INDUSTRIALISM: 1865-1900
I. Major Ideas
A. By 1900 the
1.
largest
creditor.
2. Technological innovations:
a. steel:
railroads, skyscrapers, engines
b. oil:
internal combustible engine, cars (suburbs), subways, street railroads
c.
Electricity: lights, power, refrigerated railroad cars
d. Advances
in business: telephone, typewriter, cash register, adding machines.
e. Mass
popular culture (early 20th century): Cameras, phonographs,
bicycles, moving
pictures, amusement parks, professional sports.
f. Contrasts
1st Industrial Revolution: textiles, coal, iron, early railroads.
3. In 1880, about 50% of
Americans worked in agriculture; only 25% by 1920
4. Class divisions became most
pronounced in
5. Farmers lost ground
a. In 1880,
25% of those who farmed did not own their land.
b. 90% of
African Americans lived in the South; 75% were tenants or
sharecroppers.
6. Depressions and recessions led to
unrest
a. 1873-1879;
1882-1885; 1893-1897; 1907-1908; 1913-1915
II. Railroad building
A. By 1900, 192,556 miles of track; 35,000 in 1865 alone
(more than all
1. Gov’t subsidized
transcontinental railroad building since unpopulated areas were
initially
unprofitable
a. Railroad
companies given 155.5 million acres along RR lines (checkerboard)
b. Gov’t
received low rates for postal service and military traffic in return.
2. Cities flourished where lines
were laid while bypassed cities became "ghost towns"
B. The Transcontinental Railroad (completed in 1869)
1. Pacific Railway Act
(1862): Passed by Republican Congress during Civil War.
-- Connecting
the pacific states seen as urgent to the security of the republic
2. Union Pacific Railroad
appointed by Congress to build west from Omaha, Nebraska
a. Company
granted 20 square miles for each mile of track constructed
b. Company
also granted federal loans for each mile: $16,000 for flat land,. $32,000 for
hilly country; $48,000 for mountainous country
c.
Construction began in 1865
d. Irish "paddies"
who fought in the Union armies worked at a frantic pace.
e. Workers
fended off attacks from hostile Indians; scores lost their lives
f.
"Hell on wheels": tented towns sprang up at rail’s end; drinking,
prostitution
g. Insiders
of the Credit Mobilier construction company pocketed $73 million
for some $50 million worth of work.
-- Bribed congressmen looked the other way
3. Central Pacific Railroad
pushed east from
a. Led by
the "Big Four"
i. Leland Stanford -- ex-governor of CA and future Senator
ii. Collis P. Huntington – v.p.; managed enterprise on day to day basis.
b. CP ran a
relatively clean operation compared to Union Pacific (Credit Mobilier)
c. Gov’t
provided same subsidies as to Union Pacific
d. 10,000
Chinese laborers, "coolies," worked as cheap, efficient and
docile labor
-- Hundreds lost their lives in premature explosions and other mishaps
e. Sierra
Nevada became a major challenge as workers could only chip through
a few inches a day through rocky tunnels.
4. Railroad completed at
a. Union
Pacific built 1,086 miles of line
b. Central
Pacific built 689 miles
5. Significance:
a. Linked
the entire continent via railroad and by telegraph
b. Paved the
way for incredible growth of the Great West.
c.
Facilitated a burgeoning trade with the Orient
d. Seen by
Americans at the time as a monumental achievement along with
the Declaration of Independence and the freeing of the slaves.
6. Other Transcontinental lines
a. No
subsequent RR received gov’t loans but all received generous land grants.
b. Northern
Pacific Railroad completed in 1883 (Lake Superior to Puget Sound)
c. Atchison,
Topeka, and Santa Fe RR completed in 1884
-- Connected those cities through the southwestern deserts to California.
d. Southern
Pacific:
e. Great
Northern Railroad:
i. Created by James G. Hill, probably the greatest of all the railroad
builder.
