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The Industrial Labor Society

The Industrial Labor Society. "What is the chief end of man?--to get rich. In what way?--dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must." -- Mark Twain, 1871. www.tahg.org/countDownload.php?video=true&filename=mm_ppt_businesslaborandtechnologyinthegildedage.ppt . STRIKES TURN VIOLENT.

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The Industrial Labor Society

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  1. The Industrial Labor Society

  2. "What is the chief end of man?--to get rich. In what way?--dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must."-- Mark Twain, 1871 www.tahg.org/countDownload.php?video=true&filename=mm_ppt_businesslaborandtechnologyinthegildedage.ppt

  3. STRIKES TURN VIOLENT • Several strikes turned deadly in the late 19th century as workers and owners clashed • The Great Strike of 1877:Workers for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad struck to protest wage cuts • Other rail workers across the country struck in sympathy • Federal troops were called in to end the strike • 25 killed in Pittsburgh, 13 in Reading, 19 in Chicago • Middle Class Americans recoiled from the violence, blamed the laborers. http://webzoom.freewebs.com/centralhistory/A%20C%206%20US%20CHAPTER%206.ppt

  4. WORKERS HAD POOR CONDITIONS • Workers routinely worked 6 or 7 days a week, had no vacations, no sick leave, and no compensation for injuries • Injuries were common – In 1882, an average of 675 workers were killed PER WEEKon the job http://webzoom.freewebs.com/centralhistory/A%20C%206%20US%20CHAPTER%206.ppt

  5. LABOR UNIONS EMERGE • As conditions for laborers worsened, workers realized they needed to organize • The first large-scale national organization of workers was the National Labor Union in 1866 • The Colored National Labor Union followed http://webzoom.freewebs.com/centralhistory/A%20C%206%20US%20CHAPTER%206.ppt

  6. The Changing Status of Labor • A hallmark of the late 19th and early 20th centuries is the expanding output of American industry. • Mechanization reduced the prices of manufactured goods, but wages fell and workers did repetitive tasks for long hours under strict supervision. • The artisan ideal of independence eroded with the growth of mass-production. • Compensation through "store pay" and "scrip wages," redeemable only at the store owned by the employer, proliferated. www.tahg.org/countDownload.php?video=true&filename=mm_ppt_businesslaborandtechnologyinthegildedage.ppt

  7. EMPLOYERS FIGHT UNIONS • The more powerful the unions became, the more employers came to fear them • Employers often forbade union meetings and refused to recognize unions • Employers forced new workers to sign “Yellow Dog Contracts,” swearing that they would never join a union • Despite those efforts, the AFL had over 2 million members by 1914 http://webzoom.freewebs.com/centralhistory/A%20C%206%20US%20CHAPTER%206.ppt

  8. Reformers: George, Bellamy, Lloyd • the popularity of several reformers reflected the growing concern over the maldistribution of wealth and the power of corporations • in Progress and Poverty (1879), Henry George argued that labor was only true source of capital • he proposed a “single tax” on wealth produced by appreciation of land values • Edward Bellamy’s utopian novel, Looking Backward (1888), described a future in which America was completely socialized and carefully planned http://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/244/250679/ppt/ch18.ppt

  9. The Knights of Labor • The Knights of Labor was founded and grew into a national labor movement. • Two key beliefs: • The most important source of wealth was labor, not capital • Workers could withhold their labor services to bring about change • They garnered opposition from the more prevalent craft unions because they included anyone from any industry, including African Americans and women. • They espoused a utopian vision for the future and advocated social reforms. • Membership peaked in the 1880's. Many deserted the Knights because they felt they could get more done in a more narrowly focused, aggressive organization. www.tahg.org/countDownload.php?video=true&filename=mm_ppt_businesslaborandtechnologyinthegildedage.ppt

  10. Preamble to Constitution of the Knights of Labor “The recent alarming development and aggression of aggregated wealth, which… will invariably lead to the pauperization and hopeless degradation of the toiling masses, render it imperative, if we desire to enjoy the blessings of life, that a check should be placed upon its power … and a system adopted which will secure to the laborer the fruits of his toil; and as this much-desired object can only be accomplished by the thorough unification of labor, and the united efforts of those who obey the divine injunction that "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread," we have formed the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor With a view of securing the organization and direction, by cooperative effort, of the power of the industrial classes; … calling upon all who believe in securing "the greatest good to the greatest number" to aid and assist us…” www.tahg.org/countDownload.php?video=true&filename=mm_ppt_businesslaborandtechnologyinthegildedage.ppt

