Chapter 15: The Second Industrial Revolution

1. Chapter 15: The Second Industrial Revolution (1865-1905) Section 3: Labor Strives to Organize Pages: 481-487

2. Labor Strives to Organize • Government and Business: (481-482) • US government’s policies concerning business practices most often benefited the industrialists, not the workers • Supporters of laissez-faire capitalism claimed to oppose government interference in business activities. However, these same business leaders welcomed government assistance when it helped them • Example: Congress in 1875, raised tariff rates to make imported steel considerably more expensive than domestic (American Made) steel • At the same time, government did little to regulate business practices, despite growing pressure from the general public

3. Labor Strives to Organize • Government and Business: (481-482) • Americans started to demand that trusts be outlawed; critics reasoned that without competition, large monopolies would have no incentive to maintain the quality of their goods or to keep prices low • Sherman Antitrust Act: outlawed all monopolies and trusts that restrained trade • The Sherman Antitrust Act failed to define what constitutes a monopoly or trust so this proved difficult to enforce

4. Labor Strives to Organize • Government and Business: (481-482) • While serving the interests of corporations, the US government offered little assistance to American industrial Workers • This widened the gap between the RICH and THE POOR

5. Labor Strives to Organize • The New Working Class (482-483) • Demand for labor soared under the new industrial order • Mostly immigrants filled these jobs; by 1900 1/3 of the working force were immigrants

6. Labor Strives to Organize • The New Working Class (482-483) • African Americans (482) • African Americans moved from the South to find work • By 1900, more than 80% of the city’s African American population had been born in the states south of Illinois • Vast majority of southern industries would bar African Americans from holding factory jobs • Industrial employment remained out of reach for most African Americans. The best jobs went to the native-born white workers or to immigrants • African American workers generally found themselves confined to the dirtiest or most dangerous work

7. Labor Strives to Organize • The New Working Class (482-483) • Women and Children (482-483) • Children in the labor force often faced terrible conditions: 12-hour shifts – mostly at night – for pennies a day • Most unskilled while male laborers worked at least 10 hours a day, six days a week, for less than $10 a week • Many African Americans, Asian Americans, and Mexican Americans men worked the same number of hours for even less pay • Women and children were to work the same hours as the men for sometimes as little as half the pay.

8. Labor Strives to Organize • The New Working Class (482-483) • Women and Children (482-483) • Some employers sought to increase their control over their workers • They built company towns, where the company owned the workers’ housing and the retail business they used (grocery store) • Residents of company towns paid their workers in scrip. This paper money could be used only to pay the rent to the company or to buy goods at company stores. Prices were higher than at regular stores

9. Labor Strives to Organize • The Knights of Labor: (484-485) • As conditions grew worse, workers called for change • The National Labor Union, organized in 1866, had some limited success trying to establish an 8 hour work day – this Union fell apart in the 1870s

10. Labor Strives to Organize • The Knights of Labor: (484-485) • Knights of Labor: a more successful national union, led by former founder Uriah Stephens, remained largely a white male organization • Terrence v. Powderly and Irish catholic machinist and mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania, became its leader • Powderly wanted the Knights of Labor to attract more laborers who were often excluded from other Unions • Powderly did not encourage African Americans to join the Union until 1883. By the mid-1880s the Knights claimed some 60,000 black members • Powderly led the Knights of labor for 15 years. Under his leadership the Union fought for temperance, eight-hour work day, equal pay for equal work, and an end to child labor

11. Labor Strives to Organize • The Knights of Labor: (484-485 • Mary Harris Jones: played an important role in the Knights of labor union. • She was sentenced to 20 years in jail for her part in a 1912 West Virginia strike

12. Labor Strives to Organize • The Great Upheaval: (485-486) • In 1886 the Nation experienced a year of intense strikes and violent labor confrontations that became known as the Great Upheaval. • Economic depression in the early 1880s had led to massive wage cuts • Many strikes turned violent, as angry strikers clashed with aggressive employers and police officers

13. Labor Strives to Organize • The Haymarket Riot: (485-486) • May 1, 1886, some 40,000 Chicago workers joined a strike against the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. They struck for an 8-hour workday • Led by anarchists – people who oppose all forms of government. The strike got violent and anarchists were tried for conspiracy. All 8 were found guilty of incitement to murder and 4 were hanged

14. Labor Strives to Organize • Worker Activism Declines (486) • By the end of the Haymarket Riot, worker activism decreased • Employers struck back against Unions: Employers drew up blacklists – lists of Union supporters – that they shared with each other • Blacklisted workers found it hard to get jobs • Employers forced job applicants to sign agreements – promising not to join Unions • When these measures failed and workers struck anyway, many companies instituted lockouts – they brought in non-union strikebreakers • Many strikebreakers were African Americans because they felt abandoned by Unions

15. Labor Strives to Organize • Worker Activism Declines (486) • The AFL: founded by Samuel Gompers in 1886. It organized independent craft unions into a group that worked to advance the interests of skilled workers. • Electrician Union, Carpenters Union, etc.

16. Labor Strives to Organize • The Homestead and Pullman Strikes: (487) • (1892) Carnegie Steel Company in Homestead, Pennsylvania, workers went on strike to protest a wage cut • (1894) Workers at the Pullman sleeping – car factory in Pullman, Illinois, went on strike because George Pullman had cut wages but refused to lower prices at the stores in his company town • As head of the American Railway Union (ARU) Eugene V. Debs supported the Pullman strikers. • In support of the strikers railroad workers brought rail traffic to a halt throughout the Midwest • Federal Government ordered an end to the ARU strike claiming that the strikers were committing a federal crime by preventing the delivery of mail

17. Labor Strives to Organize • The Homestead and Pullman Strikes: (487) • When ARU officials ignored the governments orders they were jailed • President Grover Cleveland ordered federal troops into Pullman. The troops helped restore normal factory operations • The Pullman Strike had been broken and the ARU destroyed