-- Believed prosperity of railroad depends on prosperity of area it serves
ii. Hill ran agricultural demonstration trains along his lines and imported
bulls from
C. Railroad Consolidation and Mechanization
1. Cornelius Vanderbilt
(1794-1877)
a. Popularized
the steel rail; replaced the old iron tracks of the NY Central RR
-- Steel safer and more economical since it could carry a heavier load.
b. Amassed a
fortune of $100 million dollars
2. Jay Gould and Russell Sage by
1880 controlled much of railroad traffic in West.
a. Gutted
their railroads by stock watering and pocketing profits rather than reinvest.
b. Gould had
earlier tried to corner the gold market during Grant's presidency.
3. Significant improvements in
railroad building
a. Steel,
standard gauge of track width, Westinghouse air brake,
b. Pullman
Palace Cars afforded luxurious travel, introduced in 1860s.
D. Significance of
1. Spurred the industrialization of
the post-Civil War years (especially steel)
2. Sprawling nation became united
physically.
3. Created enormous domestic market
for US raw materials and manufactured goods.
-- Probably
the largest integrated market in the world.
4. Stimulated creation of 3 Western
frontiers: mining, agriculture, and ranching
5. Railroad led to great city ward
movement of late 19th c.
-- Railways
could feed huge numbers of people; supply raw materials and markets
6. Facilitated large influx of
immigrants.
--
Advertised in
7. Spurred investment from abroad
8. Concept of time altered with
creation of distinct "time zones" from coast to coast.
9. Maker of millionaires; a new
railroad aristocracy emerged
10. Native Americans displaced and herded into
ever-shrinking reservations.
E. Railroad corruption by the "Robber Barons"
1. Jay Gould: Forced prices
of stocks to boom and bust on some of his lines.
2. stock watering: Railroad
stock promoters grossly inflated value of railroad stock.
-- Railroad
managers forced to charge high rates and wage ruthless competition
to pay off the exaggerated financial obligations.
3. Railroad tycoons, for a time,
became the most powerful people in
a. Bribed
judges and legislatures, employed effective lobbyists, and elected their
own men to office. ("Senatorial Roundhouse" cartoon)
b. Gave free
passes to journalists and politicians.
4. Eventually ruled as an oligarchy
instead of cut-throat competition.
a.
"Pools"
i. Formed defensive alliances to protect their profits.
ii. Competing firms agreed to divide the market, establish prices, place
profits in a
common fund, and pro-rate profits.
b. Some gave
secret rebates or kickbacks to large corporations...
c. Slashed
rates on competing lines but made up difference on other lines.
d. Hurt
farmers with long-haul, short-haul practices
5. Cornelius Vanderbilt:
"Law! What do I care about the Law? Hain’t I got the power?"
-- Ruined
opponents rather than sue them legally.
F. Government regulation of the "Robber Baron"
railroad tycoons
1. Initially, Americans slow to
react to the excesses of the railroad plutocracy.
a.
Jeffersonian ideals hostile to gov’t interference with business.
b. Dedicated
to free enterprise and to the principle that competition fuels trade.
-- Believed anyone could become a millionaire; the "American dream"
c. Adam
Smith: The Wealth of Nations (1776) – "bible" of
capitalism.
2. Supreme Court decisions
a.
Depression of 1870s inspired farmers to protest against being forced into
bankruptcy by
unfair railroad policies.
-- Organized agrarian groups such as the Grange (Patrons of Husbandry)
pressured
many Midwestern legislatures to regulate the railroad monopoly.
b. Slaughterhouse
Cases, 1873 -- molded Court's interpretation of 14th Amendment for
decades.
i. Court ruled protection of "labor" was not a federal
responsibility under the 14th
Amendment but a state responsibility.
ii. Significance: Protected businesses from federal regulation if they
engaged only in
intrastate commerce (within a state).
c. Munn
v. Illinois, (1877) -- (One of so-called farmer "Granger
Laws")
-- Decision: Public always has the right to regulate business operations in
which
the public has an interest; ruled against railroads
d. Wabash
case, 1886
i. Significance: Supreme Court ruled that individual states had no power
to regulate interstate commerce; responsibility rested with the
federal gov’t.