  11. THE HAYMARKET AFFAIR • Workers rallied around the idea of an 8 hour workday. • On May 1, 1886, the largest spontaneous labor demonstration in the nation's history occurred in Chicago. • Two days later, police shot and killed 2 striking unionists demonstrating against "scabs.” • Labor leaders continued to push for change – and on May 4, 1886 3,000 people gathered at Chicago’s Haymarket Square to protest police treatment of striking workers http://webzoom.freewebs.com/centralhistory/A%20C%206%20US%20CHAPTER%206.ppt

  12. The Haymarket Affair • A bomb exploded at Haymarket Square as police tried to break up a demonstration against the shooting of the unionists. • Mass arrests of radicals followed and 8 anarchists were convicted of the bombing under questionable circumstances. • The incidents renewed fears of radicalism and led some employers to develop blacklists and strengthen their resolve against strikers' demands. www.tahg.org/countDownload.php?video=true&filename=mm_ppt_businesslaborandtechnologyinthegildedage.ppt

  13. The Haymarket Affair www.tahg.org/countDownload.php?video=true&filename=mm_ppt_businesslaborandtechnologyinthegildedage.ppt

  14. CRAFT UNIONS • Craft Unions were unions of workers in a skilled trade • Samuel Gompers led the Cigar Makers’ International Union to join with other craft unions in 1886 • Gompers became president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) • He focused on collective bargaining to improve conditions, wages and hours http://webzoom.freewebs.com/centralhistory/A%20C%206%20US%20CHAPTER%206.ppt

  15. The American Federation of Labor • The American Federation of Labor was founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers as an alliance of craft unions comprised of mostly skilled workers. • The AFL focused on concrete, labor-related goals like increased wages and the right to collective bargaining. • Unlike the Knights of Labor, the AFL did not seek to overturn the industrial wage and hour system in favor of a new social order. • The organization became the voice of "mainstream" American labor. • The AFL remained the most powerful labor organization until 1955, when it merged with the CIO. Gompers was President of the AFL (except one year) from 1886 to 1924. www.tahg.org/countDownload.php?video=true&filename=mm_ppt_businesslaborandtechnologyinthegildedage.ppt

  16. Selected Gompers Quotes— “More Now” • “It is a fact that the employing class . . . endeavor to get the greatest amount of labor for the smallest wages for which they can get employees. … workers have always endeavored to get the greatest amount of money for the smallest amount of work.  Under these conditions it is impossible for capitalists and laborers to have common interests. ...”  • “There seems to me no money … is more dishonorable to us as a nation than that insatiable greed which drags the children into the mills and factories and grinds their young bones into dollars. … the child of the nineteenth century should be something more than a machine.” • “A strike on any scale is merely a trial of industrial strength, an application of the law of  "supply and demand," … How can a society based on free contract and free competition object to such a method of determining the comparative strength and endurance of capital and labor?” • “Freedom of speech is the safety valve of society; if it is obstructed, there will be an explosion somewhere. It is dangerous to tamper with this right of ours.” www.tahg.org/countDownload.php?video=true&filename=mm_ppt_businesslaborandtechnologyinthegildedage.ppt

  17. THE HOMESTEAD STRIKE • Even Andrew Carnegie could not escape a workers strike • Conditions and wages were not satisfactory in his Steel plant in Pennsylvania and workers struck in 1892 • Carnegie hired Pinkerton Detectives to guard the plant and allow scabs to work • Detectives and strikers clashed – 3 detectives and 9 strikers died • The National guard restored order – workers returned to work http://webzoom.freewebs.com/centralhistory/A%20C%206%20US%20CHAPTER%206.ppt

