PSAT Writing and Language Practice Question 617

Question: 617

Frick
{1}
Of all the legacies left behind by American industrialists of the 19th century, Henry Clay Frick's is perhaps the most 12 interesting. Frick is most remembered for his role in precipitating the violent outcome of the 1892 Homestead Steel labor strike.
{2}
In an effort to oust the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, or AA, from the Homestead Works in Pennsylvania, Frick—after 13 fortifying the factory with fences water cannons, barbed wire, and sniper towers—locked union workers out of the plant one day prior to the expiration of its contract. A renegotiation of the contract had failed recently when AA workers—citing a steady rise in the price of steel—requested an 8% wage increase and were met by Frick with a 22% decrease. 14 Incensed by Frick's actions, AA workers alongside townspeople and several other labor unions began picketing the factory two days after the lockout.
{3}
After about one week in which strikers successfully prevented new laborers and supervisors from entering the plant, Frick contracted 300 Pinkerton Detectives to break the strike by 15 working quite hard. Hoping to catch the picketers off guard, the Pinkertons—armed with Winchester rifles—boarded two shielded barges around 4 A.M. and were towed two miles upriver to the plant.
{4}
Conflicting testimonies exist as to 16 whom fired the first shot. The strikers, having been tipped off about the assault, 17 were laying

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