-- In effect, overturned Munn v
ii.
iii. Stimulated push for Interstate Commerce Act of 1887
e. 1886,
Court ruled a corporation was a "person" under the 14th Amendment.
i. Thus, extremely difficult for federal gov't to regulate corporations
especially since
Court justices and many gov't officials often sided with corporations.
ii. Railroad companies in particular hid behind the decision.
3. Interstate Commerce Act
passed in 1887 (despite Cleveland’s disapproval)
a. Set up Interstate
Commerce Commission (ICC) (most important provision)
to enforce and administer the new legislation
b.
Prohibited rebates and pools and required railroads to publish their rates
openly.
c. Forbade
unfair discrimination against shippers and outlawed charging more for
short haul than long haul over the same line.
d. Positive
result -- provided an orderly forum where competing business interests
could resolve their conflicts in peaceful ways.
e. Yet, ICC
didn’t effectively regulate the railroads; more of a panacea to public.
f. 1st large-scale
attempt by fed. to regulate business in the interest of society.
-- Precedent for future regulatory commissions in 20th century.
III. Industrialism and Mechanization
A. Civil War profiteering created huge fortunes and a class
of millionaires now eager to invest.
B. Natural resources fed industrial growth.
1.
ore for
steel industry.
2. Unskilled labor, both domestic
and foreign, was now cheap and abundant.
C. Whitney’s interchangeable parts concept now perfected by
industry.
1. Cash register, stock ticker, and
typewriter facilitated business operations.
-- Women
increasingly entered the workplace to run these machines.
2. Patents increased significantly
between 1860-1890
3. Urbanization spurred by the
refrigerator car, electric dynamo, and the electric railway.
D. Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone (1876)
1. Telephone network created
nation-wide within a few years.
2. Young women (usually middle
class) worked as operators.
-- Office
positions still within "Cult of Domesticity" parameters
E. Thomas A. Edison
1. Electric light (most famous),
phonograph, mimeograph, Dictaphone, moving pictures.
--
"Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration"
2. Electricity became another
cornerstone of the industrial revolution
-- Cities
illuminated, electric railcars, etc.
IV. The Trust emerges --
destruction of competition
A. "Vertical integration" -- controlling
every aspect of the production process
1. Pioneered by Andrew Carnegie:
steel co. mined ore in
Rockefeller), shipped ore to the
2. Goal is to improve efficiency by
making supplies more reliable, controlling the quality of the
product at
all stages of production, and eliminate middlemen’s fees
3. Not as detrimental as horizontal
consolidation.
B. "Horizontal integration" --
Consolidating with competitors to monopolize a given market.
1. John D. Rockefeller: Pioneered
the "trust" in 1882 as a means of controlling his
competition
through the Standard Oil Company.
2. Trust: Stockholders
in various smaller oil companies sold their stock and
authority to
the board of directors of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company.
a.
Stockholders receive trust certificates and the board of trustees exercises
full control of
the business.
b. Trust
consolidated operations of previously competing enterprises.
c. Standard
Oil eventually cornered the world petroleum market.
d. Was worth
about $900 million upon his retirement in 1897.
-- Incredible considering auto industry not born yet.
C. "Interlocking directorates" mastered by J.
P. Morgan
1. Depression of 1890s drove many
struggling businessmen into Morgan’s arms.
2. Sought to consolidate rival
enterprises and ensure future harmony by placing officers of his
own banking
syndicate on their various boards of directors.
3. Eventually, holding companies
came to thwart anti-trust legislation
a. Bought
controlling shares of stock in member companies instead of purchasing
companies outright.
b. While the
"held" companies remained separate businesses on paper, in reality,
the holding company controlled them.
c. Holding
Companies made trusts unnecessary and permitted actual mergers.
D. Concentration of financial power enhanced economic
growth, paved the way for
large-scale mass production, and
stimulated new markets.
V. The Steel Industry emerges
A. Cornerstone of the 2nd American Industrial Revolution
1. Held together skyscrapers, coal
scuttles, railroad tracks.