  18. PULLMAN: A FACTORY & TOWN In 1880, George Pullman built a factory for manufacturing sleepers and other railroad cars in Illinois The nearby town Pullman built for his employees was modeled after early industrial European towns Pullman workers felt his puritanical town was too strict When he lowered wages but not rent – it led to a violent strike in 1894 THE TOWN GEORGE PULLMAN http://webzoom.freewebs.com/centralhistory/A%20C%206%20US%20CHAPTER%206.ppt

  19. THE PULLMAN STRIKE • After the Pullman Company laid off thousands of workers and cut wages, the workers went on strike in the spring of 1894 • Eugene Debs (American Railroad Union) tried to settle dispute which turned violent • Pullman hired scabs and fired the strikers – Federal troops were brought in • Debs was jailed http://webzoom.freewebs.com/centralhistory/A%20C%206%20US%20CHAPTER%206.ppt

  20. The Pullman Strike This paycheck amounted to 12 cents after rent and expenses were deducted. • The 1894 Pullman Strike is the quintessence of labor-management relations during the era corporate tycoons that was the Gilded Age. • George Pullman, the owner of the Pullman Palace Car Company, provided and controlled his employee's lives. They lived in the town of Pullman, attended Pullman schools and churches, shopped at Pullman Stores, and used Pullman utilities. • As one employee famously described it, ""We are born in a Pullman house, fed from the Pullman shops, taught in the Pullman school, catechized in the Pullman Church, and when we die we shall go to the Pullman Hell." www.tahg.org/countDownload.php?video=true&filename=mm_ppt_businesslaborandtechnologyinthegildedage.ppt

  21. The Pullman Strike • When Pullman slashed wages to protect profits without lowering prices and rent , the American Railway Union (ARU) led by Eugene V. Debs initiated a massive strike and a boycott of trains using Pullman cars. • The US Attorney General obtained a court injunction against the workers for interfering with the delivery of the mail and President Cleveland sent federal troops to enforce the order and crush the strike. • Violence claimed the lives of over 30 people by the end of the strike. • It was the first use of federal troops to break a strike. www.tahg.org/countDownload.php?video=true&filename=mm_ppt_businesslaborandtechnologyinthegildedage.ppt

  22. The Pullman Strike • The strikers were forced to return to work on Pullman's terms, Debs served a prison sentence for disobeying the injunction, and the ARU was disbanded. • The hated George Pullman died 2 years later in fear that his tomb would be defiled. www.tahg.org/countDownload.php?video=true&filename=mm_ppt_businesslaborandtechnologyinthegildedage.ppt

  23. INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM • Some unions were formed with workers within a specific industry • Eugene Debs attempted this Industrial Union with the railway workers • In 1894, the new union won a strike for higher wages and at its peak had 150,000 members EUGENE DEBS http://webzoom.freewebs.com/centralhistory/A%20C%206%20US%20CHAPTER%206.ppt

  24. SOCIALISM AND THE IWW • Some unionists (including Debs) turned to a socialism – an economic and political system based on government control of business and property and an equal distribution of wealth among all citizens • The International Workers of the World (IWW) or Wobblies, was one such socialist union PROMOTIONAL POSTER FOR THE IWW http://webzoom.freewebs.com/centralhistory/A%20C%206%20US%20CHAPTER%206.ppt

  25. Anarchism • A political philosophy believing the absence of government was best • in the late 19th anarchism turned from a utopian to a revolutionary theory • They espoused violence to undermine society • Used bombs and assassinations • 1901 an anarchist assassinated President McKinley

  26. WOMEN ORGANIZE • Although women were barred from most unions, they did organize behind powerful leaders such as Mary Harris Jones • She organized the United Mine Workers of America • Mine workers gave her the nickname, “Mother Jones” • Pauline Newman organized the International Ladies Garment Workers Union at the age of 16 http://webzoom.freewebs.com/centralhistory/A%20C%206%20US%20CHAPTER%206.ppt

  27. Child Labor • Industrialization, the tumultuous economy, and the influx of poor immigrants made cheap child labor an institution in all kinds of industries and occupations. • Up to 25% of children were employed in manufacturing by 1910. • As the Progressive Era dawned, reformers began addressing this issue. www.tahg.org/countDownload.php?video=true&filename=mm_ppt_businesslaborandtechnologyinthegildedage.ppt

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