Les Standiford's 'Meet You In Hell'

“Meet You In Hell” is a book that writes about a story of two founding fathers of American industry- Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. The extremely bloody steelworkers’ strike that transformed fabled partnership into a furious way. However, the relationship between their management and labors during coke and steel period is the most important issue. Author Les Standiford begins this story at the bitter ending, when the dying Carnegie proposed a final meeting after two decades of separation, probably to ease his conscience. Frick’s reply: “Tell him that I’ll meet him in hell.” That is all the book is about. In nineteenth century, which was the first quarter of iron and steel industry, the relation between management and labor was remarkably

In the spring of 1892, Carnegie had Frick produce as much armor plate as possible before the union's contract expired at the end of June. If the union failed to accept Frick's terms, Carnegie instructed him to shut down the plant and wait until the workers buckled. "We... approve of anything you do," Carnegie wrote from England in words he would later come to regret. "We are with you to the end."

With Carnegie's carte blanche support, Frick moved to slash wages. Plant workers responded by hanging Frick in effigy. At the end of June, Frick started closing down his open hearth and armor-plate mills, locking out 1,100 men. On June 25th, Frick announced he would no longer negotiate with the union; now he would only deal with workers individually. Leaders of Amalgamated were willing to concede on almost every level, except on the dissolution of their union. Workers tried to reach the Carnegie who had strongly defended labor's right to

Standiford mentions in the book that the management of all these disparate business entities was becoming “unwidely”. Carnegie at least publicly claimed to support all working men and their right to organize, but Frick did not want to apologize for what he had done. When Homestead Strike fully exploded in gunfire and violent war, Carnegie gave Frick full support for whatever means he adopted to suppress the strikers and keep the company sound. Only after it was all over and the dead had been counted did Carnegie express some mild criticism of Frick's tactics. In coke industry, according to the “Meet You In Hell”, McLuckie, a $2.25-a-day employee in the Homestead converter department, said: ”The cause of the wage trouble is not generally understood. We were persuaded to vote the Republican ticket four years ago that our wages might be maintained.” This shows that mostly employees were really upset on the part of manufactures toward the reduction of wages. Under the management of Mr. Henry Clay Frick, the employees had wiped out organization in the coke regions. The relationship between management and labor became extremely stressful. That was the reason why the capitalist had to lower steel and coke prices, because the construction was really low. With less work available, the skilled