2. Typified "heavy
industry" which concentrated on making "capital goods"
rather than
consumer goods.
3. By 1900,
B. Bessemer process -1850s
1. Turned iron into steel.
2. Steel could now be readily
produced for locomotives, steel rails, and the heavy girders
used in
building construction.
C. Andrew Carnegie
1. Brought to
2. Disliked monopolistic trusts
a. His
organization was a partnership that involved about 40 "
Millionaires" at one point.
b. Henry
Clay Frick -- his general manager and partner
3. By 1890, Carnegie was producing
about 1/4 of the nation’s
4. Eventually sold his company to
J. P. Morgan for over $400 million
5. Spent rest of life giving money
away to the public: libraries, pensions for
professors,
etc. -- in all, about $350 million.
D. J. Pierpont Morgan
1. Owned a Wall Street banking house
which financed the reorganization of
railroads,
insurance companies, and banks.
--
Reputation for integrity; did not believe "money power" was dangerous
unless
it was in the wrong hands.
2. In 1901, he launched the enlarged
United States Steel Corporation
a.
Combination of Carnegie’s holdings and others, and stock watering.
b.
Corporation capitalized at $1.4 billion making it
billion dollar corporation (greater than sum of entire nation in 1800!)
-- However, half of stock’s worth was water
c. Elbert
H. Gary, a co-leader of USX.
3. Charles Schwab also
important in shaping steel industry (Bethlehem Steel)
VI. The Petroleum industry and other trusts
A. First well in PA in 1859 started
1. Oil would dwarf the wealth
generated by all the gold extracted in West.
2. Kerosene emerged as standard for
lamps, crippling the old whale-oil business.
B. John D. Rockefeller
1. Came from a modest background and
became a successful businessman at 19.
2. In 1870, organized the Standard
Oil Co. of
-- By 1877,
Rockefeller controlled 95% of oil refineries in
3. Pursued a policy of rule or ruin;
ruthless in his business tactics
-- Believed
he was obeying law of nature -- survival of the fittest.
4. Standard Oil produced a quality
product at a cheap price which fueled
important
economies home and abroad
a.
Large-scale methods of production and distribution
b.
Consolidation proved more profitable than ruinous price wars.
C. Gustavus F. Swift & Philip Armour
became kings of the meat industry
-- Enormous profits from western
herds
D. Andrew Mellon
1. Financier who became one of
2. Expert ability to select, back,
and acquire shares of promising business
ventures
such as Aluminum Co. of America, Gulf Oil Corporation, and
the
Pittsburgh Coal Company.
VII. "nouveau riche" – arrogant class of "new rich" after Civil War
A. Older American aristocracy of successful merchants and
professionals highly
resentful and concerned about the
change in the order of society
1. Patrician families losing power
and prestige in the face of the "new rich"
2. Economic liberty and community
involvement being overshadowed by
monopoly and
political machines.
B. Antitrust crusaders generally led by the "best
men" -- genteel old-family do-gooders
who were conservative defenders of
their own vanishing influence.
-- Roosevelt’s,
C. Despite plutocracy and deep class divisions, the captains
of industry provided material
progress.
D. Social Darwinism
1. Charles Darwin -- Origin
of the Species ("survival of the fittest" theory)
-- Although
Darwin’s work was rooted in biology; others used his theory as the foundation
for promoting the virtues of free-market capitalism.
2. Herbert Spencer -- advocated
idea of Social Darwinism
a. Applied
Darwin’s theory of natural selection to human competition
b.
Established sociology as a respected discipline in the U.S.
3. "Millionaires a product of natural
selection": William Graham Sumner --What Social
Classes Owe to Each Other
E. Some argued that Divine Providence was responsible for
winners and losers in society
1. God had granted wealth as He had
given grace for material and spiritual
salvation of
the select few.
-- John D.
Rockefeller: "The good Lord gave me my money"
2. Resembled "Divine Right of
Kings" in justifying power
3. Identify of interest idea held
that existing hierarchy was just and decreed by God.
