw many miners 

 out of work. Trains run by the new men were 

 stoned on certain parts of the road, and there 

 were some wrecks by obstructions on the tracks 

 which were attributed to the strikers or their 

 influence. But on the whole the strike was 

 conducted in an orderly manner. 



The strike came to an end about Dec. 6. Con- 

 cessions were made by both sides, the men suc- 

 ceeded in establishing the right for which they 

 were contending that of laying grievances be- 

 fore the representatives of tlie company by com- 

 mittee. The company's estimate of the loss in- 

 curred by the strike was given in the superin- 

 tendent's report as follows : Damage to locomo- 

 tives, $46,000; damage to cars. $19,000 ; damage 

 to freight in wrecks, $9,450 ; damage to perish- 

 able freight by delay, $2,550. While the report 

 contains no estimates of the general loss of traf- 

 fic and increase of expenses, an official said that 

 the company estimated the loss from those 

 sources at about $500,000, and the total cost of 

 the strike at about $600,000. It is also stated in 

 the report that the assumption that the strike 

 grew out of a refusal on the part of the officials 

 to discuss grievances with its employees or to 

 carry out the rules adopted and posted Aug. 7 is 

 a misapprehension of the facts, to correct which 

 a number of documents are submitted. One of 

 these is a circular addressed to the members of 

 the Order of Railroad Telegraphers by Grand 

 Chief Telegrapher Ramsay, under date of Nov. 

 23, five days after the beginning of the strike, 

 which says : " The chief cause of the strike is the 

 refusal of the Lehigh valley officials to recognize 

 Brother J. L. Hughes in his capacity as a mem- 

 ber of the protective board of the Order of Rail- 

 road Telegraphers. In other words, the compa- 

 ny's officials refuse to recognize the representa- 

 tives of organized labor, the very object for 

 which organizations are formed ; hence the 

 strike." 



The Homestead poisoning cases were tried in 

 January, and resulted in some convictions. Tes- 

 timony was given to show that croton oil and 

 arsenic had been taken by one of the men that 

 died. Evidence was given implicating two of 

 the union men by two cooks who confessed their 

 own complicity. All four were sentenced to the 

 Penitentiary. In July the two who confessed 

 made another confession, in which they said that 

 they had sworn falsely, and that no poison was 

 administered. The charges against the officers 

 of the company and the Pinkerton detectives 

 were dropped in June, and all the strikers who 

 had been arrested but not tried were released on 

 their own recognizance. 