4. Those that stayed poor must be
lazy and lacking in enterprise.
a. Many of
the new rich had succeeded from modest beginnings (Carnegie)
b. Rev.
Russell Conwell: "Acres of Diamonds" lectures made
him rich.
-- "There is not a poor person in the
own shortcomings."
F. The Gospel of Wealth -- justified uneven
distribution of wealth by industrialists
1. Andrew Carnegie: The Gospel
of Wealth synthesized prevailing attitudes of wealth
and survival
of the fittest.
2. Wealth was God’s will
3. Stated money should be give away
for the public good but not to individuals in
want
(Rockefeller gave away $550 million by his death at age 97).
4. Believed in the long run extreme
disparities of wealth were good for the "race," because
the wealthy
added to civilization.
5. Believed alternative to
inequities of wealth was universal squalor.
6. Identity-of-interest argument
G. By 1890, value of all property in
was represented in the assets of
corporations.
VIII. Government regulation of trusts
A. Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890
1. Created in response to public
demand for curbing excesses of trusts.
2. Provision: Forbade
combinations in restraint of trade, without any distinction
between
"good" trusts and "bad" trusts.
3. Largely ineffective as it had no
significant enforcement mechanism.
a. First 7
of 8 decisions presented by attorney general were shot down by Court.
--
not trade or commerce!
b. More
trusts formed in 1890s under President McKinley than during
any other like period.
c. Not until
1914 (Clayton Anti-Trust Act) was the Sherman Act given teeth.
4. Ironically, used by
corporations to curb labor unions or labor combinations
that were
deemed to be restraining trade.
B. Public interests now eclipsing private enterprise in
political power due to such acts as
the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887
and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
-- Revolutionary in the sense that
public was shifting toward government protection
IX. The "New South"
A. The Changing South after the Civil War
1. Politics: for Southern whites, Democratic
party only viable political organization.
-- To ensure
its control, each southern state passed legislation taking voting rights away
from blacks (e.g., literacy tests, poll taxes, and "grandfather clauses.")
2. Social: White leadership adopted
Jim Crow laws that required racial separation of public
facilities.
-- Most
political/economic power remained in hands of powerful white aristocracy.
3. "Redeemers" and
"Bourbons": Powerful conservative oligarchy that controlled every
Southern state government after the end of Reconstruction.
-- Although
at times similar to antebellum planter class, it also included merchants,
industrialists, railroad developers, or financiers.
B. "New South" --Some gains made in textile
industry but by 1900, South still produced a
smaller % of
nation’s manufactured goods than it had before the Civil War.
1. Henry W. Grady, editor of
the
urged the
South to out-produce the North commercially and industrially.
2. Mill towns: Most visible signs of
Southern industrial expansion after Reconstruction.
a. Textile
factories encouraged by Southern conservative governments, which could offer
low taxes, a cheap labor supply, and an abundance of water power.
b. Mill
towns controlled their workers’ lives. While providing community and solidarity
among workers, mill towns prevented union organization.
C. The Tobacco Trust
1. Tobacco industry grew
dramatically after 1880 when machine-made cigarettes replaced
hitherto
practice of rolling one’s own
2. James Buchanan Duke &
family: mass-produced slim cigarettes: Amer. Tobacco Co
D. Industrialism partially impaired by high railroad rates
traveling northward.
E. Agriculture still dominated; South remained rural,
industrialism slow to take hold
1.
and black
sharecroppers.
2. Crop-lien system was at
the core of Southern agriculture -- Sharecropping
a. A farmer
mortgaged his ungrown crop in return for use of land and to acquire supplies
form the owner of a local store selling tools or seed.
b. Since
merchants seldom had competitors, farmers paid inflated prices for goods
purchased on credit as well as high interest.
c. Often, a
farmers harvest was given away in its entirety to the merchant but the farmers
still remained in debt.
d.
Indebtedness tended to increase annually resulting in the eventual loss of land
for the
farmer.
e. This
system of economic tyranny contributed in increase in cash crop growth as they
were seen as a more profitable way of paying off debts.
F. The "Lost Cause" and "Redemption"
1. Southerners remained proud of
their defiance in defense of states’ rights during the
Civil War.
2. After Reconstruction ended,
"Redemption" resulted in Confederate memorials and
cemeteries
commemorating the "Lost Cause."
3. Joel
a. Harris’
tales depicted antebellum slave society as a harmonious world.
b. Nostalgic
tales popular and showed the role and power of the Southern past.
X. Impact of the Second Industrial
Revolution on
A. Standard of living rose sharply as well-fed American
workers enjoyed more physical
comforts than any other nation.
B. Urban centers mushroomed as factories increasingly
demanded more labor
C. American agriculture eclipsed by industrialism:
railroads, steel, oil, electricity
D. Free-enterprise eclipsed by monopoly
E. The work-place became regimented and impersonal
F. Women achieved social and economic independence as
careers in typing, stenography,
and switchboard operators became
available.
-- Marriages delayed, smaller
families resulted
G. Social stratification most pronounced in
1. By 1900, about 10% controlled 90%
of the nation’s wealth.
2. Lower classes envious and
resentful of the nouveau riche
H. Foreign trade developed as high
XI. Rise of the Labor Movement
A. Conditions for workers in the 2nd industrial revolution
were precarious
1. Low-skilled jobs make workers
expendable as number of workers abundant
a.
Automation created short-term losses of jobs; better in long-run
b. Before
mechanization, most manufacturing done by skilled craft workers
(such as shoemakers, saddle-makers, etc.); earliest unions were trade unions.
c. Working
conditions often dismal and impersonal
d. Recourse
minimal the face of the vast power of industrialists
i. Strikes often nullified by the use of "scab" workers
ii. Conservative federal courts often ruled in favor of corporations’
iii. Corporations could also ask states to call in troops.
iv. Employers could lock-out rebellious workers & starve them into
submission.
v. Forced too many to sign "ironclad oaths" or "yellow dog
contracts"
which were agreements not to join a labor union.
vi. Also blacklisted incompliant workers.
e.
Corporations sometimes owned a "company town" where high priced
grocery
stores, easy credit, and sometimes rent deductions created a cycle debt.
f. Public
grew tired of frequent strikes; often unsympathetic to the workers’ plight.
-- Strike seemed too many foreign and socialistic and thus, unpatriotic.
2. Labor’s goals of currency reform,
greenback currency, and opposition to national banks
alarmed
conservatives for the rest of the century.
-- Yet,
wages were perhaps the highest in the world.
B. Civil War boosted labor unions
1. Drain of human resources put more
value on labor
2. Mounting cost of living created
urgent incentive to unionization.
-- By 1872,
several hundred thousand organized workers and 32 national
unions existed including crafts as bricklayers, typesetters, and shoemakers.
3. Collective bargaining
emerged as standard union practice.
C. National Labor Union organized in 1866 (led
by William Sylvis)
1. Major boost to the union
movement.
-- Designed
to bring together skilled craft unions into one large one
2. Lasted 6 years; attracted about
600,000 workers inc. skilled & unskilled farmers
3. Focused on social reform (such
as abolition of the wage system) but also fought
for goals such
as 8-hr. work-day and arbitration of industrial disputes.
-- Succeeded
in getting 8-hr day for gov’t workers but laws had no means of enforcement
and provisions were not implemented.
4. Blacks formed their own national
labor union in 1869 when they were no longer welcome
in the NLU.
5. NLU killed by depression of
1870s.
D. Molly Maguire’s (formed in 1875 by Irish
anthracite-coal miners in
1. Members were part of an Irish American
secret fraternal organization (Ancient
Order of
Hibernians).
2. Mollies used intimidation, arson,
and violence to protest owners’ denial of their
right to
unionize.
3. President of Reading Railroad
called in Pinkerton detective agency for help.
-- Mollies
infiltrated and incriminating evidence was gathered.
4. Mollies destroyed and twenty of
its members hanged in 1877.
5. The Mollies became martyrs for
labor and a symbol for violence among conservatives.
E. Great Railroad Strike (1877)
1. Several railroads informed
workers wages to be cut by 10% for 2nd time since 1873.
2. First nationwide strike;
paralyzed railroads throughout the East and
some 100,000
workers.
a. Later,
farmers, coal miners, craft workers, and the unemployed joined in.
b. Involved
14 states and ten railroads.
3. President Hayes sanctioned use
of federal troops in PA; set precedent for future federal
intervention.
-- Led to
over 100 deaths and terrified propertied classes.
4. The strike inspired support for
the Greenback-Labor party in 1878 and Workingmen’s
parties in
the 1880s.
F. Knights of Labor seized the torch of the defunct
NLU.
1. Background
a. Led by Terence
Powderly – a moderate; not a radical
b. Founded
in 1869 as a secret society (like the Masons and others)
-- Officially known as The Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor
c. Secrecy
continued through to 1881 to forestall possible reprisals by employers.
d. Used
republican imagery associated with
political and economic issues that affected him.
e. Much of
leadership and membership was Irish.
2. Sought to include all workers
in "one big union" including blacks & women.
a. Excluded
only liquor dealers, gamblers, lawyers, bankers, and stockbrokers.
b.
Industrial unionism idea was ahead of its time (not seen until 1930s).
-- Most 19th c. unions were trade unions with skilled workers.
3. Campaigned for economic and
social reform
a. Producers’
cooperatives and codes for safety and health; end to child labor.
i. Cooperative idea paralleled the Grange in the west.
ii. Sought to replace wage system with all workers owning factories.
b. Fought
for an 8-hr workday through winning a number of strikes; higher pay and equal
pay for women.
c.
Government regulation of railroads; postal savings banks, gov’t paper currency
d. Sought
arbitration rather than industrial warfare.
i. Discouraged strikes and violence as a means for change
ii. Powderly’s ban on strikes would be ignored and lead to the Knight’s demise.
e. Won major
strike in 1885 against Gould’s struggling railroads.
-- Victory increased Knight’s membership to more than 700,000 in 1886.
4. Demise due to the Great Upheaval
(1886) – 1,400 strikes involving 500k workers.
a. To many,
Knights a huge organization that could throw economy into chaos.
b.
Involvement in a number of May Day strikes in 1886 resulted in 50% failure.
c. Haymarket
Square Bombing in
i.
brutalities by the authorities in May Day strikes.
ii. Alleged German anarchists present who advocated a violent overthrow of
gov't
iii. A dynamite bomb was thrown in the crowd that killed 8 police; 60 officers
injured by
police fire; 7 or 8 civilians killed; 30-40 wounded
iv. Resulted in the first full-blown red scare in
v. Five anarchists sentenced to death and three others given stiff prison
sentences
although nobody could prove they had anything to do with the bombing.
vi. In 1892, Gov. John P. Altgeld, a German-born Democrat pardoned the 3
survivors
after exhaustive study of the Haymarket case.
-- Defeated for reelection probably due to a conservative backlash.
d. The
rise of Workingmen’s parties in various cities scared conservatives who
blacklisted
members through employers’ associations.
-- Employees had to sign "yellow dog" contracts or take
"iron clad" oaths.
e. Knights
of Labor became mistakenly associated with anarchists.
-- 8-hr movement suffered and subsequent strikes met with many failures.
f. Inclusion
of both skilled and unskilled workers proved a fatal handicap.
i. Unskilled labor could easily be replaced with "scabs."
ii. High-class craft unionists enjoyed a superior bargaining position.
-- Became frustrated with giving up their bargaining advantage due to the
failure of
unskilled labor strikes.
iii. Powderly’s cautious leadership squandered rank-and-file mobilization by
opposing
strikes and forbidding political action.
iv. Skilled craftsmen sought a union of exclusively skilled craft unions.
g. By 1890s,
Knights of Labor had only 100,000 members left who ultimately left to join
other protest groups.
F. American Federation of Labor (AFL)
1. Formed in 1886 under the
leadership of Samuel Gompers
2. Consisted of an association of
self-governing national unions with the AFL
unifying
overall strategy.
3. Gompers’ path fairly
conservative; bitter foe of socialism; non-political
a. Accepted
existence of two conflicting classes: workers and employers.
b. Only
wanted labor to win its fair share; better wages and hours, and improved
working
conditions ("bread and butter" issues)
c. Did,
however, attempt to persuade members to vote for favorable candidates
4. Closed shop -- all
workers in a unionized industry had to belong to the union.
-- Provided
necessary funds to ride out prolonged strikes.
5. Chief strategies of AFL: walk-out
and boycott
a. By 1900,
about 500,000 members (critics called it the "labor trust")
b.
Shortcomings: did not represent unskilled labor esp. women and blacks.
G. Major strikes in the 1890s
1.
a. Demonstrated
a strong employer could break a union if it hired a mercenary
police force and gained gov’t and court protection.
b. Frick
& Carnegie announced 20% pay slash for steelworkers
c. Amalgamated
Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers went on strike and Frick
then locked them out.
d. Led to
worker uprising – factory surrounded; scabs not allowed through lines
e. Frick
called in 300 Pinkerton detectives.
i. Armed strikers forced their assailants to surrender after 9 Pinkertons and 7
workers
were killed and about 150 wounded.
ii. PA governor brought in 8,000 state militia and scabs replaced workers.
iii. In Sept. scores of workers indicted on 167 counts of murder, rioting, and
conspiracy; jury eventually found the leaders’ innocent
f.
2. Pullman Strike, 1894
a. Pullman
Co. responded to the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 by building a model
company town for his workers near the factory in
b. Pullman
Palace Car Company hit hard by the depression & cut wages by 1/3 but
maintained rent prices in the company town.
c. Eugene V.
Debs helped to organize the American Railway Union of about 150K
i. Workers went on strike and even overturned some Pullman cars
ii. Railway traffic from
d. Attorney
General Richard Olney sent federal troops stating strikers interfering
with
transit of
i. President Cleveland: "If it takes the entire army and navy to deliver a
postal card in
ii. Troops sent in over Governor Altgeld’s objections and violence spread to
several
states costing 34 lives.
iii. Strike crushed and 150,000 ARU destroyed.
e. Debs and
his lieutenants sentenced to 6 mos. jail time for contempt of court.
-- Debs used his time to read radical literature which laid a philosophical
foundation for his later leadership of the Socialist movement in
f. First
time gov’t used an injunction to break a strike
i. The gov’t made striking, an activity not previously defined as illegal, a
crime
-- Labor cried "gov’t by injunction"
ii. Laborites held in contempt of court could be imprisoned w/o jury trial.
iii. Populists & other debtors concerned as
alliance between big business and the courts.
3. Between 1881-1900, 23,000 strikes
occurred involving 6.6 million workers.
a. Biggest
weakness: only represented abut 3% of all working people.
b. Public
finally began to accept workers’ right to organize, bargain collectively,
and strike.
-- Labor Day made a legal holiday by Congress in 1894.
H. Labor movement by the early 20th century
1. Lochner v.
2. Danbury Hatters case, 1908
in CT had assessed more than $250K on striking
hat makers
who were striking; workers were to lose savings and homes.
a. Supreme
Court had ruled trade union had violated
with interstate commerce.
3. Supreme Court in 1908 upheld use
of broadest injunctions and did much to destroy
organized
labor.
-- In
1910 membership had been reduced to 1.5 million, down from 2 million in 1904
250k in 1897; 870k in 1900
4. AFL vigorously entered national
politics in 1908 and endorsed Democratic party
5. Clayton Anti-Trust Act,
1913—exempted unions from Sherman Antitrust provisions.
a. Hailed by
Gompers as "the magna carta of labor."
b. By 1917
AFL membership reached 3 million
6. "Red Scare" after World
War I led to crackdowns on labor and the movement declined
significantly until Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s.